Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective asserted that female prostitutes are likely to suffer from depression and have a low self-esteem due to their inability to fully develop through the Psychosexual stages of development, resulting in unresolved internal and external conflicts, many of which have to do with the child’s relationship with her parents. Freud believed that prostitutes were psychologically immature, suffering from neurosis or fixated in an early stage of development. Freud wrote ‘Infant Sexuality’ in 1909, where he explained the that prostitutes exploit their innate sexual perversion because the superego is undeveloped resulting in the woman having an ‘uncivilised’ sexual attitude. In his later work he explains that males come to terms with their mother having a sexual relationship with their father so she is a juxtaposition between a mother and (her bottom half) a sexual object/whore. Therefore, prostitutes are a representation for males of the forbidden love for their mother and the prostitute is being socially irresponsible for not controlling every woman’s subconscious urge to perversion and prostitution!
This is just a fun little amateur video I made for a psychology of personality class. We had to pick a character from pop culture and a psychological viewpoint from which to analyze the character. Well, our group picked Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader and Sigmund Freud (since little Ani has some mommy separation issues). It’s a little cheesy, and don’t be thrown by Freud’s German / British / East Indian accent. Enjoy!
Click here to watch this audio clip of Freud making a brief statement about his decades-long career in psychoanalysis… here, in English, he offers a succinct overview…
A phobia of horses developed by a small boy living in Vienna in 1904 seems unlikely evidence for the Oedipus complex. But for Sigmund Freud, Little Hans’ anxiety was the proof he’d been waiting for.
Freud’s theories were based on childhood experiences and fantasies, yet Little Hans is the only child he analysed! Max Graf, Little Hans’s Father and a follower of Freud’s ideas, recorder his observations of his son and sent them to Freud to analyse…..hmm subjective! When Little Hans began to refuse to leave the house for fear that a horse might bite him, Freud’s analysis concluded that his fear in fact related to a fear that his father might castrate him because Little Hans desired his mother.Whatever you think about Freud’s interpretation of Little Hans’s distress, the case study provides us with a detailed recording of how a child makes sense of the world and, as the first case of child psychotherapy, it was the starting point from which a valuable discipline has evolved.
Blum (2007) reanalysed Freud’s “Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy” (1909). Blum reexamined the case of LittleHans, in the light of newer theory and newly derestricteddocuments. His mother had a severe disturbance that had an adverseimpact on Little Hans and his family. His mother abused Hans’s infantsister, which is something that has been overlooked by generations of analysts. Trauma,child abuse, parental strife, and the preoedipal mother-childrelationship emerge as important issues that intensified Hans’spathogenic oedipal conflicts and trauma. With limited, yet remarkablehelp from his father and Freud, Little Hans nevertheless hadthe ego strength and resilience to resolve his phobia, resumeprogressive development, and forge a successful creative career.
Enjoy!