Frustration: Development of Frustration in Humans

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The first frustration that any organism meets is during the process of birth and thereafter having lost the warm and comfortable security in the mother’s uterus. Rank has therefore assigned birth trauma as a profound shock to the child both on the physiological and psychological levels.

This shock views Rank, creates a reservoir of anxiety to ponder over for the baby. As pointed out by Charmichael, Rank (1932) states that the child brings anxiety with him into the world, that anxiety which is the result of severe frustration of birth trauma. Freud (1936) from the psychoanalytic point of view holds quite confidently that the organism at birth emerges from a relatively calm and peaceful environment into an overwhelming situation.

The new-born cannot utilize any defence mechanism to protect his ego and hence is tortured with anxiety. Separation from the mother as well as adjustment with the complex environment along with breathing, eating etc. make the child frustrated.

Thus, Freud (1936) emphasizes the view that “the biological factors of helplessness bring into being the first situation of danger and create the need to be loved which the human being is destined never to renounce.”

As an infant experiences hunger in the first days of life, both when feeding periods are irregular and when they are regular, this discomfort is reflected on the person who is connected with it. With the feeling of hostility and anguish, the baby cries.

Crying of the infant tends to arouse in the mother feelings of pain and sympathy on the one hand and annoyance and irritation on the other. Under such circumstances, either the mother fondles the baby or gives her a slap and scolds her and this the infant interprets as a direct response to her own bad feelings and she tends to interpret all outer frustrations as being like this rebellious inner feelings.

The psychoanalytic explanation emphasizes the influence of the first five years of life in the development of frustration. Thus Issac (1936) views “knowledge is lacking, understanding has not yet begun, but wants and wishes, fears and angers, love and hate are there from the very beginning.”

In the process of development different degrees of frustrations are imposed on the child specially in the oral, anal and phallic stages by the process of feeding, elimination, nursing, toilet training and taking overall care of the child including socialization process.

The baby is in utter helpless condition at birth and thereafter and his complete dependence upon other members makes him feel insecured and helpless. When his needs and desires which he cannot fulfill directly are not satisfied by others he suffers a feeling of discomfort, agony and unhappiness.

Frustration develops out of bottle feeding. Studies do indicate that bottle feeding never satisfies or compensates breast feeding. The process of weaning is probably the greatest frustration experienced by the young baby.

“Love for the child being more concrete is the breast, the mother’s milk, the smell, the taste and the warmth of it” (Char Michael) But when the supply of breast milk is inadequate or when the baby is not allowed to take breast milk for several reasons, he is separated from the breast, his first loved object and thus experiences frustration and discomfort. Such frustrations have lasting and firm repercussions upon the personality development of the child.

The parental attitude and the way in which they handle the child, determine the amount of frustration the organism has to experience. If the child is let to cry too long and too often, if he is given the impression that he is alone in this world, that he is a burden and an unwanted addition to the family, and hence is likely to be neglected, that his needs would not probably be met, he experiences severe disappointment and anguish which results in anxiety. Lack of attention or excessive over protection in the early years of life paves the ground for present as well as future frustration.

The child as experience and observation shows in early years of life, actively or passively, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously is subjected to frustration by the parents, the mother in particular. In the developmental process of the child different degrees of frustration are imposed on him specially in the oral, anal or phallic stages by the process of feeding, elimination, toilet training and socialisation etc.

Emotional disturbances arising out of loss of love of the mother, lack of security etc. constantly haunt the child during the process of development. Every child experiences inevitable frustration because of his helplessness and because he pines for something which he does not achieve. He may feel hungry when it is impossible to feed him, he may like to monopolize the love of the mother which is objected socially and he may like to indulge in certain activities (during the phallic stage) which are not allowed by the parents.

He thus feels disappointed, hurt and every stage in the development is inaugurated by frustration leading to a feeling of discomfort Thus English and Pearson rightly comment “If a child is brought up in an environment where there is too much of strife, if there is quarrelling between husband and wife and things of this sort … all sends a constant bombardment upon the psychic of the new born child.” And as they grow they feel life is futile and frail, hopeless and miserable.

