Effects of Fixation on Personality of a Child

After reading this article you will learn about the effects of fixation on personality of a child.

Effect of Fixation in the Anal Stage on Personality:

Fixation in the anal period leads to several awkwardness in the later life. This may lead to excessive cleanliness, pedantry, obstinacy, petulance and miserliness. All these behaviours are indications of some kinds of reaction formation due to excessive fixation in the anal stage.

A reaction formation against retention may occur due to guilt feeling. In such a case, the person will have compulsive feelings to give away his possessions, money, belongings etc. or he may loose them in making several unsuccessful investments or in being engaged in gambling.

When such people possess some money, they will always be anxious to part with them and would not hesitate to do any-thing to get rid of them. Such people also get mental satisfaction in spending their money liberally.

Strict toilet training in the anal stage may bring about a reaction formation against uncontrolled expulsiveness in the form of meticulousness, nearness, fastidiousness, compulsive orderliness, disgust, fear of dirt, strict budgeting of time and money and other over-controlled behaviour.

Constipation is a common defence reaction against elimination. On the contrary, if the mother requests the child and pleads with him to have a bowel movement and praises him when he does so, the child learns the value of bowel movement and elimination and practices it to get praise and reward and to please his mother.

In later life, he may be motivated to produce things to please others. Charity, generosity, philanthropy and giving presents may be an outcome of this basic experience.

But if excessive emphasis is put upon the value of elimination, the child may have the feeling that he losses something valuable when he eliminates. Thus, as a result of this loss, he will feel depressed and anxious.

He will try to prevent his future loss by retaining stool and refusing to pass it. If this type of behaviour is fixated and generalized, the person in later life will be thrifty, economical and would like to retain everything.

Excessive fixation in the anal stage also leads people to develop the tendency to be teachers, opera singers, actors who usually demonstrate exhibitionistic and narcissistic tendencies. Gradually, the anal period passes on and gives rise to the phallic period.

Effect of Fixation in Phallic Stage on Personality:

The home environment and the attitude of the parents shape the personality pattern of the child in the phallic stage. Cameron (1969) remarks that normal parents are able to train the child with appropriate behaviour pattern which distinguishes between the masculine behaviour and aspirations of the pre-oedipal boy and the famine behaviour and aspiration of the pre-oedipal girl.

Parents having normal and healthy personality, having the capacity to demonstrate increasingly mature expressions of love in the form of sublimated and openly expressed affection are able to help the boy to establish his masculine identity and the girl to establish her feminine identity before oedipal phase starts.

On the contrary, parents having emotionally immature and pathological personality and strict super ego are incapable of showing normal and sublimated parental affection to the child. Consequently, his sex life in the later stage is imbalanced.

Commenting on the role of parents in the development of personality of the pre-oedipal child, Cameron (1969) remarks “If the transactions between child and parents during the pre-oedipal phase, have been good ones, they will not only help structure the oedipal situation but help resolve it also with benefit to all concerned.”

According to Rangell (1955) “The pre-oedipal child enters his oedipal phase with only infantile precursors of a super ego, with his loyalty untamed drives and with his fear of parental disapprovals rejection, punishment and retaliation. These fears, as we shall soon see, reflect the child’s sadomasochistic’ immediate past and expose him to unrealistic anxieties with regard to his survival and the integrity of his body.”

Oedipus Complex:

Like repression, the concept of Oedipus complex is another corner stone of psychoanalysis. Freud attached greater importance to this concept to explain mental diseases. Freud for the first time made a clear reference to Oedipus Legend, in his various publications, Freud and his associates established the Oedipus complex as the infantile nucleus of adult neuroses.

They in-fact transformed the ancient legend of unconscious incest, which is the content of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex into the cornerstone of psychoanalysis.

According to an ancient legend, Oedipus is a hero in the Greek tragedy who being deprived from the sight of his parents from birth to youth, killed his father and married his mother (also without his knowledge) according to the customs of the country.

Analysing this ancient legend Freud views that there might be some psychological significance behind Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother. Thus comes out a complex, a characteristic pattern present in the personality of all human beings. Deeper analysis of the concept of Oedipus complex would indicate that it has a biological foundation.

As held by Cameron (1969) human beings only go through an oedipal phase probably due to two reasons:

1. Because of the close knit character of human family formation and the utter helplessness of children during their first few years.

2. The ability of helpless little boys and girls to build fantasies and day dreams about sexuality including ideas about parental intercourse, to entertain fantastic hopes of possessing a loved parent and in most cases to recognise the anatomical roof of sex differences even though they may misinterpret its source.

According to Benedeck (1959) “It, seems probable that the oedipal phase is biologically predetermined or at least that given such a close knit unit as the human family in the Western culture, it is biologically inevitable”. It has also been suggested by Benedeck that unconscious sexual attitudes of the parents, which the small child responds to as though they were conscious, are in part responsible for the oedipal phase.

