Sigmund Freud is known as a psychoanalyst who did not discover the unconscious, but he did develop the concept more thoroughly. Our minds are full of information, but we are not aware of all that is in it. We only are conscious of a small portion of everything that is going on in our minds. This means that we are not completely in control of ourselves and the actions we do. Sigmund Freud suggests that all people go through four stages of development during a life time: the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, and then the genital stage. The first three stages are unconscious. We do not realize what we are doing or thinking. These first three stages are our sexual instinct, which give us sensual pleasures and gratification.
The oral stage is the first stage an individual will pass through. This happens during infantry. The infant will begin by sucking then biting, and then later start to eat, which represents the gratification of oral needs. When sucking, the infant is not eating or concern with food at all. Then the infant will grow teeth and start to chew and bite. According to Freud, this is an expression of his sadistic desires, which is sexual gratification through causing pain. The infant is doing this all unconsciously. It may seem odd that an infant unconsciously wants to cause pain by biting. But Freud suggests that it is instinct. And all babies do bite, especially when their teeth are coming in. Maybe because it is painful for them, but want to bite and cause pain back. But they do this unconsciously, through instinct.
The second stage that people will pass through is the anal stage. During this stage, an infant will become more interested in their own feces. There is a connection with feces and money in many myths, fairy tales, and superstitions, as well as, the unconscious thoughts and dreams. Freud writes “We know how the money which the devil gives his paramours turns to excrement after his departure and the devil is most certainly nothing more than a personification of the unconscious instinctual forces, the most precious substance known to man and the most worthless.”
The third stage is the phallic stage. In this stage boys will become interested in their penis, and girls will become interested in their clitoris. When boys and girls go through this stage, it causes their Oedipus complex. Oedipus complex is a stage that everyone will go through. It’s a stage of desiring the parent of the opposite sex at an unconscious level. For boys, they fear retaliation by their fathers, which causes them to renounce their love for their mothers, which helps them to identify with masculinity of their fathers, which re-channels their love outside the family. For girls, they fear the loss of the love of both parents, which causes them to re-identify with their mother, and helps them to find other males to love other than her father. The fear of castration, the removal of the genitals, encourages the children to re-channel their love outside the family members. According to psychoanalytic theory, everyone goes through this stage, at an unconscious level, of course. But, in some cases, children will not grow out of this and consciously have feelings of love toward a parent. Oedipus complex is named after the myth of Oedipus who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. I thought it was really interesting that a way for children to deal with their Oedipal anxieties is through reading and listening to fairy tales. Fairy tales teach young children how to deal with problems, helps them to identify with heroes, and helps them learn important things about life. And if they are unconsciously under anxiety from this Oedipal complex, these fairly tales would most defiantly help children to deal with that. These fairy tales have the power to reach a child, with hardly any education, as well as a sophisticated adult. These stories help the ego to develop more, and help children to satisfy their id urges in line with ego and superego. The id wants pleasure, the ego functions with the individual’s relation to the environment, and the superego is the moral precepts of our minds as well as our ideal aspirations. Unconsciously, when we are infants and passing through these first three stages, the id is in control. The fairy tales help the superego to balance out and create right and wrong moral lessons.
Finally, the fourth stage is the genital stage. This stage is only achieved when one goes through puberty. This is the stage where all the sexual desires become conscious, and they become focused on their sexual life.
Everyone will pass through these four stages. The first three are unconscious stages that we will experience, and use fairy tales and myths to learn life lessons and to learn about good and bad. Aggression and guilt are also explained by Freud as a way for the id and superego to balance. Aggression is an instinct for humans, like the biting of infants. Guilt is the powerful opposing force that balances the aggression of many people. Otherwise, our society would be disrupt, or even destroyed.
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