

For example, the frustration of gratification would make for a different person than excessive gratification. His idea was that a person’s personality would develop depending on the type of gratification. This theory says that this is a lifelong thing and childhood is a part of this search for stimulation as well. The genetic model in particular focuses on our search for pleasure through stimulation in various erogenous zones. The others are topographical, dynamic, economic, and structural. Genetics and psychoanalysis: What’s the link?įreud came up with many different models for understanding human personality.

If we really have to try to pin down a specific origin, we’d say this theory began to take shape in his book Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In it, he talks about sexuality from the perspective of psychoanalysis. We’re talking not just about his research and studies, but also of his apprenticeship in hospitals and the patients he treated as part of his clinical practice. In reality, it’s more of a theoretical inkling that comes from all of Freud’s other explorations. This makes it hard to give specific origins for the theory of genetics and psychoanalysis. This is largely because they complement each other and are in constant motion. It’s hard to single out one definition without giving another. Psychoanalysis has many extremely complex concepts because of how much they rely on other concepts.
