Freud: Symptom Formation, the Realm of Fixation and the Cure

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For Sigmund Freud heredity, childhood, adult experience and fantasy are all connected in the realm of fixation. The realm of fixation is that of the neurotic and either symptom formation or perversion.

Freud says that everyone is born with a sexual constitution- the amount of libido endowed upon them form their parents-this is the hereditary background upon which sexual drive in life is based. In short our sexual constitution is the amount of libido we are born with. This amount cannot be changed throughout our lifetime. It can however, get tied up along the way and become lost in the unconscious.

The sexual constitution can be looked at as the level of ability to counteract neurotic tendencies (Freud, p. 4). Therefore, sexual constitution plays a key role in the development or prevention of developing a neurotic symptom. Sexual constitution is only one of two factors affecting libido- the other being childhood experience.

Libido- sexual energy- endowed upon us at birth can become tied up throughout life. The root of the ''tie-up' takes place in childhood- the childhood experience. It is here that the key to neurosis lies. Without an event in childhood to become fixated on in the future there can be no loss of libido and therefore no neurosis. Childhood experiences come in all forms. In Freud's life for example- as a child Freud wanted to be with his mother. His father took her away from him and Freud 'hated' him for it. This led to the symptom later in life of not being able to visit his father's grave. Often the childhood experience is Oedipusian in nature. The child will feel resentment towards the parent of the same sex because they are in competition for the attention of the other parent.Custom writing service can write essays on Freud: Symptom Formation, the Realm of Fixation and the Cure

It is the amount of libido possessed by a child at birth along with an infantile experience that leads to a fixation. People will become fixated on their childhood experience. Freud defines being fixated as not [able to] manage to free themselves from it (particular portion of the past) and were for that reason alienated from the present and the future. (Freud, p. 1) Depending on their sexual constitution they may be able to function with a fixation- they still have enough libido to continue normal life. It is when libido begins to run in short supply due to a fixation onto the past that problems arise.

When libido runs in short supply in adulthood and an event occurs- an accidental adult experience- such as a parent dying frustration occurs. The example from the movie where the woman's father died is classic. She was fixated on her childhood experiences of being taken away from her father by her mother. Thus she developed a hatred for her mother. When her father died her love object disappeared. This was the frustration- she no longer had anywhere to express her libido.

With no outlet for libido one creates an outlet through fantasy. Fantasy is regression to the fixation. In the same example of the woman- she lost her father and, therefore, seeked out the love of another man- Freud. The woman had regressed to wanting to spend time with her dad- now replaced by Freud.

A fixation to the past coupled with frustration and fantasy does not automatically lead to a neurotic symptom. Our superego influences our ego to either admit that the fixated emotion exists or deny its existence. With an admission our ego id will prevail over ego and we will act out our emotion. This is considered by society to be a perversion. To express love for our own mother or father in a sexual way is perverse- even though it may bring pleasure to the person who seeks it.

If, on the other hand, our ego prevails and we deny that our fixated emotion exists it will be repressed much in the same way the wish in a dream is repressed. This is when the dream- work like stage takes place. The Neurotic symptom that results from the condensation, displacement, plastic representation and symbolism is the same as the manifest dream. Condensation is used amalgamating a lifetime of events into a scene in the mind that explains- or seems to explain the symptom- in the movie the woman thought her father went to a hospital when in fact it was a brothel.

While the manifest dream is used to express the wish- it is changed from its raw form to protect the dreamer from his thoughts to allow him to sleep (Freud, p.50)- the neurotic symptom is used to express the desire to act upon the fixation in a form that protects the person from his desire to allow him to function in society. The only problem with a neurotic symptom as a protector of peace of mind is that the symptom itself becomes the problem.

Psychoanalysis is the key to getting rid of the neurotic symptom. There are several stages to go through in psychoanalysis. First the root of the fixation must be realized. This can be a long process in which the patient must dig and try to figure out where the fixation is in their past. This is what allows the analyst to help the patient find the root of the symptom. Through becoming conscious of the fixation a patient admits that it exists and is able to free pent- up libido. In short what was previously unconscious (the fixation) must become conscious (Freud, pp. 485-486). . Then the patient must go through the transference onto the doctor- or psychoanalysis. Transference is the love or hate of the doctor that is a manifestation of their symptoms and represses libido that was previously pent up in the symptom (Freud, p. 47). Once the libido is released from the doctor the neurotic symptom is cured and the person returns to normal.

The doctor has two items to work with in curing a symptom- the patient's will to get rid of the symptom and the intelligence of the patient. Intelligence is important because the doctor will then be able to use intelligence to have the patient think through and logically solve the mystery behind the symptom formation.

Freud was a very logical manner to his lecturing. He started people with parapraxes- SLIPS- something that everyone experiences. It is easy to accept that a slip has some meaning behind it- that the mind was thinking about the slipped topic when trying to say or do something. Freud then moves on to dreams. Similar to slips in that everyone has them and easy to understand that they have meaning behind them. Connecting the day's residue was easy to explain. Next the wish, not as simple, but still easy to believe with the build- up Freud had already established.

From explaining how dreams form Freud hints at an unconscious mind as well as a conscious one. If Freud had started by telling people they had thoughts that they could not control they would have laughed him out of the auditorium.

Once the unconscious was established Freud able to explain what occurs in the unconscious. He was able to delve into theoretical explanation about how the mind works- how thoughts and experiences effect adulthood and how they can lead to neuroses.

Freud's theory of the unconscious and of symptom formation revolutionized human life. It was simply assumed- because no reason not to believe so had ever been presented- that people were masters of their own thoughts and actions. With an unconscious, however, people are simply at the whim of an unseen part of the mind that can make them say the wrong thing, or send them to the edge of insanity with ridiculous neurotic symptoms. People no longer had control. Today this is accepted as the way human nature is- that shows how profoundly Freud's theories and work were on the human species.

Freud's effects on human nature do not end there- every time someone misspeaks, or makes a slip; people connect it to being a Freudian slip. Whenever someone is in therapy on TV or in a movie- the ultimate expression of the state of society at a given moment- it is portrayed as psychoanalysis. Take The Simpsons for example- Marge had a fear of flying and went to a psychoanalysis and sat on the couch not facing the analyst and was helped along by the therapist to realize the root of her fear. She remembered her father being a pilot at first but as the analyst pressed her to dig deeper into her memory Marge realized he had in fact been a stewardess. The analyst reassured her that there were many male stewards now and that her father had been a pioneer in the male steward industry. Marge was cured and was able to fly.

Patch Adams is a similar figure to Freud in modern life. Before Freud neurotic patients were quickly diagnosed and then locked up or drugged. In modern medicine patients are quickly examined by doctors and diagnosed. They are then given medications to cure them. Freud was able to speak to patients and cure them. Patch Adams using a positive environment and lots of personal attention is able to cure many illnesses by finding the root cause rather than the medical explanation.

Through Freud's ability to explain what seemed at the time to be ridiculous ideas in a rational and scientific manner Freud was able to forever change the way people view themselves and others, and was also able to revolutionize the treatment of neurotic patients.

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