Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

Freud and the Psychology of Life

Jett Drecksel
Salt Lake Community College

Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

Sigmund Freud was one of the first social scientists to put forward a theory to understand
our behavior as human beings. Because he was one of the first to develop a theory quite a few
psychologists treat his work as a guide book if you will, if he said it; it has to be true.
Freud came up with his psychoanalytic theory that is as follows. He has a theory called
the structural theory of personality. It contains thoughts about the three components parts of
Freuds theorized mind: the id, superego, and ego. To Freud, our human personality develops
from interactions inside what he proposed as the three structures of the human mind. Conflict
between these structures and how we find balances among them are what determines how we act
and behave. This coincides with Freuds theory of development. He felt that the conflicts
between the ego, superego, and id change through time as an individual grows from an infant to
an adult. He figured that the conflicts progress through a series of five stages, each with an
altered focus. His stages are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital, he called this theory the
psychosexual theory of development. Through these stages a child is faced with different
conflicts in-between their social and moral conscience and their biological impulses. He
theorized that the childs ability to cope with these impulses determines the childs future ability
to handle with and function on these impulses as an adult. If one does not resolve the issues it
can lead the individual being fixated in that a stage.
Some criticisms of Freuds theories include a narrow focus, misogynistic views, and
having no scientific bases. In his research Freud is criticized for not paying enough attention to
environments, culture, or sociology. He didnt focus on real life functioning.

Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

Modern critics of his theories, such as Karen Horney, a psychologist who followed Freud,
criticized him as being misogynistic and patriarchal. She claims that his concept of penis envy
as a purely social bias of the era he was in.
In the 9th grade I was struggling with the genital developmental stage. I had really
wanted to be with this one girl I h ad known since about seventh grade. After repeated attempts
to ask her out I feel like I decided social interaction outside of friendship with the opposite sex
wasnt worth it. Looking back on it I felt like I couldnt do anything with the other sex outside of
talking. It was like a weight was put on my shoulders any time I felt like I could be with
someone. Looking back on this now I know that the rejection of the person that in my mind was
the perfect one caused me to be fixated for a brief time in the genital stage. I stopped attending
events that would require me to do more than casually interact with the opposite sex. It was
affecting my ability to speak and make contact with those members of the opposite sex even in
my own home. I became more distant from my sister, who I had been best friends with, as well
as any of my friends who were girls. This forced me to push those feelings out of my head. I
started spending more time with my male friends and focus on projects and other things rather
than going on dates or trying to create affection with the opposite sex. I feel like the people who
I pushed away knew something was wrong and they didnt really have the power to stop it. To
be honest on the outside I seemed like the everyday happy guy who had lots of friends and a lot
of time to work on projects. My school grades increased and my relationships with my close
friends were rekindled and strengthened. However, inside I felt like there was something
missing from my life. I felt like there was a small part of me that was empty and no matter how
much I hung out with my friends or how many projects I tried to accomplish I couldnt change
how depressed I felt on the inside. As time went on this grew to almost consume my home life. I

Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

felt depressed often and that I would die alone. Looking back this was extremely irrational and
thats why I felt such a connection to psychology. It helped me to better understand what was
going on inside my own head.
While studying psychology with some friends I stumbled upon a textbook that had the
stages of development from Freud. Upon reading this I felt like a light had turned on inside my
head and I understood what was going on inside my head. I worked to try and overcome this
insane realization that I was the cause of my own depression and not some other thing that was
affecting me without me knowing about it. I worked with my friends to restart my confidence in
myself and what I was capable of. This involved a lot of hard work on my part to try and
overcome something that I had hammered so deep into my brain that it was taking over my
thoughts and creeping into my daily life. I had to constantly ignore the thoughts that were
creeping into my head about not being worth someones time. I had to turn those thoughts into
positive ones. That I was worth it, in fact I turned myself around completely from having no
confidence into someone who had more confidence than most.
I became someone who was proud of being me and nothing else. If there was someone
who didnt appreciate me being me then they werent worth my time. I started to think about all
of the times I had been rejected and realized that the person I was after wasnt really what I was
looking for all along. With the confidence came an attitude that was a lot more positive and selfimproving. With all of these changes I found that I had moved on from being stuck in the genital
stage to moving past it into adulthood. With this transition into adulthood, or something below it,
I felt like a new person.

Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

As far as positive outcomes go I feel like I took the cake. I had better motivation to
accomplish things because I felt a drive that came with my self-worth. I had confidence to spare
and I felt great, both physically and mentally. My attitude had improved and I had knowledge of
psychology that I feel still helps me today. Understanding how my brain worked and functioned
helped me through one of the hardest times in my life, which is why I feel like I should study it.
Moving on in life I feel like the positive outcomes will follow me and allow me to better
educate myself in the future. In closing I would like to review this psychology 1100 class as a
whole. My learning experience in this class was surprisingly different from what I am used to.
Everything that I learned this year I felt was very helpful to know and will definitely come in
handy later in life. This class has taught me that psychology isnt just about understanding the
brain and how it works, it is also how that knowledge can be applied to daily life and to
understand how you grow from an infant to an adult. This has been a very rewarding class in its
totality and I am glad that I elected to be in it.

Running head: FREUD AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LIFE

References
McCloud, S. (2013). Sigmund Freud's Theories | Simply Psychology. Retrieved December 11,
2015, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html

Beystehner, K. (1998). Psychoanalysis: Freud's Revolutionary Approach to Human Personality.

Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/beystehner.html