From the psychodynamic viewpoint, the presence of an uncaring mother or the abse
ID: 3525918 • Letter: F
Question
From the psychodynamic viewpoint, the presence of an uncaring mother or the absence of a mother could adversely affect one or more stages of lifespan development.From a modern-Day vintage point with its wealth of research and resources, will the presence of an uncaring mother or the absence of a mother necessarily affect the interpersonal relationships of an individual later in life? Why or Why not? From the psychodynamic viewpoint, the presence of an uncaring mother or the absence of a mother could adversely affect one or more stages of lifespan development.From a modern-Day vintage point with its wealth of research and resources, will the presence of an uncaring mother or the absence of a mother necessarily affect the interpersonal relationships of an individual later in life? Why or Why not?Explanation / Answer
Answer.
According to classical psychoanalysis, Attachment security and mother-child relationships serve a critical role in human development. A close and secure association between the mother known as the primary maternal ‘object’ is emphasised as a crucial factor in determining the baby’s access to satisfaction of its primary needs. The sense of satiation or fulfillement of needs at each stage of life opens up through the mother child relationship and it forms the bedrock for interpersonal relationships in adulthood. On the other and, a state of deprivation, neglectful or harsh parenting is deemed as leading to frustration of libidinal energy and lead to fixation or regression at a particular psychosexual stage of development.
However, many contemporary psychoanalysts build a strong critic against the Victorian ideology of Freudian psychoanalysis and they point out to the major social and economic developments which have also transformed the nature of families and thus the roles of caregivers. Thus, today, adopted families, same sex parents, single parent, divorced families, grandparents as primary caregivers, etc. are as ‘normal’ as the more traditional two heterosexual parent families. In addition, contemporary societies have more families with both parents as working to earn livelihood and in such families siblings may take on the role of primary caregivers. Presence of these social arrangements does not however mean that the absence of a more proactive maternal figure leads to abnormal or inadequate development in children. Rather, these contemporary social developments inform emergence of newer patterns of development and contemporary psychodynamic approaches respond to these transformations as normal part of development of healthy attachment in children and adults in different societies.
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