Psychoanalytic
perspective- Sp ’01 #1
According to the psychoanalytic perspective, George’s problems stem from his childhood and his sexual identity. It is clear that George has not been able to get over the Oedipal Conflict that began when he was a child. The reason for his inability to progress past the anal stage, and thus the Oedipal Conflict, is because he was never able to ever identify with his father. George had a fear he would be castrated by his father, an abusive man, if his father ever found out the romantic feelings that George harbored for his mother [fear of surgery =fear of castration]. Therefore, George kept the feelings inside of him, which kept him in the anal stage of development. The feelings for his mother are still very alive, evidenced by the fact that George does not leave the house without his mother.
Since George is stuck in the anal stage, it follows that he would exhibit some other common characteristics of that stage. One of those characteristics is the defense mechanism of undoing. George has high levels of anxiety in his life, and those levels are severely heightened when George tries to do things independently (such as leave the house without his mother). When his anxiety levels are so high, George uses his bathroom cleaning ritual (undoing) to help reduce his anxiety and guilt for trying to leave his mother.
George also has a highly active superego. It is his id impulse to be romantically involved with his mother, but his superego tells him that doing that would neither be “right” nor “socially accepted”. It is also partly his superego that prevented him from leaving for college. The superego told George that he should not leave his poor, widowed mother at home with no “man of the house”. George realizes somewhat that his superego is exerting too much control over his id and ego, and this makes him angry. However, as a defense mechanism, George [displaces] this anger onto his mother. That is why George does not understand his extreme anger at his mother for no apparent reason.
Psychoanalytic perspective #2
When applying the psychoanalytic perspective, George’s anxiety and obsessive behavior are being caused by a traumatic childhood experience, an unresolved Oedipal complex, and conflict between his id and super-ego.
George’s traumatic experience in the hospital at age seven explains his moments of anxiety, and why he imagines hospital equipment. Hearing his mother say he was frail and sickly at such a young age had an undeniable effect on his psychological development and his relationship with his mother.
As a young boy, George had a difficult time identifying with his father because of his abusive and alcoholic behavior. Without this identification with the same-sex parent, George is stranded in the phallic psychosexual stage with an unresolved Oedipal complex. George’s problems in this stage have brought about his anxiety and his fear of illness. In addition, George is subconsciously displacing his anger from his father to his mother, which explains why he gets angry with her sometimes but doesn’t know why. George also shows denial when he claims his mother understands him better than anyone else when in fact, she has smothered him.
George has regressed
to the anal psychosexual stage as a result of his difficulties. He demonstrates this in his compulsive
cleaning habits. These habits give
George some control over his “hypochondria.” George has regressed to this stage because
it was likely the last time he felt he had control over his life, this control
being in the form of bowel movement. It
is this regression, however, that has George’s id and super-ego in
conflict. His id is satisfied in this
stage because in a sense, George remains a child. However, his super-ego struggles with the fact that George should
grow (mentally and physically) to adulthood. It is understandable that George has regressed to this stage; if
he remains there, he will not have to mature to an adult, therefore avoiding
becoming abusive like his father, or controlling like his mother
To
the biomedical/mental illness example