Faulty child rearing practices, rigid attitude, inflexible thinking, unhappy and pathological home environment, over protection or too much of negligence of the child and uncared for attitude of the parents pave the way for terrific frustration. Deep gap between level of aspiration and level of achievement also leads to frustration. Over estimation of the abilities of self, higher aspirations developed by parents may lead to failure and frustration.

Furthermore, psychoanalytic evidences justify the statement that the child not merely wants to reign in the heart of his/her parents, but he quite often feels as if they have withdrawn their love for him. The child feels neglected when a newcomer entering into the family monopolizes the mother.

The Oedipus stage and castration anxiety during the phallic stage of psychosexual development add evidence to this. “The child thus feels” says Char Michael, “literally left out in the cold … the life giving love he needs is actually taken away from him.”

The author interestingly remembers, an incident after the birth of her second child. When she returned from the nursing home with the baby of 5 days (her second son) and put him on bed nearest to her, where the first child (1 year 6 months) used to sleep earlier, immediately the first son threw a soap case on his little brother and started pinching him. This is undoubtedly a hostile reaction towards the frustration arising out of the loss of love of the mother.

In many cases, the child’s universal cry may be that both the parents are against him which opens the way for privation, destruction and loss when he finds that his love for his mother is shared by his father whom he considered his rival.

When he is scolded, punished or beaten for sleeping in between his father and mother, when he is threatened while playing with his penis, he undergoes tremendous feeling of discomfort and sorrow. Similarly, restriction on the expression of auto eroticism leads to insurmountable frustration. The pleasure is so much marked and the opposition j is so strong that the outcome is the experience of severe frustration.

Finally, it becomes a distinct shock, for the child when the response of I other persons is not up to his expectations. He is utterly frustrated when he finds to his shock and surprise that there are mean, untrustworthy, deceitful and over ambitious persons who are ruthless in causing him harm and loss.

Gap in communication lags behind his desires. Further, after the preschool age, in the process of physical and mental development of the child, ever child encounters severe frustration in play as well as while first entering school. When he has to learn to adjust and adopt himself with the school situation, with his peers and friends, when he has to learn to give and take, many of his previous habits and comforts are to be sacrificed. To add to this a sense of responsibility and duty overcomes the child and all these take together, put him at loss psychologically and physically.

Analysing frustration from a genetic and developmental angle it can be safely concluded that frustration during childhood may arise from one of the following four sources or a combination of all these four.

(i) Experience of serious painful feeling during birth, feeding and toile training.

(ii) Dependence upon the mother for satisfaction of needs.

(iii) Need for pleasure and nutrition not satisfied.

(iv) Destruction of emotional comfort because of social restriction and respect of existing value systems.

Finally, when the childhood is left behind and the adulthood responsi­bility develops, adulthood provides another set of frustrations. The person is constantly and continuously faced by difficulties to be faced and solved. And lastly he meets many frustrations in connection with his profession, business aims and aspirations of life. Ichheiser has pointed out four types of frustration in connection with work.

(a) Frustration of function:

A person may be frustrated because of lack of job satisfaction

(b) Frustration of conviction:

A physician who works in a hospital where the standard is very low than what he actually wanted to do for people, frustration of conviction occurs.

(c) Frustration of ambition:

A man may find himself in a lower level than he would like to do, i.e., his achievement lags behind his ability and so he experiences frustration.

(d) Frustration of response:

The frustration which arises in conflict over the use of tools or material or in feeling that one’s superior officers are unjust and unfair to him in evaluation and behaviour wise.

Conclusion:

An overall analysis of the development of frustration and factors contributing it shows that no matter how carefully the child is reared, socialized, trained, he is definitely subjected to some degree of frustration as it is not possible to fulfill all his needs and demands.

However, the load of frustration can be decreased by planned and healthy family atmosphere, flexible and democratic attitude, optimum love and affection and security to the child, fulfillment of needs and desires keeping in view the value system and social restrictions.