Letra Homeopathica 2012 Claudio Araujo et al. Silicea Organização

Letra Homeopathica 2012 Claudio Araujo et al. Silicea Kent, Hering and Hahnemann’s MM
Synthesis
Organização dos grupos Humor Very irritable, low-spirited, peevish mood.
When crossed has to restrain himself to keep from doing violence. θ Megrim.
Screaming violently, groaning. θ Epilepsy.
Restlessness and impatience frequently seize upon him, so that he cannot contain
himself.
She could not and would not attend to anything, for ill humor.
Moroseness and despondency.
Self-willed.
Capricious and disposed to take things ill.
Peevish.
Everything annoys and vexes her.
Sullen (9th d.).
Angry and sullen.
[Ng.]. - Angry and quarrelsome, in the evening.
Frequently vexed at trifles.
With the best intentions, he is easily put out.
Disposed to get angry.
Very irritable, although cheerful.
Discontented, everything.
Disposed to weep, for two hours, without any particular thought.
The least remark makes her weep.
Very sensitive, weeping mood.
Desponding, melancholy, tired of life. θ Spermatorrhœa.
Indifferent, apathetic. Dejected and melancholy.
He is frequently seized by anguish, so that he cannot sit still.
Internal surfeit (saciedade) of life.
Great nervous debility; exhaustion with erethism*; depression may be overcome by
will force.
*Erethism or erethism mercurialis is a neurological disorder which affects the whole central nervous
system, as well as a symptom complex derived from mercury poisoning. This is also sometimes known
1 as the mad hatter disease. Historically, this was common among old England felt-hatmakers who used
mercury to stabilize the wool in a process called felting, where hair was cut from a pelt of an animal
such as a rabbit. The industrial workers were exposed to the mercury vapors, giving rise to the
expression “mad as a hatter.”[1] Some believe that the character the Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll's
Alice in Wonderland is often believed to be an example of someone suffering from erethism, but the
origin of this account is unclear. The character was almost certainly based on Theophilus Carter, an
eccentric furniture dealer who was well known to Carroll.
It is commonly characterized through behavioral changes such as irritability, low self-confidence,
depression, apathy, shyness[3][4] and timidity, and in some extreme cases with prolonged exposure to
mercury vapors, delirium, personality changes and memory loss occur as a result. People with erethism
find it difficult to interact socially with others, with behaviors similar to that of a social phobia.
Although most of the effects of erethism are neurological, some physical problems arise as well,
including a decrease in physical strength, “headaches, general pain, and tremors after exposure to
metallic mercury” as well as irregular heartbeat. It has been documented that “the tremor in the hands
can be so severe that the victim is unable to hold a glass of water without spilling its contents.”
The primary risk factor for erethism is long-term exposure to mercury vapors and gasses at high levels.
One group at risk for mercury poisoning is industrial workers and those exposed to high levels of
mercury residing naturally in the environment. Erethism is not as serious an issue as it was back before
acceptable working condition regulations were enforced. Preventing mercury levels from getting too
high limits the amount available for inhalation.
There is a risk of mercury poisoning in the home in some cases. Exposure to mercury vapor may stem
from cultural and religious reasons where mercury is sprinkled on the floor of a home or car, burned in
a candle, or mixed with perfume. Currently, dental amalgams are the chief source of mercury vapors.
These inexpensive dental fillings contain about 50% mercury, along with other metals such as silver.[6]
The level of exposure is still low enough that the effects of mercury poisoning may be reversed. Even
years ago, the number of victims diagnosed with erethism was very low.
One treatment of mercury poisoning was to admit fresh air to the patient by having him go outside
daily as much as possible. Stimulants such as ammonia has also been documented to help restore pulse
to a normal rhythm. For a more comprehensive treatment of treatment, see Mercury poisoning,
'Treatment' section.
Yielding, faint-hearted, anxious mood.
She screams during increase of moon. θ Somnambulism
Dissipation, hard work, with close confinement, cause obstinate neuralgias, hysterical
attacks or paralysis.
Oversensitive persons imperfectly nourished, not from want of food but from
imperfect assimilation, they are usually constipated and are subject to sudden
neuralgias, erethism and melancholy.
Drowsiness with lassitude and depression.
Discontent.
About himself Affections from egotism. **
** Egotism is the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself and generally features an
inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance — intellectual, physical, social and other.
The egotist has an overwhelming sense of the centrality of the 'Me': of their personal qualities. Egotism
means placing oneself at the core of one's world with no concern for others, including those loved or
considered as "close," in any other terms except those set by the egotist.
Overanxious about himself; low-spirited; weeps every evening.
