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Paola Isabella Ramirez

ENC 1145
25 March 2015
Instructor: Anna Claire Hodge
Child Development in Freuds Point of View
An Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, was one of the most influential
thinkers in the history of psychology. Freud distinguished himself by giving the world a new
medical discipline, psychoanalysis, which he claimed it had many links sexuality. In this paper,
As the Father of Modern Psychology, Freud made many studies in which he studied
sexuality and human development. After conducting several psychological studies, he
confounded many theories to explain human behavior. In 1905, Freud published Three Essays on
the Theory of Sexuality, which set forth his ideas about the development of the human sex
instinct, or libido, including his theory of childhood-sexuality and the Oedipus complex
(Friedman). The question is, how did Freud come to this conclusion?
In 1896, Freuds father died which was what lead to his development of psychoanalysis.
He decided to practice self- analysis and decided to dedicate himself to interpret his dreams.
While researching his dreams, he came to the important discovery of the existence of Oedipus
complex. This theory explains the childs attachment during the phallic stage of their childhood.
Freuds theorizing about sexual orientation is basically the same as this. During a critical period
- which he felt was between the ages of three and six - sexual orientation is fixed by a complex
process of family relations he called the Oedipal crisis. A young boy begins by being attached to
his mother. As he gets older, he acknowledges his fathers priority in relation to mom, and
substitutes girls and later women for mom as his primary sexual interest, and begins to identify
with his father, from whom he learns what it means to be male. A similar process, with
complications, occurs in young girls. Freuds explanation is muddied by his use of the bizarre
concepts of castration anxiety (the supposed fear boys have of losing their penis) and penis envy
(the supposed desire girls have for growing one).

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Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of
fixed stages. One of the stages was the Oedipus complex. It is the simultaneously hostile and
romantic attachment of the child to the parental couple, which includes hate towards the father
and love of the mother. This rivalry is found in both genders. For males, it is considered Oedipus
complex, while for girls, it is Electra complex. This happens during the phallic stage of the child,
between the ages of 3 to 7. According to Freud such attachment is resolved by identification.
Oedipus focusses on the attachment that the child has to the parent of the opposite sex.
Since the child is attracted to the parent of the opposite sex, they tend to become envious and
aggressive towards the parent of the same sex. These feeling are unconscious because of the
childs fear of being punished by the parent of the same sex. Freud established this theory based
on Oedipus Tyrannus, a son that wanted to be with his mother so ended up killing his father to
remove any punishments that may be coming for him.
Attachments develop at an early stage of a childs life, but they have foreshadowing
effects for the rest of their life. The amount of love and comfort that caregivers provide to their
children determines the levels of happiness and tranquility the child may have. For instance, a
child who tends to be upset and overly anxious are more likely to be the result of non-responsive
parenting styles.
According to a study called the Strange Situation conducted Mary Ainsworth, about 65%
of children depend on their mothers to always protect them, allowing us to conclude that this
where the children felt that they would be in good hands when in a secure base (with their
mother), this is also referred to as a secure attachment. On the other hand, about 20% of the
children in this experiment did not show any distress when their mothers left their side, thus we
assume that they have an avoidant attachment. The third group of children, about 10%,
displayed that they were angry and revolved around their mothers but did not see a way for them
to be relaxed by their mothers (Hunt). This allows us to conclude that children primarily focus

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on the mother figure for care and a sense of security and that later reflects the ways that their
personalities form.
Experiences in early close relationships create internal working models that then
influence cognition, affect, and behavior in relationships that involve later attachment figures
(Simpson & Rholes, 2010, p.174). The different levels of needs that the children had in order to
feel secure and how they reacted with the absence of their mothers did later on reflect different
attitudes in how they engaged in future relationships. Studies show that those who seemed to
have ambivalent attachment in the earlier stages of their lives, displayed similar desires for
closeness in their future relationships. In contrast, individuals who had secure attachments are
more confident about being cable of loving and being loved.
A positive form of Oedipus complex is when the child is envious of the parent of the
same sex and wants to be with the parent of the other sex. The negative form of Oedipus
complex is when the child is envious of the parent of the opposite sex and wants to be with the
parent of the same sex. This negative form of Oedipus complex may have an effect to why some
children grow up to become homosexual.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA, 2008) sexual orientation is
the enduring pattern of sexual, romantic, and emotional attraction that individuals exhibit
towards the same sex, opposite sex, or both sexes. When people are attracted to another person of
the opposite gender, they are considered to be heterosexuals.
When people refer to gender, they refer to the dimension of masculinity and femininity
based on social, cultural and psychological characteristics. The American Psychological
Association (APA 2010c, 2011a) recommends using the term sex when referring to biological
statuses and gender for the cultural roles and expectations that distinguish males and females.
Gender also indicates the public and often legally recognized role a person has a man or woman,
boy or girl.

