In what ways is Freud's psychodynamic theory different from the perspectives on human development that preceded it?
According to Freud’s psychodynamic theory of human development, he states that a man’s body and personality could apply the laws of dynamics. According to Freud, he believes that childhood desires and fantasies are what makes up the adults neurotic behaviours. He suggested that the libido development is due to the normal childhood sexual development (Webster). The progress of the children psychosexual stages is made up of five stages, which are the oral, the latent, the phallic, the genital and the anal stage. Some of the criticism that other scholars have with this theory was that Freud concentrated more on human sexuality thus he defined the human development with the sexual development and the normative theory of psychology.
In what ways do Freud's theories demonstrate the revolutionary nature of his thinking?
In looking at Freud’s theories, it shows how revolutionary his way of thinking has changed. This is because in looking at the prior theories of development it did not focus on the child development. As for Freud, he looked at the child development in order to show how adult behaviours are groomed by their childhood (Scott).
In what ways do Freud's theories demonstrate that he was a product of his time and place?
During Freud’s time, the men in the society were sexist especially towards the women. This could also be seen in Freud’s theory of human development especially in the psychosexual development where he claims that when the girls are growing up they develop penis envy (Webster). This statement was clearly very sexist in the modern world but not during his time.
What do you find most surprising, disturbing or interesting about his ideas? Why?
In looking at Freud’s psychodynamic theory where he claims that one’s libido depends on their childhood, experience seems to be a very interesting way of thinking. The fact that according to Freud there are five stages of sexual development is very appealing and educative (Scott). The five stages are the phallic stage, the anal stage, the oral stage, the latency stage and the genital stage. In looking at all the stages one can be able to try to justify the sexual development of humans.
Reference
Scott, Jill. Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture . Cornell University Press, 2005. Print
Webster, Richard. Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis. Oxford: The Orwell Press, 2005. Print