Oedipus complex is defined as a sexual attachment towards one of the parents (of the opposite sex) with a concomitant jealousy towards the other parents. It is also described as love for the parents of the opposite sex and death wishes for the parents of the same sex.

In short, the love of the little boy towards his mother and hatred towards his father is called Oedipus complex. The love of the little girl towards her father and hatred towards the mother is known as Electra complex.

Freud states that just after birth the child has to pass the oral, anal and phallic stages of psychosexual development. After birth, the first object of love for the child is not the mother as such, but only her breasts which give him nourishment.

Gradually it shifts to the mother as a whole and the desire for possessing the mother grows. But this desire is frustrated either with the arrival of a new baby or due to the perception of the love relationship between the father and the mother.

This leads to severe jealousy towards the father. The child now is in a triangular situation which poses a horrible dilemma for him. Under no circumstances, the child is able to tolerate the idea that his loved object is to be shared by somebody else.

This multiplies his hatred for his father. He considers his father to be the greatest obstacle on his way of love. He therefore develops jealously and hostile attitude towards his father considering him as his rival. Through this process the Oedipus complex is established in the male child.

When the Oedipus complex is fully formed, the child develops strong ambivalence tendency towards his parents. The soft corner of the mother for her son has a real biological foundation.

Electra Complex:

In girls, the castration complex prepares the way for Electra complex instead of destroying it. In case of a female child, Oedipus complex is different from the male child and it is called Electra complex named after a girl Electra.

In Freud’s opinion, the female child after birth equally depends upon the mother for self preservation. Like the male child she also loves her mother. But in the phallic stage, when she becomes 3-4 years old, she observes her own genitals as well as the genitals of the opposite sex.

When she finds discrimination, she thinks that she has already been castrated. As a consequence, she feels inferior to male members and blames her mother for this. This leads to castration complex and in case of males it is called castration anxiety.

She starts hating her mother for this besides for the lack of proper attention and partial behaviour towards her in comparison to her brothers and other male members of the family.

She thus tries to compensate her love by loving her father instead of the mother. Thus, a sexual attachment towards her father develops. But as she grows up, the society does not like this father-daughter relationship and she also finds that it is impossible to fulfil the sexual wish with the father and the Electra complex disappears.

Freud however views that he is not totally sure of the Electra complex as he found Electra complex before finding Oedipus complex in males.

Giving a comparative view on the resolution of Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex, Freud finally comments, “The masculine Oedipus complex is resolved by castration complex; it is given up because of castration anxiety. The feminine Oedipus complex is brought about by the castration complex out of disappointment over the lack of penis, the girl’s love turns towards the father.”

Castration anxiety is the main cause of the disappearance of Oedipus complex. It is an anxiety around the loss of sex organs.

In the phallic stage the castration anxiety arises out of 3 basic factors:

(a) The boy feels guilty for having a sexual attachment towards his own mother which the society does not permit.

(b) The popular threat that the parents would cut off his genital if he does not give up his sexual attachment towards his mother and if he plays with it.

(c) The discovery of the fact that not everyone has a visible genital.

According to Sanroff and Corwin (1959) another source of castration anxiety comes from the angry jealousy and resentment that a boy feels towards his father. He finds that the father who is all powerful in the family loves his mother, his prized possession, his object of love.

As a result the boy takes refuse in Sadomasochistic fantasies. And sometimes in the Oedipus stage the boy may openly express his Sadistic fantasies about his father. But it is really strange to note that in certain families even if the children have never been threatened by the parents, they develop castration anxiety.

Cameron (1969) points out that analysis and observation of many hundreds of non-neurotics and normal adults have shown that there is no reason to restrict castration anxiety to neurotic persons. He argues that it seems to be practically universal specially in the Western culture and it is a fact that Freud has developed this theory which is mainly based on the study of Western culture.

When the question of culture arises, however it is the observation of the present author that in many Indian societies there is no trace of castration anxiety. Though this view of the author does not have much scientific support, yet it is supported by a number of personal observations.

Hence, cross cultural research in the area of Oedipus complex and castration anxiety should be conducted to draw any definite conclusion.

Causes of castration anxiety:

The sight of female organ magnifies the castration anxiety of the boy. Now he feels that if he looses his most precious organ, it is no need to live further. Therefore he is in a conflict and dilemma, love of the mother or loss of his organ.

After terrible conflict for some times, lie reaches in a compromise by giving up his sexual love towards the mother and hatred towards the father. Thus, the Oedipus complex is resolved or repressed due to threats by parents and social restriction.

Freud therefore comments owing to the combined effect of a threat of castration and the spectacle of women’s lack of penis, he experiences the greatest trauma of his life and this introduces a period of latency with all its consequences.

Effect of Oedipus complex on personality pattern:

Excessive fixation in the Oedipus stage has certain significant effect upon the adult sexual behaviour. The tendency of men to marry women resembling their mother and the tendency of girls to marry men resembling their father indicates the shadow of Oedipus complex.

