Summarize the current critique of Freud’s model of psychosexual development

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: There are a number of methodological and theoretical problems inherent in Freud’s work . Methodologically, Freud relied solely on case studies of a few patients and himself. All of his patients had serious psychological problems and he helped them remember childhood experiences that he then related to his theory. The potential for him to bias what patients remembered and how those memories were interpreted is obvious. Modern research committees would not approve this methodology as it involves biased sampling and biased methods. Much of Freud’s theory is based on an assumption that the Oedipal complex starts from children’s (age 2-5) awareness of genital differences between sexes and feelings of inferiority that derive from that knowledge. When you ask 2-5 year olds about genitals, their awareness of differences between the sexes is vague and presents no evidence of feelings of superiority or inferiority even when they are aware of the differences. Research in morality suggests that boys and girls do not differ in their reasoning about morality. Freud theorized that girls would have a lack of superego development and that, in general, both sexes are able to reason morally much earlier than Freud believed possible.

One contemporary theorist, Jeffrey Mason, has presented evidence that at least some of Freud’s patients were not fantasizing about early childhood sexual experiences, as Freud came to believe, but were actually remembering real experiences of childhood sexual abuse. There is the possibility that Freud’s whole theory of child development is not one of average or normal development, but a model of the development of children who have been sexually abused.