Freud on Psychosexual Stages

After Hall's massive two-volume work on adolescence came Freud's psychosexual stages. It was not completely focused on just adolescence, but rather, a general theory of psychological development from infancy to adulthood.

The last two stages described by Freud are of what pre-teens and teenagers go through - the latency stage and then the genital stage. He viewed the pre-adolescent "latency" period as a time when libido interests are suppressed. The development of the ego and superego contribute to this period of calm. The stage begins around the time that children enter into school and become more concerned with peer relationships, hobbies and other interests. The latent period is a time of exploration in which the sexual energy is still present, but it is directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social interactions. This stage is important in the development of social and communication skills and self-confidence.

Upon entering the "genital" phase of adolescence, the teen is bombarded with instinctual impulses that disrupt the balance of the id, ego and superego. The ego is torn between the strong impulses of the id and the restrictions of the superego. The libido is "sexually awakened" and the teen begins to develop strong sexual attraction towards others. The teen moves from solely considering individual needs to developing interest in the welfare of others. Freud proposed that this initial conflict makes adolescence a time of tremendous stress and turmoil, fraught with internal struggle.

As you can see, early theorists, including Freud, seemed to follow suit on Hall's characterisation of adolescence as a time of storm and stress.

References:

Freud, S. (1925). Three contributions to the sexual theory. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series, No. 7. New York: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Co.

Muuss, Rolf E. (1975). Theories of Adolescence, 3rd Edition. New York: Random House.

Sturm und Drang

The first use of the word adolescence appeared in the 15th century and came from the Latin word, "adolescere" — which means to grow up, or to grow into maturity. But surely, people must have noticed this characteristic phase way before that? Well, more than 1,500 years before the term adolescence was coined, both Plato and Aristotle had proposed similar stages of life that are not dissimilar to contemporary models of youth development. At this point, I'm thinking, was there anything that Aristotle did *not* think about? Anyways, I digress. Aristotle described three successive, seven-year periods of infancy, boyhood and young manhood, prior to the embarkment of full, adult maturity. 

Fast forward 2000 years and we have one of the first scientific and scholarly works in the field of adolescence psychology — written by none other than the famous G. Stanley Hall in his massive two-volume work titled Adolescence: Its psychology and its relation to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education which was published in 1904. Hall was fascinated by the strum und drang literary movement at the turn of the 18th century in Germany which was full of idealism, commitment to a goal, revolution against the old, expression of personal feelings, passion and suffering — and he saw an analogy between these young German writers (which included Goethe) and the psychological characteristics of adolescence. And this is where Hall came up with his iconic description of adolescence — strum und drang — which translates into storm and stress. (Which, by the way, is also the title of this blog.)

According to Hall, this storm and stress period began at around age 12 and ended at age 25. He goes on to argue that every young person goes through this negative phase to varying degrees before establishing a more stable equilibrium in adulthood. Hall also claims many things in his huge volumes such as how larger girls menstruated earlier; how boys were innately smarter than girls; how skin colour affected one's development; and many, many other now considered politically incorrect claims (but given the historical context, we shall forgive him). 

However, out of all of that, he did make some very fascinating observations. Hall argued that youth craved intense states of mind and that youthful emotions fluctuated wildly, between pleasure and pain, selfishness and altruism, good and bad conduct, sensitivity and cruelty, curiosity and apathy, knowing and doing, conservative versus radical instincts, wisdom and folly. In addition, he also identified three key aspects of this storm and stress period which has seemingly stood the test of time, namely, mood disruptions, risky behaviours, and parental conflict. 

What do you think about Hall's observations and analysis of youth? Do you think it is a period of storm and stress? 

References:

Cravens, H. (2006). The historical context of G. Stanley Hall's Adolescence (1904). History of Psychology, 9, 172-185. doi: 10.1037/1093-4510.9.3.172

Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its psychology and its relation to physiology, anthropology, sociology, sex, crime, religion, and education (Vols. 1 & 2). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Lerner, R. M., & Israeloff, R. (2007). The good teen: Rescuing adolescence from the myths of the storm and stress years. New York, NY: Stonesong Press Book/Crown.

Lerner, R. M., & Steinberg, L. (2009). The scientific study of adolescent development: Historical and contemporary perspectives. In R. M. Lerner, L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent psychology, Vol 1: Individual bases of adolescent development (3rd ed.) (pp. 3-14). New Jersey, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.