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During the childs adolescent years, they become more independent from their parent.
During this period, they are faced with a hard decision which is figuring out their identity. The
childs identity shows the childs values, beliefs, and goals. They base their identity on what they
learned from their caregivers values and beliefs. Many conflicts arise between the parent and the
adolescent during this period. The issues that up rise during this period usually has to do with
control and authority. They come across for reasons such as curfew, chores, schoolwork, and
personal hygiene (Garcia).
Social and emotional development are closely intertwined. They both are essential for a
successful relationship with ones family and friends. Because of that, it comes to no surprise
that just as youths' thoughts, emotions, and identities are becoming more complex during
adolescence, their social relationships are becoming more complex as well. During this time, the
adolescents begin forming more personal relationships with their peers. These relationships are
more emotional and intimate.
This is a huge step in their life because during their younger years as children, they would
just have a personal relationship with their mothers and fathers or their caregivers. As they grow
up, they make their relationships based on the relationship they had before with those people that
they had in their childhood. Because of that, the social development when a child changes from a
child to an involves a dramatic change in the quantity and quality of social relationships. Now,
they are exposed to more peers, teachers, authority figures and mentors that they will have to
interact with for a large portion of their daily life.
Diana Baumrind has been studying parenting for over forty years; she has discovered
four different parenting styles. These different parenting styles are: authoritarian parenting,
authoritative parenting, permissive parenting, and uninvolved parenting. Authoritarian parenting
are parents who insist on using rigid boundaries to earn respect, show little warmth to be
projected as an authority figure, and expect high control over all aspects of their childs life. With

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no leeway they tend to go by the old clich it is my way or the highway, these parents want
things to be done with no questions asked. They are extremely strict and unlike other parents,
they do not communicate too well with their children. Because of this, the children from
authoritarian parents are considered to have lower self- assurance and have more problems when
interacting with others. The level of engagement in the relationship with their parents tends to
later on reflect how engaged they are in other types of relationships.
Authoritative parents have a warmer attitude than the authoritarian parents. They are
more responsive towards their childrens needs and attend to them without hesitation expecting
them to respect them in return. The children from these types of parents tend to be more
independent, responsible, self-assured and always give positive results that benefit their future
and appease their parents. Growing up with authoritative parents has shown a positive correlation
in student success rates.
Permissive parents are the parents that let their child get away with things and have no
grasp of control over their actions. They set less rules for their children to follow and they do not
really care for their actions but are warm. The children grow up to have less self-control and
show no respect for boundaries. They are known to be more of the trouble makers than the other
children. The absence of restrictions in a childs life does not add up well for embracing the
responsibilities that come with growing up.
Uninvolved parenting on the other hand describes parents who have no care for what their
child does. They are emotionally detached and do not communicate with their child whatsoever.
These parents do tend to their childrens needs though. These children tend to have more severe
problems. They do poorly in school and end up doing drugs as a form of rebellion to see if they
can get a slight bit of their parents attention. Even when parents think that not getting involved
in their childrens life is for the best in order to give them a sense of independence, it does not
help an adolescent who needs guidance and an idea of distinguishing right from wrong.

