Research in Freud’s Theory

Freud’s major research method was the case study. These types of studies are neither replicable nor generalizable to other people. Freud did not keep verbatim records of his therapy sessions, so the data may have been incomplete, consisting of what he last remembered. Some critics have suggested that Freud’s patients did not actually reveal childhood sexual experiences, because, in most cases, those experiences never occurred. Freud’s cases were restricted to young, unmarried, upper-class women of good education. Not a very broad sample of the population of his time. Since Freud’s death, many of his ideas have been submitted to experimental testing. Some Freudian concepts—the id, ego, superego, death wish, libido, and anxiety could not be tested by the experimental method. Researchers found no evidence to support the psychosexual stages of development or a relationship between Oedipal variables and sexual difficulties later in life. Extensions of Freudian Theory Anna Freud was Sigmund’s youngest and most favored daughter. At age 22, Anna began four years of psychoanalysis conducted by her father. He was later criticized for analyzing his own daughter. For to analyze one’s child was a serious violation of Freud’s rules for the practice of psychoanalysis. She devoted her life to her father and his system of psychoanalysis. Anna worked with children, expanded the role of the ego, and argued that the ego operates independently of the id. Anna Freud clarified the operation of the defense mechanisms, which may be her most significant contribution to psychoanalysis. Object relations theories focus more on interpersonal relationships than on instinctual drives. They place particular emphasis on the mother-child relationship, suggesting that the core of personality is formed at infancy. The object relations theorist also see as critical the emergence in the early years a strong sense of self and the maturing of relations with objects other than the mother. Heinz Kohut’s interest is on the formation of the nuclear self, which he described as the foundation for becoming an independent person. Melanie Klein formulated a system of personality development that focused on the intense emotional relationship between infant and mother. Emphasizing the first 5 to 6 months of a child’s life, Klein assumed babies are born with active fantasy lives that harbor mental representations (images) of Freudian id instincts, which the images temporarily satisfy. Margaret Mahler, a pediatrician, observed the relationship that developed between the infant and mother. She argued that newborns are incapable of distinguishing between themselves and everything else that is not themselves. The infant must learn how to separate from the mother which involves psychic energy in interpersonal or object relationships rather than the sexual energy that Freud proposed.