Women's psychology according to Sigmund Freud

• TYPE OF PSYCHOLOGY: Personality

SIGNIFICANCE: Freud, the first person to develop a comprehensive theory of personality, thought that women undergo distinct experiences in the development of their personalities. He believed that traumatic events during the phallic stage (from approximately three to five years of age) were likely to hinder normal female development, the results being a failure of same-sex identification and a diminished superego or moral capacity.

Introduction

Two central concepts underlie Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) theory of personality development. The first is the notion of the unconscious; the second concept has to do with the role of infantile sexuality. Freud believed that consciousness could be viewed as a continuum of experience, with one pole being the familiar one of acute awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and the other pole being a state of profound unconsciousness in which one’s feelings, thoughts, and wishes are completely beyond one’s awareness. Midway between these poles is the preconscious, which Freud believed contained material or mental life from both the conscious and the unconscious and could, with effort, be made totally conscious. Freud believed that the bulk of mental life is represented in the unconscious, with only a small portion, “the tip of the iceberg,” being conscious awareness.

Operating from the depths of the unconscious, a structure of personality known as the "id" operates to seek pleasure, to avoid pain at all costs, and to accomplish solely selfish aims. The is the source of all psychic energy, including both sexual and aggressive instincts.

Psychosexual Stages of Development Theory

Freud proposed that sexual instincts are critical and that personality develops over time as the individual responds to these instincts. He believed that several component instincts arise from various regions of the body. These instincts strive for satisfaction in what he calls organ pleasure. Each of these organs is the focus of a phase or stage of development, the first of which is the oral stage. The oral stage begins at birth and continues through the first year, as the infant seeks pleasure through the mouth, and the mouth becomes the source of all gratification. Milk from the mother’s breast or a bottle is devoured, just as, later, any object that the child can reach will be manipulated and explored orally. The child takes in physical nourishment in the same way that they take in, in a very rudimentary way, the behaviors, values, and beliefs of others, beginning the basis for later identification with others.

The second psychosexual stage of development is the , which Freud believed revolved around the pleasure associated with elimination. During the second year of life, the child begins taking control of urination and defecation, trying to do so within parental and societal limits.

Freud believed that both boys and girls proceed through the oral stage in essentially the same manner. For both, the mother is the primary love object. Sometime after the third year of life, however, Freud believed that the sexes diverge. In the third stage, or phallic stage of development, both boys and girls discover the pleasurable nature of the genitals. For boys, the stage is centered on the Oedipus complex, in which they develop strong sexual feelings toward their mothers. These feelings are accompanied by others, such as anger and jealousy, as the father is perceived as a competitors for their mother's affection and attention. As sexual desires heighten, the boy begins to perceive competition and hostility from the father. The sense of peril becomes located in the physical source of the boy’s feelings for his mother, the penis, and the result is a phenomenon that Freud called castration anxiety—the fear that the father will retaliate. Over time, fear of castration motivates the boy to give up the mother as a love object and turn toward the father in same-sex identification. According to Freud, this strengthening identification with the father is essential for the development of a solid superego, which, in turn, empowers the male, making possible major contributions to culture and society.

Unlike the male’s experience, the onset of the phallic stage for females entails a major trauma: the realization that she does not have a penis. Often, the realization is accompanied by the notion that the mother is responsible for her own and her daughter’s castrated state. Here, the little girl turns away from her mother as the primary love object and turns toward her father, limiting her future chances for same-sex identification. Feelings of inferiority pervade, and she falls victim to penis envy, a chronic wish for the superior male organ. Freud believed that, as a result of this trauma, the remaining course of female development would be difficult at best and that the accomplishment of same-sex identification was questionable. The girl’s life is, thus, spent in search of a substitute penis, which Freud thought might be a husband or a child, particularly a male child. Indeed, Freud believed the single most rewarding relationship in a woman’s life would be her relationship with her son, regarding which her feelings would be totally unambivalent.

Freud believed the foundations of personality were in place by the end of the phallic stage. He described the post-Oedipal period, beginning with the stage, as a period when children repress, or make unconscious, the sexual conflicts of the Oedipal period. Females during this time are said to be more passive and less aggressive than boys, but like boys, they tend to seek out same-sex play groups.

