Freudian Theory:Infantile Sexuality
• Develops through stages toward “normal” adult heterosexuality
• Oral Anal Phallic / Oedipal
• Early developments must be repressed & sublimated
Oral Stage (birth – 2)• nursing, sucking
• pleasure: lips & mouth; satiety
• anxiety: hunger, abandonment
Oral character:
• Anxiety about nurturance, separation
• Eating, smoking, drinking to calm anxiety
• Dependency
Anal Stage (2 – 4)
• Defecation (control of sphincter)
• Pleasure: sensation of defecating, making messes, defiance
• Anxiety: dirtying, loss of control, chaos, fear of punishment
Anal character:
• Order, control, cleanliness, neatness
• Constrictive / impulsive emotional style
Phallic / Oedipal Stage (5 – 7)
• Attachment to mother sexualized
• Punitive father threatens attachment to / dependence on mother
• Threat experienced as “castration anxiety”
• Sexualized attachment to mother repressed
• Identification with father – “masculinity”
Boys’ Oedipal Complex
• Accept as correct?
• Reject as wrong?
• Describes psychological consequences of authoritarian fathering?
Girls’ Oedipal Complex?
• Discovery of “castration”
• Rejection of mother + sexualized attachment to father (with unconscious “wish for penis”)
• Shift of attachment from father to man
• Wish for penis becomes wish for baby
• Re-identification with mother
Girls’ Oedipal Complex
• Accept as correct?
• Reject as wrong?
• Describes psych. consequences of patriarchal power?
Freud: A Cultural Psychology?
Initial Indulgence Age of Training Severity
Oral 2nd lowest 2nd earliest weaning upper quartile
Anal 3rd lowest 2nd earliest most severe (tied)
Sex lowest among earliest most severe (tied)
Dependence slightly below median slightly earlier than median
at median
Aggression near median near median slightly above median
U.S. vs. 72 non-Western cultures – early 1950s
“Object Relations” TheoryWinnicott, Kernberg, Mahler, etc.
• Attachment & separation / individuation– Sex & aggression not primary– Shaped by attachment & separation
Need for “secure” attachment
Need for “separation – individuation”
Life-Span Development & IdentityErik Erikson
• 8 stages
• each has a key “developmental task”
• Identity:
adolescence & adulthood
identifications re-worked into ideology
Social Self: G. H. Mead
• “Me”: self reflected by others
vs.
• “I” : subjective experience, responds to “Me”
Social Self: G. H. Mead
• “Me” self: learned by seeing one’s self from other’s point of view
• Role-playing: children’s games sports social institutions
Generalized Other
[ Sartre’s “they” ]
Theory Question
• How is Mead’s “social self” related to Erikson’s “Identity”?
• G.G.’s answer:
social self develops in late childhood
defines task of identity formation
Levels & Periods of Psych. Develop.
infancy early childhood
late childhood
adolescence early adulthood
Core Level I
apprentice-ship
competence expertise
Social Persona Level II
( Mead )
apprentice-ship
competence expertise
Identity Level III
( Erikson )
apprentice-ship
competence expertise
Subsistence• Edgerton studies in Africa:
Pastoralists: open emotionality + independence
Agriculturalists: closed emotinoality + obedience
• MENA: agro-pastoral = tension?
Subsistence• Evil Eye -- Envy Complex
• “paranoia hypothesis”: no association with infant care
• Association with peasant communities, “limited good,” inequality, exploitative authorities
“patronal dependency” & “risk
of seizure”
Subsistence
• Household Organization:
• East Africa: dispersed mother & children units
interpersonal reticence
• West Africa & MENA: large shared households
gregarious, highly sociable
Sling vs. Cradle Cultures
• Sling cultures:– “cross-gender” identity conflict– resolved via masculinizing ritual
• Cradle cultures:– “dependency” conflict– resolved via solitary vision quest &
guardian spirit (Native America)
Culture & Childcare
• Pre-industrial: “pediatric” modelshigh infant-mortality
protect & nurture
• Modern: “pedagogic” modelssurvival assumed
prepare for school & achievement
Objectives of Mothering
• Pediatric (pre-industrial):minimize caloric expenditurefoundation of life-long attachment
• Pedagogic (modern):elicit interest & engagement in worldprepare for school & achievementprepare to separate from family
Pediatric Model Infant Care
• “Symbiotic” mother-infant bond?
• Cultivation of intense dependence?– Undermines individuation?– Basis for life-long attachment?– Foundation for patron-client style relations?
• Abrupt weaning– Traumatic?– Undermines individuation?
“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care
Secure attachment
resilience
Weaning & decreased nurturance creates potentially-traumatic developmental challenge
household as “transitional obj” ?
hsld as honor-bearing “group self” ?
“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care
Matrifocal interdependence
Japan: “indulged dependence”
indebtedness
fear of abandonment
motivates group loyalty & achievement ?
Infancy
• Pedagogic model + sling carrying
• shared with Africa, South Asia
• Fosters “matri-focal interdependence”
• Debate: “dethronement” undermines autonomy vs. promotes wider attachments & household “group” self?
“Pediatric”-Style Infant Care
MENA:
• anchors loyalty & “group self” to household/kin group ?
• Motivates achievement ?
• Q: how patriarchal authority relations affect matrifocal interdependence ?
Early Childhood• Toddlers / “yard child”
• Dethronement?
• Hunger & food?
• Poor health?
• Fear of jinn-s, ogres, etc.
• Sibling rivalry
• Circumcision / F.G.C.
Nancy ChodorowReproduction of Mothering
Freud: Oedipal complex is key
M & F begin as if boys
Chodorow: pre-Oedipal attachment key
M & F begin as if girls
based on identification with mother & core “feminine” sense of self
Chodorow Theory
• Girls: preserve identification with mother & core feminine sense of self
shift attachment from F to M
• Boys: renounce / repress identification with mother & feminine sense of self
construct masculine sense of self
misogyny = projection of feared/despised feminine sense of self
John Whiting Theory( masculine development )
• Long exclusive mother-infant co-sleeping leads to…
Stronger “feminine” identification
Greater need for “masculinizing” ritual
Puberty rituals with genital mutilation– Excising “femaleness”– Creating “male” bodies & persons
Chodorow-Whiting Theory:Applies to MENA?
• “Pediatric” care maternal interdependence
• Circumcision at 4 – 7
• Crapanzano:– Has “masculinizing” meanings– But too early to be rite of passage– Question: masculinity must be achieved
Female Development• Continuity with mothers:
– attachment
– identification
• “Circumcision” / FGC in Nilotic areas
• Etiquettes of deference & modesty
• Increasing seclusion and covering
• Rich symbolism of fertility, purity, pollution
Apprenticeship Learning
Learning by direction from parents, older siblings, etc.
• Work skills
• Etiquettes of kinship & social interaction
Late Childhood
Shift to more formal training:
• Father becomes more distant & punitive
• Honor-modesty etiquettes learned as relations expand beyond family
• Islam learned:– Quranic school (for boys, some girls)– Etiquettes & self-care
Formation of social selves (G.H. Mead)
Authoritarian?
• Fathers: demanding & harsh
• Quranic school teacher
• Mothers: protective; sheltering; complicity in evading father
• Play: traditional boys’ games
Authoritarianism?
• Traditional patriarchy may not = modern “authoritarianism”
• Traditional child rearing multiple models of relationship, some mentoring, some egalitarian, some authoritarian.