Does childhood experience influence personality development? This question literally made Freud significant and different from the other theorist, upon reading the theory of Freud I can say that he was progressively convinced that sexual conflicts were the primary cause of all neuroses (which was also introduced by Horney in Chapter 6). If you only knew that the father of Freud is dead strict with him and by that he develops resentment towards him. Whilst, his mother was very loving to her children but yet Freud wants attention from his mother and developed envy towards his siblings. Through the resentment of Freud toward his father he once developed the feeling of eradicating his father, and due to the passionate feelings toward her mother, he once also developed an attachment to her and this could be referred to us as Oedipus complex or the feelings towards the opposite sex. This complex refers to a sexual attachment, especially to the parents. For instance, female children get attracted to their fathers, and male children get attracted to their mothers.
According to the definition, heredity is passing over qualities to the possible offspring while on the other hand, the environment is a factor not living around the individual. I think that Freud was optimistic about human nature when he contended that a man is from a dark cellar conflict that continuously battled. He viewed the relative influences of both heredity and environment as that he sees that a man is represented through pessimistic conditions destined to struggle with inner forces lost always. Moreover, their theory position of Freud was determinism it is because he believed that determinism does not accept the free will and definitely all of our actions are not under our own control but instead determined by other forces.
Freud’s theory was considered to be the foundation of all theories and theorists. Another reason is that he became the first theorist referred to formulate the “Grand Theory” which was also the cause of the emergence of all other theorists. I believe that the theory of Freud was prominently used in all research and influenced a lot of the researchers -or even the latter theorist proposes their theory was also influenced by Freud's works-. His influence is profound over centuries from proposal and remains as a framework of personality. In terms of psychotherapy, as you only knew, he was considered to be the father of modern psychology. His psychotherapy is a theory of psychopathology and treatment for mental disorders and this paradigm had a great influence on the teaching of the field of psychiatry. But, today his psychoanalysis has been marginalized and is struggling to survive and yet Freud was still relevant but only as a reference point.
It is undeniable that Freud’s work especially his theory was great, he proposes it certainly and had a great impact on his days. But the fact is, there were two critiques that Freud criticized in his method he was not able to understand women, gender, and sexuality, and the other one was he kept pondering if he was a scientist. Former one, upon reading his theory I see that he was unable to understand women because he was a product of his times and those days were dominated by men –even by his group (Wednesday Psychological Society)-. As Freud stated, he considered women as the “tender sex” and a “dark continent of psychology”. The prior one was mean that the only function of women is to care for, love, manage the household, and nurture children which could not be equal to the privilege of men. The latter one simply means that Freud was sexist and this made him biased in terms of opportunity. Also, later mentioned above Freud was not acknowledged as being a scientist but instead according to some scholars, he was a humanist or human scientist instead of a natural scientist.
Every theory was reflected on his/her childhood experiences that proceed their work into their remarkable framework. Basically, the major differences between Freud and Jung, are that Carl Jung disputed libido as broad life energy, not sex, Jung argued personality that was shaped by the future as well as the past and Jung had an emphasis on the unconscious. Anyways, Jung's childhood experience was miserable. In their early years, he was introduced and exposed to myths, beliefs of religion, and also classics. Jung absolutely had a closer relationship with his father whose qualities were benevolent, weak, and powerless. Just as so you know, Jung’s mother remained a commanding parent. However, constant emotional instability made her behave abnormally. Carl Jung really thought of her mother that she has two personalities with different extremes. When Jung entered at the age of 9, his sister was a small influence on his development as it eased his loneliness. As he created his theory he believed that a generalized source of psychic energy motivates a range of behavior. In addition, Jung explored the unconscious mind, which lies beneath the surface of behavior and he focuses on the inner growth of individuals rather than on relationships with other people.
Accordingly, a complex is an unconscious, organized set of memories, associations, fantasies, expectations, and patterns of behavior or trends around the core element that is accompanied by heavy emotions. It is derived from prior development experiences, which have to be a problematic or even traumatic character in the context of unresolved needs, wants, and issues. For instance, power is the central theme of mind when you wish to become the president, beauty queen, or have a luxury car. Power, able you to wish that lies in your personal unconscious to organize a common theme.
Individuation is indeed our journey to self-understanding. It involves becoming the most integrated, whole version of our unique self. Individuation is the art of personal transformation at its highest phase. Our archetypes depend on the interplay and synthesis of opposites such as conscious and unconscious. The fact is, if we have to achieve individuation we must work with our archetypes that reflect motifs and characters. We owned some dominant archetypes inside and it leads to self-actualization the ability to learn and recognize and work with them. It helps us in the fulfillment or purpose of our capability and capacity as individuals.