The final psychosexual stage of development is the . Unlike the previous, more self-centered periods of stimulation and gratification, the genital stage marks a period of sexual attraction to others and a time during which social activities and career goals become important before marriage. The child is, thus, transformed into an adult. Freud believed that, in some cases, failure to resolve the female Oedipus complex results in neurosis, which he often observed in his practice with female patients. He believed that in other cases, the lack of resolution caused a masculinity complex in which women attempt to succeed in traditionally male endeavors (he offered this explanation to his contemporary female analysts for their behavior). Freud believed that the female’s failure to unite with her mother in post-Oedipal identification and her subsequent diminished superego capacity caused her to have a tendency toward negative personality traits and an inability to apply objective standards of justice.

Criticisms

Several of Freud’s contemporaries, including some female analysts, were critical of Freud’s views on the psychology of women. Among his first critics was psychoanalyst Karen Horney, who rejected the idea that penis envy is central to normal female development. She acknowledged, however, that from a cultural point of view, envy of the male role might explain some of Freud’s clinical observations better than the biological notion of penis envy. In addition, after many years of analyzing female patients, Horney began analyzing males. From her observations, she concluded that males often exhibit an intense envy of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, as well as of the breasts and the act of suckling. She termed this type of male jealousy "womb envy," a retort to Freud's penis envy theory. Freud passively responded to Horney's research in a paper, writing that her findings were simply due to her penis envy. Among Freud's other critics was his granddaughter, Miriam S. Freud, who openly criticized Freud's view of women, noting his theories were heavily influenced by society's structure and gender roles of the time.

Free Interpretation and Dream Analysis

Historically, psychoanalysis represented a method of psychological observation, a set of theoretical or ideas, and an approach to . When Freud began psychoanalysis, it was an observation method intended to broaden the knowledge of human behavior. Believing that the unconscious is the major clue to solving problems of human behavior, Freud used two processes to understand it: and dream interpretation. Free association, the reporting of what comes to mind in an unedited fashion, was an important tool used to discover the contents of the unconscious. Freud believed that all thoughts are connected in some fashion and that, therefore, the spontaneous utterances of the patient are always meaningful clues to what has been repressed or buried in the unconscious. Freud also believed the unconscious can be clarified by means of dream interpretation. Those thoughts and impulses unacceptable to the conscious mind are given symbols in dreams.

A study conducted by American psychologist Calvin S. Hall in 1964 illustrates how the interpretation of dreams has been used in research—in this case, to test Freud’s observation that the female superego is not as strong as it appears in males. Hall reasoned that a person with a strong internalized superego would be independent of external agents, whereas a person with internalized superego would tend to disown their own guilt and blame external authority figures. Hall further assumed that dreams in which the dreamer was the victim of aggression were expressions of an externalized superego. In contrast, dreams in which the dreamer was the victim of misfortune (accident, circumstance) were expressions of an internalized superego. It was hypothesized that females would be more likely to dream of themselves as victims of aggression, and males would be more likely to dream of themselves as victims of misfortune. The study conducted a careful content analysis of more than three thousand young adults' dreams. Results supported the hypotheses, although Hall cautioned that additional hypotheses should be tested and that more diverse data should be collected to more thoroughly support Freud’s theory of the differences between the male and the female superegos.

Transference and the Unconscious

Freud was also the first to understand and describe the concept of transference, the patient’s positive or negative feelings that develop toward the therapist during the long, intimate process of analysis. These feelings often relate to earlier ones that the patient had for significant others—namely, a mother, father, or sibling. The analysis of transference became extremely important to analysts, particularly as it related to the treatment of borderline and other personality disturbances.

Another aspect of Freud’s legacy involves the many theoretical constructs that psychoanalysis has generated. Among these is the concept of the unconscious. Freud provided many everyday examples of the operation of the unconscious as he described slips of the tongue and other phenomena. He was convinced that such slips, commonly known as “Freudian slips,” were not accidental but somehow expressed unconscious wishes, thoughts, or desires. For example, the woman who lost her wedding ring secretly wished she was never married.