According to Gitelson (1952) if castration anxiety is too severe and unrelieved at the time or if it is not overcome by resolving the Oedipus complex, it may play a pervasive and decisive part in later neurotic development and character structure.

It is clear that Oedipus complex is the normal climax of infantile sexual development as well as the basis of all neuroses. The presence of Oedipus complex is normal up to a certain age. But its persistence is pathological.

If the Oedipus complex is not resolved, homosexuality is observed in later life. Excessive castration anxiety is said to be the cause of male homosexuality and female homosexuality is due to castration complex.

If the Oedipus complex is not resolved successfully during the childhood and if the fixation in carried to adulthood, the man will expect motherly affection from the wife, and hence can only be happy to marry an elderly woman who resembles his mother in physique and behaviour.

Females similarly would expect fatherly affection from their husband. If there is any deviation in this, they cannot be happy in their married life. Therefore, people having tremendous father or mother fixation usually leads a poor and unhappy married life.

Many other personality disorders occur due to abnormal fixation in the phallic stage. Most cases of impotencies are due to excessive castration anxiety in the childhood. Excessive suppression of sexual desires due to castration anxiety in case of the male child and castration complex in case of the female child leads to impotency and frigidity respectively.

Homosexuality is also a derivative Oedipus complex. When a small boy identifies with the mother, he acts in the same way as his mother was behaving with his father and so becomes homosexual by having sexual relations with the male sex (as his father).

Similarly, when a girl identifies with her father and thus wants to be sexually involved with a woman (like her father) in later life, she develops female homosexuality. Homosexuality is one of the major causes of unhappy marital life. It stands on the way of normal married life.

Oedipus complex and super ego:

Like repression, another cornerstone of psychoanalysis is the concept of Oedipus complex on which Freud attached greater importance to explain mental diseases.

A child is born helpless biologically. The mother’s breast satisfying the child’s biological need and the need for self preservation becomes the first object of love to both the sexes. Gradually the father comes to the picture and the child’s affection from the breast is shifted to the ‘mother’ as a ‘whole’.

With the passage of time the boy is more attached towards the mother and when the sexual wishes for the mother become more and more intense the father is perceived as an obstacle standing between him and his mother. This sort of complex is called by Freud as Oedipus complex.

The Oedipus complex reaches its climax towards the last part of the phallic stage. Under the influence of Oedipus complex, the child is in a triangular situation and this creates a horrible dilemma for him. The threat of castration forces him to give up this complex and hence there is resolution of the Oedipus complex.

The resolution of the Oedipus complex by the castration anxiety develops a severe super ego. When the Oedipus complex passes away, its place is occupied by the super ego.

According to Freud, the super ego originates being based upon an overwhelmingly important biological face, i.e., the lengthy dependence of the human child upon its parents. Therefore, in the beginning there is no internal principle and higher nature like the super ego. But gradually the child is guided by the rules, regulations and parental restrictions.

The parents exercise their external power over the child and teach the dos and donts of human life. The child as a result of threat and punishment controls his id desires and interjects the parental function. Consequently, the super ego develops. Hence, the establishment of the super ego can be described as a successful instance of identification with the parental function.

The super ego being the internal parent stands as a representative of the most important events in the development of self and race by giving permanent expression to the influence of the parents.

In the phallic stage of psychosexual development when the repression of Oedipus complex leads to the latency period, the super ego develops. In this period no obvious sex activity is found, but emphasis is placed on the moral and intellectual growth. This is the period of high ideals and moralistic activities. Thus, it is said that the super ego is the heir to Oedipus complex.

When the Oedipus complex passes away, the child has to give up the intense object cathexis which he has found towards his parents and to compensate for’ this loss of objects, its identification with the parents becomes greatly intensified. A full-fledged development of the super ego therefore depends upon the resolution of the Oedipus complex.

The super ego establishes itself gradually with the passing away of the Oedipus complex. The super ego does not attain its full strength and development if the Oedipus complex is not completely resolved. In case of girls the castration complex prepares the way for Electra complex and hence the girl remains in the Oedipus situation for an indefinite period unlike the boy. She only abandons it later in life and that too partly.

The formation of super ego in such cases must suffer and it cannot attain the strength and independence which gives it its cultural importance. Freud holds that the super ego of the female is never completely and fully formed because the Electra complex is never fully resolved.

As the heir of the Oedipus complex, the super ego has intimate connection with the id. The development of the super ego helps in the repression of the childish and abnormal attachment of the boy towards the parents and becomes the vehicle of tradition and of all the age long values which have been handed down in this way from generation to generation.

But the development of this unconscious conscience which provides the criteria of what should and should not be repressed is not complete until the Oedipus complex is resolved. Freud has therefore rightly remarked ‘Super ego is the heir to Oedipus complex’.