In terms of human personality, Sigmund and Jung had a alike perspective. They embraced the fact that the unconscious mind played a heavy role in the development of personality. Accordingly, like Freud, he stated that the unconscious mind is the reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside conscious awareness. Whereas, the personal unconscious according to Jung is the topmost layer of the unconscious psyche because it is filled with content derived from the experience of a person’s individual subjective life. Carl Jung differs from Freud such as Carl failed to hold a deterministic view, however, he strongly agreed that our personality is partly determined by childhood experiences.
Adler became my favorite theorist because he emphasized the very nature of humans and that each individual possesses feelings of inferiority which I strongly believed is true. His childhood experience reflects his theory of personality that Alfred experienced with a lot of illness which make him feel jealous of his brother and this experience helped him develop a theory at his later age and give importance to the role of inferiority and birth order. When Adler during his childhood he was ill and a sick child. He developed jealousy toward his brother that is fined healthy and Adler took it in a positive way and strive for superiority by showing excellence in academics. Adler contended that based on birth order the middle child will always try to beat the first child and that he believes that social interest is a major driving force.
The difference between inferiority feeling and inferiority complex is that the former is a constant motivating force in all behavior in which it has two types, the organ and psychological while the latter is the problems that occur when the feeling are not properly managed which leads to an inability to overcome feelings as they intensify. The feelings of inferiority developed may be brought about by the upbringing of a child that is being compared to another. An inferiority complex occurs when the feelings of inferiority are intensified in the individual through discouragement and failure. Superiority, according to Adler is a drive for perfection or completion of one’s life goals. A superiority complex is when an individual overcompensates to hide inferiorities. The concept of striving for superiority was built on our drive for excellence.
The self will develop by using the style of life. The style of life is the strength to create ourselves, our personality, and our character. For example, according to Adler, when we feel encouraged we feel capable and appreciated that will generally act in a connected and cooperative way. I think it’s not about passive or active because it is something that has to be inculcated in one’s mind. It is developed on its own by the things viewed by them often.
Our earliest recollection and our memories from the period indicate the style of life that continues to characterize us as adults. According to Adler, an individual lifestyle is shaped by his/her early life. Adler's earliest recollection was he is being unhappy with the situation of being compared to his older brother according to Adler his brother was a good industrious fellow that always ahead of him and yet still ahead of Adler.
The childhood experiences of Horney were later her reflection on what she formulated. I felt pity for her not just because she was longing for love and security but because her birth was unplanned and unwanted. Horney childhood experiences were found to be pathetic like she did not get affection and love toward her father and mother. Horney had an older brother who Horney’s brother was charming and attractive and his parents showered fully on him that felt Horney unloved. Karen Horney’s brother was charming and attractive whereas she was only smart and she molded herself to just become smart.
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The belief is that social experience in early childhood influenced the development of personality where safety needs, such as freedom from fear, are a direct outcome of parental care. A parental behavior parent could be the one to lean on the children as they are the basic individual that children need to develop their personality and also a first base that a child will later develop an attachment to social life. A high-level need for protection and freedom from fear helps establish normality in the development of personality, and apparent preference also for a sibling. Horney suggested that kids understand whether the love of their parents is genuine. Kids are not easily fooled by false demonstrations and insincere expressions of affection.
A normal realistic person’s idealized self-image involves being slightly better than one being compared. A neurotic person may involve having a few issues, for instance, in a competition, a neurotic individual may feel the need to win in the competition. On the other hand, a realistic being, having in a competition is slightly quicker time on a race. Thus, the self-mage of a normal person changes based on the current realistic situation faced.
Tyranny of the should is an attempt to realize an unattainable idealized self-image by denying the real self and acting in terms of what we believe we should do. For example, “I should be this!”. Conversely, the process of externalization is a way to protect the conflict created by the difference between an idealized image and a real image of oneself by transferring the conflict to the outside world.
Upon exploring the biography of Erik Erikson he was well-known for his major and only problem that led him to his framework. This problem he encountered lasted until his death and that is identity crises. It keeps reminding him that he had to seek his biological father for his mother to teach him the wrong one and that he even didn’t convince by her mother. Erikson believed that an identity crisis is a turning point in one’s life that may either strengthen or weaken personality. Thus, his childhood experiences made him theorize that a person should have a balance that every stage he/she has been through.