2 Wishes to drown herself.
Strong desire to be mesmerized.***
***Animal magnetism (French: magnétisme animal; Latin: magnetismus animalis) is a term proposed
by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. The term 'magnetism' was adopted by analogy, referring to some
interpersonal and general effects of reciprocal influence and/or entanglement he observed.[1] Mesmer
attributed such effects to a supposed 'life energy' or 'fluid' or ethereal medium believed to reside in the
bodies of animate beings (i.e., those who breathe). The term is translated from Mesmer's magnétisme
animal. Mesmer chose the word animal to distinguish his supposed vital magnetic force from those
referred to at that time as "mineral magnetism", "cosmic magnetism" and "planetary magnetism". The
theory became the basis of treatment in Europe and the United States that was based on non verbal
elements such as gaze, passes (movements of the hands near the body accompanied by intention of the
operator), and mental elements as will and intention, and that sometimes depended also on "laying on
of hands." It was very popular into the nineteenth century, with a strong cultural impact. From some of
the practices of animal magnetism branched out hypnotism, spiritualism, New Thought, so called
"magnetic healing", and parapsychological research. Some forms of magnetism continue to be
practiced, especially in continental Europe, even today.
Restless sleep: frequent waking with chilliness; dreams crowding one upon another;
starting with trembling of whole body.
Woke at 2 A. M. and could not fall asleep again on account of rush of thoughts.
During sleep: whining and laughing; loud talking; starts, jerking of limbs, snoring;
night sweats; nightmare.
Compunction of conscience about trifles.
He feels the greatest conscientious scruples about trifles; as if he had done a very great
wrong.
In her nightly fancy her head seems to her excessively large.
On his relationship with the other ones Longing for his relations and home.
[Gll.]. - Longing for home.
Dreams: pleasant; lascivious; anxious, of murders, horrid things; vivid of past events;
with violent weeping; of someone choking her.
He awakes in great anguish from dreaming that he is to be murdered; he feels as if he
should suffocate, without being able to speak (aft. 15 d.).
Terrifying dream as if she was about to be throttled (enforcada), she could not scream,
but could only kick with her feet.
Terrifying dream, that he was accused of murder and betrayed.
Terrifying dream, as if he was being drowned.
Terrifying dream; he is being chased.
Dreams about transactions of the day, and about big dogs pursuing him.
Dream, that he had to die.
Evil dreams with violent weeping.
Dream full of cruelty, without anger.
3 [Also Gll.]. - Terrifying dream about snakes (aft. 5 d.).
Dream full of disputes and mortification (aft. 4 d.).
Dreams that somebody seized him by the finger, so that he was frightened.
Anxious dream about robbers, with whom he wrestled, he awakes heated, anxious,
oppressed and in a perspiration.
Dreaming about robbers and murderers, which causes him to wake up and say that he
will likely catch them.
About midnight, he wakes up in great anguish, could not move in spite of all his efforts,
and imagined that thieves were breaking in; on rising he grew calmer, but on lying down
again, his anguish returned (aft. 37 d.). - Repeated awaking, at night, and immediately after going to sleep again, dreams about his
daily employment.
Dreams of occurrences in his youth.
Gr.]. Youthful dream images awakes him from his sleep and float before him so vividly
on awaking that he can only with difficulty tear himself away from them.
[Gr.]. - Vivid dreams about former times.
A half awake dream, as if innumerable spirits wanted to seize him; when he waked up, he
could not move a limb and lay in a sweat with great anguish and palpitation, subsequently
great timidity (aft. 12 d.). Dream after midnight, of a spectre which pursued him (aft. 13 d.). [Gll.]. - When half awake, a nightmare, with great anguish, as if a rough animal weighing
many hundred weight lay upon him, so that he could not move, nor utter a sound. - On his relationship with the environment Complains of pain in throat on swallowing; although there is no indication of any
inflammation, the condition of her throat is the sole thing occupying her mind;
believes she has swallowed pins, and asks those about her whether she has not done
so; seeks for hours for lost pins; will take no sewing into her hand, and carefully
examines her food for fear of pins; very indifferent to friends and former amusements;
restlessness; anxiety; vertigo, < stooping; headache daily, < mornings; loss of
appetite; constipation; emaciation; entire absence of menses; < during increase of
moon. θ Hysteria.
[Gr.]. - Very much inclined to start.
After a fright, there is great anxiety.
Sensitive to noise, which makes him apprehensive.
Sensitiveness to noise and anxiety therefrom.
Loud talking is oppressive to him.
[Gr.]. - Many dreams about distant journeys.
In a sort of somnambulist dream, he vividly sees regions he had never seen before and
far distant, and also objects which he longed for (aft. 8 d.).