Mental Illness Therapy

Finally, psychoanalysis also represents a therapy method that Freud and later analysts used to treat mental illness symptoms. Practicing for many years, Freud refined his technique, using free association and dream interpretation to help patients gain insight into themselves by recognizing their unconscious patterns and to help them work through the unconscious conflicts that affect everyday life. Many of Freud’s patients were women, and it was from these women’s recollections in analysis that Freud built his theory of female development. Some of Freud’s critics argue that building a theory of normal development from the observation of pathology or abnormality represents an inappropriate conceptual leap.

Sexual Basis of Neurosis

During years of analysis, Freud became convinced of the sexual basis of neurosis. He believed that sexual experiences occurring prior to puberty and stored in the unconscious as memories produced conflict that later caused certain neurotic conditions. These ideas, often referred to as Freud’s seduction theory, were used to explain hysterical symptoms such as paralysis, blindness, inability to understand the spoken word (receptive ), and sexual dysfunction as the result of sexual abuse probably occurring before age six to eight years. It is important to note, however, that Freud later revised his thinking on infantile sexuality and concluded that it is the thought or psychic reality of the individual that counts more than the physical reality of events. In other words, a person might fantasize about a seduction, store the fantasy in unconscious memory (repress it), and have that conflictual memory cause neurosis just as readily as the memory of an actual seduction. Some recent critics have suggested that Freud’s reformulation represented a form of denial of his inability to recognize the prevalence of sexual abuse at that time.

Freud’s Background and Impact

Born in 1856 to Jewish parents, Freud lived and practiced most of his life in Vienna, Austria. He graduated from medical school in 1881 and practiced as a clinical for several years before becoming interested in the “talking cure” that his colleague Josef Breuer had developed as a means of dealing with his patients’ emotional symptoms. Freud’s writings and lectures on the subject of hysteria and its sexual roots led him to be ostracized by most of his medical colleagues. His medical training and the influence of the work of Charles Darwin were largely responsible for his emphasis on sexual and aggressive instincts as the basis for behavior.

Freud’s theory was important because it was the first of its kind and because it was controversial, generating further research into and theorizing about the female personality. While criticisms of his work increased as decades passed, Freud's research methods set an example for modern studies. He revised his theories as he gathered new data, ensuring his theories were based on the best information possible. Though Freud's assertions and theories concerning the female psyche were dismissed in the twenty-first century, his bold research and the many criticisms of his work spurred deeper research in women's psychology and shaped modern theories.

Challenges to Freudian Theory

Over the years, people challenged many aspects of Freudian theory. Freud’s notion that penis envy is a primary motivator in the female personality was challenged by Horney, who believed that, if it existed, a woman’s envy was related to the man’s privileged role in society. Freud’s idea that the clitoral orgasm is immature and must be surrendered for the vaginal orgasm at puberty spurred work by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, who concluded, after rigorous research, that orgasm is a reaction of the entire pelvic area.

Freud’s theory has forced critics to determine what is uniquely female about personality. In Toward a New Psychology of Women (1976), psychiatrist Jean Baker Miller attempted to show how traditional theories of female behavior have failed to acknowledge the essence of the female personality. Miller suggested that affiliation is the cornerstone of the female experience and that it is in response to her relationships with others that a woman’s personality grows and develops.

In her book In a Different Voice (1982), American psychologist Carol Gilligan disputes Freud’s notion that females show less of a sense of justice than males and have weak superegos. She argues that morality involves respect for the needs of self-balanced with respect for the needs of others; thus, it is not that females lack the justice principle, but rather that they have different expressions of justice and different internal and external demands.

Heavily influenced by Freud, many object-relations theorists continue to make contributions in the area of psychotherapy with clients whose early relationships were disturbed or disrupted. This work will continue to constitute the basis for decisions made by courts, adoption agencies, and social service agencies regarding the placement of children.

Freud’s views on the origins of neurosis may continue to play a role in the understanding of dissociative identity disorder and its roots in early sexual abuse. The concept of body memory, the physical memory that abuse has occurred, may well bridge the gap between Freud’s concepts of repressed psychic memory and repressed actual memory of early sexual abuse; it may streamline the treatment of this condition.

Late twentieth and early twenty-first-century challenges to Freud's theories about female personality development engendered interest in the context in which Freud formulated his ideas, shedding new light on the founding of psychoanalysis as a field. Freud’s theory will continue to generate controversy, motivating both theory and research in women’s personality development.

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