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Theories of Freud Sigmund.

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- Theories of Freud Sigmund Sigmund Freud was a Viennese doctor who was responsible for the introduction into the basic principles of psychology. He was born in 1856 and died in 1939 so lived through the Victorian era. He pioneered the investigation of psychological states through the investigating the patient's childhood. He believed that the basis of many psychological problems was sexual. Freud's theories and approaches were influenced by the ideas and society of his time, nobody in the Victorian era would have even said the word sex let in lone come up with some of the theories that Freud did. He was the first person of his time to come up with theses ideas, and is seen as the founder of Psychoanalysis. Freud believed and that people developed in stages. Each stage was linked to physical development. He believed that one part of the body would experience excitement due to need called excitation, and then once need is met the person feels gratification. Then the body would experience excitation again, this will carry on through out the persons life, like a circle.


The second stage in a Childs life is at the age of one to three years. This is called the anal stage where the gratification shifts to the anus. Where first pleasure is gained from playing with faeces (the expulsive sub stage) and then during potty training (the active sub stage). If the person was slow and difficult to potty train they might fixate at the anus expulsive stage this could reflect their personality by becoming sloppy and disorganised in later life. Although as a child if you were potty trained at a young age, you could fixate at the anus retentive stage. In later life your personality could be one of a perfectionists and a very clean and tidy person, and someone who is mean and tight. The third stage is the phallic stage that focuses on the genitals, this usually happens from three years to six. It is an age where pleasure is involved in the genitals, and also towards the opposite sex parent. Both boys and girls at this age fancy their parents, but differ slightly in the way they deal with this situation.


From the phallic stage the child will gain sexual gratification from resolving the Oedipus complex. If the male fixates at this stage and is rejected by their mother they will either according to Freud's theories reject heterosexual society or become a violent man. If the female is rejected and can't solve the Oedipus complex they will either become tomboys and reject heterosexual relationships or become hyper feminise. Stage four is the latency stage where after the turmoil of the phallic stage the Childs desires diminish somewhat, so nothing happens from the age of six to puberty. Freud suggested that by the end of the phallic stage, the three main aspects of the mind would have developed meaning that there would be no more fixations. The last stage that is from puberty onwards is called the genitals stage which focuses on the genitals, this is where the person can carry out a normal sexual relationship outside of the family. The person gains sexual gratification from the act of sex. This is one of Sigmund Freud's main theories, which looks at the development of a child from birth to an adult. Freud's ideas made a large impact on psychology and are still discussed and used today, around 100 years after he started developing them.

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