4 [Gr.]. - Having waked up about 4 A.M., from dreaming about war, he feels a rheumatic
pressure between the scapulæ, especially on moving the left arm.
Distracted, he is almost always, as to his mind, in two places at a time.
Imagines to be in two places at the same time.
He dreams and raves much during the nights, he rises up and often does not know, when
walking about in the room, where he is.
Sleep full of ravings (delirios); he rises from his bed like a somnambulist.
Sexuality Bruised feeling over whole body, after coition.
Sleeplessness or sleep broken by lascivious or frightening dreams; heat and
congestions.
Male Sexuality Sexual desire increased or decreased.
Sexual desire very weak.
Sexual impulse very weak, and almost extinct (the first 5 w.).
Sexual impulse very weak (the first 3 weeks).
The sexual impulse stronger (aft. 21 d.), with erections.
Painful erections, before rising in morning; frequent violent erections.
Violent erections without sexual desire.
The sexual impulse is very much excited the first three days; night and day, erections
lasting for half an hour, with the testes drawn up.
Strong erections with relaxed scrotum (aft. 5 d.).
Strong erection, by night, with sexual excitement.
Frequent violent erections, by day, without cause (the first days).
Violent erections, with drawing pains in the testes.
The erections develop but slowly (aft. 23 d.).
No erections, not any trace of them (aft. sever. d.).
Sexual erethism*, with spinal or paralytic disease.
After an embrace, sensation on right side of head as if paralyzed with soreness of
limbs.
Lascivious thoughts and dreams; nocturnal emissions, followed by great exhaustion;
prostatitis.
After masturbation seminal emissions twice a week, between 3 and 5 A. M; great
depression of spirits; aching in sacrum; sweat of scrotum; heat in head; burning of
feet with sweat; weakness and heaviness of arms; melancholy; < A. M. and before an
emission; > after an emission.
Frequent and repeated pollutions.
Pollution the first night and then repeatedly
Pollution with heavy dreams, in a married man (1st n.).
5 Lewd thoughts, by day (1st, 2d d.). Lewd thoughts in bed in the morning, with erections (1st, 14th. d.).
Lewd dreams and strong sexual impulses (aft. 13 d.).
Lewd dreams and emission of semen (2d n.).
Lewd dream of practicing coitus, but being disturbed in it, on awaking, erection and
voluptuous fancies (aft. 6 h.).
Lewd thoughts in the evening and in the morning while abed, with erections. [Gr.] Sterility.
Female Sexuality Increased sexual desire, with paralytic or spinal affections.
She feels nauseated during coition. θ Uterine cancer.
Nymphomania due to plethora **** or spinal irritation.
**** (Medicine: a condition caused by dilation of superficial blood vessels, characterized especially
by a reddish face. An excess of blood in the circulatory system or in one organ or area.
[via Medieval Latin from Greek plēthōrē fullness, from plēthein to grow full]
Hemorrhage after abortion, < from least motion, mental or sexual excitement; painful
hemorrhoids and obstinate constipation.
Lewd dream, very repugnant to her.
Intellect Confusion of mind; difficulty in fixing the attention.
[Gll.]. - Great distraction, in the forenoon, with restlessness in the head and in the
scrobiculus cordis.
Becomes confused, makes mistakes; she is unable to control herself.
Unsteadiness and confusion in his actions.
Mental labor is very difficult.
The patient lacks stamina. What Silica is to the stalk of grain in the field, it is
to the human mind. Take the glossy, stiff, outer covering of a stalk of grain and
examine it, and you will realize with what firmness it supports the head of
grain until it ripens; there is a gradual deposit of Silica in it to give it stamina.
So it is with the mind; when the mind needs Silica it is in a state of weakness,
embarrassment, dread, a state of yielding.
If you should listen to the description of this state by a prominent clergyman,
or a lawyer, or a man in the habit of appearing in public with self-confidence,
firmness and fullness of thought and speech, he would tell you he had come to
a state where he dreads to appear in public, he feels his own selfhood so that
he cannot enter into his subject, he dreads it, he fears that he will fail, his mind
will not work, he is worn out by prolonged efforts at mental work.
But he will say that when he forces himself into the harness he can go on with
ease, his usual self-command returns to him and he does well; he does his work
6 with promptness, fullness, and accuracy. The peculiar Silica state is found in
the dread of failure.
If he has any unusual mental task to perform, he fears he will make a failure of
it, yet he does it well. This is the early state; of course there comes a time when
he cannot perform the work with accuracy and still he may need Silica.
Another case is illustrated in a young man who has studied for years and is
now nearing the end of his course. He dreads the final examinations but he
goes through them all right, then a fatigue comes upon him and for years he is
unable to enter his profession. He has this dread of undertaking anything.
