Psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Erikson. Psychology Essay

Feud’s Theory Vs Eriksen’s Theory
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Feud’s Theory Vs Eriksen’s Theory
Undoubtedly, psychoanalysis theory has had a profound influence on the psychology sector since its discovery in the 20th century (Odokuma, 2010). Unlike in the past when most of the psychology theories concentrated on describing types of individuals, psychoanalysis theory has enabled experts to discover how people behave in the way they do. The theory emphasizes that human beings, unlike most other organisms, constantly and slowly change through continuous interactions with their environments. Consequently, one’s personality can be considered a set of changes with indefinite and fragile boundaries. Instead of focusing on attitudes, traits, and motives, the psychoanalytic theory introduced the view that personality changes as life progresses and even the personality modification rate changes as an individual grows (Odokuma, 2010). Personality is defined as a unique way of behaving, thinking and feeling (Geukes et al., 2018). It embraces opinions, attitudes, and moods and is expressed clearly when a person interacts with other people. Personality includes both the acquired and inherent behavioral characteristics that separate one individual from the other, and that can be observed in one’s relationship with social group and the environment. Although different people have defined the term personality in different ways, in the field of psychology, it has two meanings. The first one defines it as consistent differences observed between people, whereas the second describes it as the qualities that make all humans similar, and that makes people psychologically distinct from animal species (Geukes et al., 2018). Thus, psychoanalysis theory is crucial in explaining why people's behaviors are different and, therefore, can be used in the treatment of people with psychological disorders. Sigmund Freud is credited for the discovery of one of the most influential personality theories called psychoanalysis, that was largely exploited in the early years of the 20th century. Since then, the theory has been modified severally by various theorists such as Jung, Adler, and Erikson. The current study compares and contrasts Feud’s version of psychoanalysis theory with Erikson’s.
Sigmund Freud's version of psychoanalytic theory indicates that human personality is the product of interaction among three mind components, namely, id, ego, and superego. The theory contends that these three components results in unconscious conflicts that shape one’s personality and behavior (Lapsley & Stey, 2011). According to Freud, dynamic interactions among these crucial mind elements occur in five distinct progressive psychosexual phases of human development. An individual’s effort to find balance among these three structures influences how that particular person behaves and their overall personality (Lapsley & Stey, 2011).
Freud argued that the manner in which id, ego and superego conflict change throughout the person’s life (Lapsley & Stey, 2011). Particularly, he maintains that such conflict progresses through five distinct stages, which include oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital, which have distinct characteristics. He named his version of psychoanalysis psychosexual theory where each stage is directly associated with the unique physical pleasure center. In all these five stages, a child experiences different conflicts between their moral and social conscience and biological drives (Fouchй & Holz, 2015). Children's capabilities to resolve the internal conflicts, though these five stages differ and influence their future decision-making ability as adults. If a child fails to resolve a particular stage, they can become fixated there resulting in unhealthy personality. Resolving all stages successfully results in a healthy personality.
The Eriksen version of psychoanalysis theory is referred to as the psychosocial theory, which is a modification of the original theory by Freud (Sokol, 2009). Unlike Freud’s theory that focuses more on self-preservative, sexual and aggressive motives, Eriksen’s theory integrates biological, social and psychological factors and proposed eight developmental stages compared to five of original theory. The stages in Ericksen theory progress in leaps in a process referred to as epigenesis. Epigenesis is a term borrowed from embryology and refers to the programmed sequence of development of various parts of an organism (Sokol, 2009). Thus, the epigenetic process refers to predetermined developmental stages that determine the personality of an individual. According to Eriksen, during each phase, an individual encounters a psychosocial crisis that can have a negative or positive impact on their personality. The theory states that crises in all stages are psychosocial due to the fact that they involve conflict between psychological and societal needs (Sokol, 2009). If an individual completes each of these stages successfully, they are bound to have a healthy personality as well as attainment of basic virtues. On the contrary, if a person fails to successfully complete any of the eight stages, they cannot complete subsequent stages, which could result in the development of an unhealthy personality. However, it is possible to resolve uncompleted stages later.
Thus, while the Eriksen psychoanalysis theory is a modification of that of Freud, there are notable differences between the two. Differences exist at every stage of development, as will be described in the following paragraphs. Although both theories focus on the importance of individual’s early life experiences, there are several differences between these two theories.
In both scenarios, each stage is designated by years. For Feud’s theory, a stage between birth and one year is referred to as oral stage. During the oral stage of personality development, the libido is concentrated on an infant’s mouth. Usually, babies at this age derive gratification from the mouth, and that is the reason why they direct all kinds of things towards their mouth to try and satisfy thi...