Sigmund Freud Research Paper

Sigmund Freud is a name that many people recognize because of his psychological theories on psychoanalysis and dreams. He also had many theories about women, including the development of female sexuality and the concept of penis envy. Many of Freud’s childhood experiences went to shape his later theories, whether he was aware of it consciously or not. This paper will talk about Freud’s relationship with women in childhood, especially his mother and niece, as well as societal impacts on his theories of female sexuality and penis envy.

Sigmund Freud was born to his mother as her first son, and the third son to his father, who had children from a previous marriage. Since Freud’s parents were significantly different in age, there was a different

While males have a similar theory, castration anxiety, it is more easily solved as they just have a fear of losing what they already have, while females have to come to terms with not having a penis at all (Gay 1988). Generally, a female will exhibit a love for her father, and eventually replaces her wish for a penis with a wish for a baby in puberty, and that is where Freud attributes females’ drive for children. Overall, Freud’s theory places women as the greater sufferer of the two, because coming to terms with something that has already been taken away from you is much more difficult than being afraid of losing that thing, according to Freud. Freud also accounts that females develop a less demanding superego because of his theory of penis envy as well. (Gay 1988). This means that social ability and the conscience is less developed in females. All of these aspects noted in his theory have some link to Freud’s childhood and upbringing within

There are three different paths a female may take once she has realized her penis envy. These include either rejecting sexuality, developing a masculinity complex in hopes of eventually getting a penis later in life, or establishing her father as a love object and developing a feminine personality. Only once of these scenarios has an ending of a female exhibiting herself in a feminine way, and even that third scenario is dependent upon the reliance of a love-relationship with her father. This centering around males in a females life in order to develop is prominent throughout much of Freud’s theories, specifically in relation to his theories on female