Accordingly, the epigenetic principle is a term borrowed from embryology that development implies a step-by-step growth of fetal organs. In that case, a fetus does not begin to be completely formed and he/she must undergo a fixed sequence. For example, the eyes, it doesn’t develop during the critical period for their development that he/she will never attain proper maturity. Also, the epigenetic principle is analogous to the development of children like it crawls before they learn to walk and walk before they are able to run and run before they jump.
Every psychosocial stage or development has an opposition and core pathology that might develop children either to achieve basic strength or not (antithesis). The role of the conflict, for instance, a syntonic (harmonious) that a child achieved basic strength and dystonic (disruptive) that also develops if children couldn’t satisfy their needs. Conflict to be exact is the barrier that children would encounter at every stage and that he/she is necessary to surpass this obstacle to avoid an unhealthy connection to self and to others.
Adulthood is the time when people begin to take their place in society and assume responsibilities for whatever society produces, which is considered to be the longest stage of development. Care is the basic strength of adults it is a wide commitment to take care of the person and the ideas one has learned to care for. Whilst, objectivity is the antipathy of care which means it is the unwillingness to take care of a person or group. Accordingly, care is not a duty or an obligation but it is a natural desire emerging from the conflict of adulthood.
Erich Fromm proposed a personality theory based on two main needs: the need for freedom and the need for belonging. In order to deal with the anxiety created by the feelings of isolation Fromm suggested an unproductive and productive orientation. He claimed that personality is something that stems from both our genetic heritage and our learning experiences. Biographically, he witnessed a girl who committed suicide in order to accompany her father to the burial, and that made Fromm wander off his existence. Also, he was too young to witness such war which made him to become strong despite what he experienced.
Freedom means to be alone and happy, to be isolated and gay. It is to be isolated and free to do something. But to Fromm, people become less secure as they have achieved greater become because freedom can lead to isolation, and isolation can lead to basic anxiety in this world. Achieving greater freedom means having a greater burden. People who experience freedom also experience the other side of its meaning.
A productive orientation is that most healthy individuals have this character type that through this productive activity people can solve the basic human dilemma; that is, to unite with the world and with others while retaining uniqueness and individuality. Biophilic people are concerned with the growth and development of themselves as well as others. In addition, this individual wants to influence people through love. Biophilia is a passionate love of life and all that is alive and this could be considered a syndrome of growth according to Fromm. On the other hand, this character type explained that an individual held psychologically disturbed is incapable of love, and has failed to establish a union with others. They are considered an unhealthy individual that failed to love productively, this could be referred to as our syndrome of decay. Necrophilic, are mostly hate humanity, racists, and bullies and love to talk about sickness and corpses. Necrophilia is a generalized sense of any attraction to death and can be considered a sexual perversion in which a person desires sexual contact with a corpse. The basic example of necrophilia is Adolf Hitler, he was necrophilic in the sense of destroying buildings and cities, like his order to kill people. Biophilia example would be referred to us as a heroic one where he/she is eager to sacrifice his/her life in order to save humankind from any harmful phenomenon.
Sullivan was considered to be unpopular and a loner boy has no friends in childhood like he was different from the other child. During his childhood, he had three mothers that supported his growth including his grandmother and maiden-aunt that able to share in child-rearing duties. Sullivan has an imaginary playmate and this is considered as a chum or friend. Moreover, he met Clarence who’s his neighbor that brought a great impact to his existence and awakened his power of intimacy he developed an ability to love another who was more or less like himself and a reason for transforming effect on Sullivan’s life.
Sullivan’s theory of personality was based on the belief that the interactions of people with others are significantly important that assessing one’s feelings of safety, sense of individuality, and the dynamism that motivates behavior. To Sullivan, personality is the product of long phases in which a person develops a “good feeling” unto others and a sense of goodness towards oneself.
Both childhood experiences Klein was unhealthy and tragedic. She unluckily witnessed the death of her parents including her sister and brother. On the other hand, she psychoanalyzed her children and she had resentment toward her daughter Melitta. Klein furiously disliked Melitta it was because her daughter married her foe and even had a connection to Freud. This resentment occurs in Klein a mother-daughter relationship that was very important and that she places it as the center of personality development.
Klein’s theory of the unconscious focused on the relationship between the mother-infant rather than the father-infant. The theory of object relation had less emphasis on the biological drives that she sees human contact and the need to form relationships as the prime motivation of human behavior and personality development, not a sexual pleasure she contended.
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