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Being a parent is not easy and it requires a lot of physical and emotional energy. The way
that the parent decides to raise their child describes the type of relationship that they will have
with them. Each gets to establish a unique relationship with them. These relationships have a
major effect of what type of person the child grows up to be, sexually and emotionally.
Freud believed that all human beings were bisexual, and that later on, they become
heterosexual or homosexual as a result of their experiences with parents and others. Freud did
believe that if a person had a homosexual orientation, then they should not be viewed as a
pathology. Freud wrote in one of his journals:
"Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed
of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to
be a variation of the sexual function produced by a certain arrest of sexual
development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times
have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato,
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute
homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too....
"If [your son] is unhappy, neurotic, torn by conflicts, inhibited in his social life,
analysis may bring him harmony, peace of mind, full efficiency whether he
remains a homosexual or gets changed...." (Jones, 208-209 and The American
Journal of Psychiatry, 107, 786). All in all, we must prioritize correctly in today's
modern world, there is no need to uphold these barbaric perspectives that restrict
love to heterosexual couples. Happiness is achieved by what each individual suits
as a satisfying sense of love, and society should not have more power than true
love.
Freud discovered the different aspects of the human development process and rationality
behind it. Thanks to his research, we know that the Oedipal crisis is determined by the ordinance

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of family relations; the importance of roles in his life switch as we develop different ideals in the
interests that drive our lives. For instance, in the early stage of life our parent of the opposite sex
is the one that we seek attention and attraction from, as we continue to grow we want to mirror
the parent of our same sex mostly to advance in our gender roles. No matter what our gender is
the process happens the same way and motivated in the same way.
The different types of attachments that children develop are correlated with the level of
need they feel and how well those needs are fulfilled. The Strange Situation study showed that a
majority of children have a very high feeling of dependency and this was directly proportional to
how they displayed a variety emotions when their mother was or was not there to comfort them.
From this experiment we conclude that the ways that children's personality's form is linked to
how much care and love they received from their mom at the earlier stages of their lives.
Parenting is such an essential part of the equation because it narrows down the type of
psychological connections that each individual will form in the future; whether it be due to a
shoe of love and attention, a surplus of control and restrictions or just the right amount of care
and limitations. The different ways in which parents treat the stages of development mirrors how
the child positively or negatively accepts themselves. When it comes to dealing with gay or
lesbian children, parents are facing a tough crowd; not just their family, neighbors, and friends
but also a lack of morality because most religions believe that is a sin. Thus, it is not an easy task
to properly deal with children who do not seek heterosexual relationships.
All in all, we owe it to Freud's thirst for knowledge; without him we would not have
enough groundwork to properly see the importance of parenting and going beyond societal
prejudices. We know that the several concepts that are used commonly in order to understand the
different process of social and cognitive development are the result of his long and extensive
research. The social and emotional development in particular has been shown to be directly
linked to the amount of care that the child received from their parent while growing up. As a

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mirroring effect, the parents usually tend to very similarly take care of their offspring just as their
parents did or go about in a polarized way. The rationality behind it is; most parents share the
same objective, they do not want their children to make the same mistakes that they did
nonetheless the ones that their parents made when trying to raise them correctly. As children
flourish and learn right from wrong, they start to see why their parents guide them in certain
directions and the way that they respond to their parents guidance is a good indicator of how
effective it really was.

Work Cited
Friedman, Richard, and Jennifer Downey. "Sexual Differentiation Of Childhood Play: A
Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspective." Archives Of Sexual Behavior 43.1 (2014):
197-211. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.
Garcia, John L. "Freud's Psychosexual Stage Conception: A Developmental Metaphor For
Counselors." Journal Of Counseling & Development 73.5 (1995): 498-502. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 20 Mar. 2015.

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"Homosexuality and Mental Health." Homosexuality and Mental Health. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
Hunt, Sallie A., and Shane W. Kraus. "Exploring The Relationship Between Erotic Disruption
During The Latency Period And The Use Of Sexually Explicit Material, Online Sexual
Behaviors, And Sexual Dysfunctions In Young Adulthood." Sexual Addiction &
Compulsivity 16.1 (2009): 79-100. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Mar. 2015
Mander, Gertrud. "Fatherhood Today: Variations On A Theme." Psychodynamic Counselling 7.2
(2001): 141-158. Academic Search Complete. 20 Mar. 2015.
Muris, Peter. "Freud Was Right... About The Origins Of Abnormal Behavior." Journal Of Child
& Family Studies 15.1 (2006): 1-12. Academic Search Complete. 20 Mar. 2015.
"Seven Counties Services Inc." Seven Counties Services Inc. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
"Sigmund Freud - Biography." Sigmund Freud. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
"Oedipus Complex." Oedipus Complex. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.