Assignment: Access the Symptom Media Library: Film Library
Go to film library section of the Symptom Media platform and review the Psychodynamic Therapy film. How does early life experience with relationships influence the present? How do Freud's psychosexual stages of development influence contemporary understanding of human behavior and personality development? Need Assignment Help?
Posts are a minimum of 250 words, scholarly written, APA formatted (with some exceptions due to limitations in the D2L editor), Reply to at least one classmate's initial discussion post.
Student's Post:
The health and development of young children depend on ongoing interactive adaptation that begins at conception and extends throughout the course of life (Shonkoff et al., 2021). Early relationship with parents, siblings and caregivers can provide a model for what to expect in relationship and how individuals perceive relationships to work. Early life experiences, memories and conflicts can stay in the unconscious mind into adulthood and influence an individual's thoughts, emotions, behavior and relationships (Traylor et al., 2022). At the unconscious level, these contents are beyond reach of the conscious mind and therefore the unconscious mind operates independently. According to Freud, most of human behavior is driven directly by the unconscious mind that individuals are not fully able to control. This can sometimes lead to consequences that a person would strongly prefer to avoid. Evidence also suggests that the content on unconscious mind from our early life experiences is probably even more in charge of our actions and behaviors.
Freud's psychosexual stages of development have influenced contemporary understandings of human behavior and personality development. Freud's psychosexual stages of development hypothesized that a sexual instinct or drive directs individuals toward his action (Lantz et al., 2025). He proposed that sexual instincts and nature of early nurturing relationships play a role in the development of psychiatric problems, and that early life sexual stimulation exerts a predominant force i.e. libido, on mental activity throughout life. In each psychosexual stage, children's pleasure-seeking urges, coming from id are focused on different areas of the body known as erogenous zones (Traylor et al., 2022). Freud proposed five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. At each phase, children encounter different psychological conflicts that may be influenced by factors such as improper nurturing or parenting, and if those conflicts remain unresolved, it could result in fixation which could potentially influence personality and behavior later in life (Traylor et al., 2022). Freud's broader ideas continue to influence contemporary psychology and psychotherapy. His emphasis on childhood experiences, internal conflicts, unconscious processes and early-life experiences remains important to psychodynamic therapy. Furthermore, contemporary psychodynamic therapy incorporates more current perspectives on attachment, interpersonal relationships and lifelong development. This highlights why understanding a patient's childhood experiences, developmental history and relationship history can be important when assessing mental health difficulties and determining appropriate interventions.
References:
Lantz, S. E., Kaur, J., & Ray, S. (2025). Freud's developmental theory. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Shonkoff, J. P., Slopen, N., & Williams, D. R. (2021). Early childhood adversity, toxic stress, and the impacts of racism on the foundations of health. Annual Review of Public Health, 42(1), 115-134.
Traylor, J., Overstreet, L., & Lang, D. (2022). Psychodynamic theory: Freud. Individual and Family Development, Health, and Well-being.