Looking for freud

LOOKING FOR FREUD Sigmund Freud has been both admired and criticized in his lifetime and even beyond that. His theories were complex and are quiteintriguing. I have come across an eBook of his Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex and I found it quite interesting when I scanned it. But emerging theories and recent studies have challenged the theories put forth by Freud.
In introspection, I thought of some Freudian concepts related to developmental, abnormal, and social psychology and tried to see if those concepts relate to my life. As it is hard sometimes to be true to oneself, acceptance of what one’s life has been is an important key.
Looking into Freud’s stages of psychosexual development, his contribution to developmental psychology, I cannot recall if I indeed have gone through the oral and anal stages. Maybe I was too young to remember. But I distinctly remember going through the ” feminine Oedipus attitude” phase or Elektra complex as how Carl Jung called it. According to Freud, this happens during the phallic stage (Boeree). When I was five years old, I remember I was so attached to my father. This romantic attachment by a daughter to her father is also described by Dr. Spock, in his book Baby and Child Care, as a natural stage in a female child’s development. Freud also posited the idea that if one had problems in these psychosexual stages, these problems will be manifested into fixations and will affect one’s character development. In my experience when I was in the feminine Oedipal attitude or the Elektra complex stage, I perceived that my father favored me over my mother. Because of these, I became quite self-centered and vain during my teens to early adulthood. But as aged, I learned to veer away from these attitudes.
In the realm of social psychology, one’s thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and perception of others or a situation are studied (Wikipedia). According to Freud, most of our actions are driven by the unconscious (Allpsych). There are many instances when I am puzzled why I respond to an idea, a situation, or a person in a certain way. When I came across Freud’s theory on the human psyche, I thought that it might explain those responses. For example, a homeless man in dirty clothes and long beard accosted me to ask for a dollar, I was repulsed and had goosebumps. I walked on and almost ran. I wondered why I reacted that way instead of showing charity. I then remembered that when I was 11 or so, there was a man who looks that way that lurked in the park who is said to molest young girls. One afternoon, I saw the man leering at me ten meters away and I ran home as fast as I could. I guess that experience made me react that way.

As to Freud’s concept on abnormal psychology, I think I can identify with his idea of Turning Against Self type of defense mechanism. According to Freud, this is a form of displacement when one targets himself/herself and is usually associated with aggression, anger, or hatred (Boeree). This is also associated with feelings of guilt, depression, and inferiority. There are many times when I was scolded or being criticized, I tend to hurt myself rather that lash back. Also, I tend to bottle up feelings of hurt, anger, and helplessness to myself. I keep on the outside a veneer of calm and acts as if everything’s going on a-OK while negative feelings are forced down into my subconscious. These negative feelings pile up and I often am caught unguarded when I feel so low and be crying all of the sudden. I had experienced mild episodes of depression time and again. According to Freud, refusal to acknowledge the feeling of anger often results to depression (Boeree). I admit there are still times when I feel so low and on the verge of another episode of depression but I think experience has taught me good lessons.
CITED WORKS
Allpsych. ” Freud’s Structural and Topographical Models of Personality.” Allpsych. 17 October 2007. .
Boeree, George. ” Sigmund Freud.” 17 October 2007. Webspace. .
Wikipedia. ” Social Psychology.” 18 October 2007. Wikipedia. .