Sigmund Freud understood the human drive as the life drive (Eros) and the death drive (Thanatos). he (saw) the two drives as impetus, which are forces or an energy source that could cause excitation or tension which could also cause biological and psychological demand on the mind. (Feist, Feist and Roberts p34). For example, the pleasure principle which seeks satisfaction and …show more content…
Freud discovered that the defence mechanism are part of the unconscious mind and are designed to help eliminate any negative feelings for that individuals. For example, if an individual is having anxiety about a certain situation, that individual's ego will then have a defence mechanism that will help stop that individual from feeling anxious. Freud investigated that an individual's unconscious mind will use different defence mechanism to help restrain any stressfully problems in that individual's life. One defence mechanism that was identified by Freud is repression; repression is an unconscious mechanism that is designed to keep any disturbing, frightening memories from conscious back to unconscious so that they do not have to experience the negative experience. (Saul McLeod published 2007, updated 2016 ONLINE) For example, if an individual has experienced a traumatic event in their lives, they will tend to repress that experience back to their unconscious mind so that they can forget the experience and memory. According to Freud, repression is one of the most basic defence mechanism. (Tony Malim and Ann Birch 1998 P34). Another defence mechanism was projection. Projection is when an individual start attributing their own negative thoughts and feelings towards other people, to try and hide how they really feel about the person. …show more content…
He perceived that each individual must pass through a series of stages during childhood, and if the individual lack any proper nurturing and parenting during the stage, that the individual may become stuck or fixated on that stage. According to Freud, every individual goes through the five stages which are the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genitals. The first stage is the oral stage which is when a child is born and ends from the age of 1 years. Freud discovered that during this stage, the mouth is the pleasure centre for development meaning that infants are born with sucking reflexes and other desires that involve the mouth, for example when a child starts to suck their mothers breast at a young age. However, if the mother stops or refuses to breast feed the child, and the child's oral needs are not met during their infancy, that child may then develop negative habits which may be biting their nails or even being frustrated as they grow. For example, if a child has grown up to be an adult and they are fixated in the oral stage because they lacked proper nurturing when they were an infant, that individual may grow to be a nail biter or even a finger chewer because their oral stage was not met. The anal stage (1-3 years of age) consists of when children begin to experiment with urine and faeces meaning that with this stage, a child is toilet trained, however if a