Irritable and irascible when aroused; when let alone he is timid, retiring, wants
to shirk everything; mild, gentle tearful women. The Silica child is cross and
cries when spoken to. It is the natural complement and chronic of Puls.
because of its great similarity; it is a deeper, more profound remedy.
Religious melancholy, sadness, irritability, despondency. Lyc. is stupid, the
dread of undertaking anything is from a general knowledge of inability. In
Silica it is imaginary.
Silica is not suitable for the irritability and nervous exhaustion coming on
from business brain-fag, but more for such brain-fag as belongs to professional
men, students, lawyers, clergymen. A lawyer says, "I have never been myself
since that John Doe case". He went through a prolonged effort and sleepless
nights followed. Silica restores the brain.
Reading and writing fatigue, cannot bear to think.
Difficulty in thinking (1st d.).
[FOISSAC.]. - Even from little conversation, his head at once becomes muddled and
there is general exhaustion, so that he has to break off the conversation.
[Gr.]- Mental work becomes difficult to him.
Lack of memory, forgetfulness.
Forgetful and dizzy, every morning.
Apt to use wrong words in speaking.
Muddled state of the head, with a bruised feeling in the body.
She continually feels intoxicated. (embriagada)
Childhood Child becomes obstinate, headstrong; cries when kindly spoken to.
The child becomes self-willed, obstinate and headstrong. The child is slow in learning to walk.
Spasms (probably due to worms) in a child, æt. 1 1/2, within three weeks gradually
increasing in number until there were fifteen attacks daily, and finally paralysis of r.
side.
Child wakes and throws arms about and screams. θ Scarlatina.
Hydrocele; men and scrofulous ***** children.
*****Scrofula is the term used for tuberculosis of the neck, or, more precisely, a cervical tuberculous
lymphadenopathy. Scrofula is usually a result of an infection in the lymph nodes, known as
lymphadenitis and is most often observed in immunocompromised patients (about 50% of cervical
7 tuberculous lymphadenopathy). About 95% of the scrofula cases in adults are caused by
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but only 8% of cases in children. The rest are caused by atypical
mycobacterium (Mycobacterium scrofulaceum) or nontuberculous mycobacterium (NTM). With the
stark decrease of tuberculosis in the second half of the 20th century, scrofula became a very rare
disease. With the appearance of AIDS, however, it has shown a resurgence and presently affects about
5% of severely immunocompromised patients.
(photo: Wikipedia)
The boy is restless at night and screams.
The boy awakes at night, with violent weeping, he does not become conscious, but
laments anxiously, with inarticulate babbling.
8 Synthesis
Too violent motion of fetus.
Aversion to mother's milk; child refuses to nurse, or if it does nurse, it vomits.
Ailments: domination, in children; excessive parental protection.
Aversion to being approached by persons.
Anal fixation******
Anxiety in children
Biting nails, children
Clinging, child clings to the mother.
Crawling, children, nervously.
Confidence, want of self; in school
Dirty: children defecating and urinating everywhere
Disobedience, children, in boys with masturbation.
Fear: dark; contagion, in children; forsaken, in children; strangers;
Feigning sick, children
Flattering, seducing behavior in children.
Foolish behavior in children
Impressionable children
Intelligent children
Mildness, children
Obstinate, children
Play, aversion to
Precocity of children
Proper, too; children
Retardation; mental, children in
Self-control, increased, children
Sensitive children
Timidity: children, towards others
Weeping: children; babies; night child cries piteously if taken hold or carried; when
kindly spoken to.
Yielding disposition
Constipation: children, infants; dentition, during
Diarrhea, children, infants; dentition, during
Anal fixation – added by Farokh Master, Clinical Observations in Children’s
remedies.
******Anal retentiveness
(Redirected from Anal fixation)
The term anal-retentive (also anally retentive), commonly abbreviated to anal,[1] is used
conversationally to describe a person who pays such attention to detail that the obsession becomes an
annoyance to others, potentially to the detriment of the anal-retentive person. The term derives from
Freudian psychoanalysis.
Origins
In Freudian psychology, the anal stage is said to follow the oral stage of infant or early-childhood
development. This is a time when an infant's attention moves from oral stimulation to anal stimulation
(usually the bowels but occasionally the bladder), usually synchronous with learning to control his or
her excretory functions, a time of toilet training. Freud theorized that children who experience conflicts
during this period of time may develop "anal" personality traits, namely those associated with a child's
efforts at excretory control: orderliness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control.[2] Although "anal
9 retentive" survives in common usage, the concept is not taken very seriously by psychoanalysts today.
Chicago psychoanalyst Robert Galatzer-Levy speaks of how this theory of Freud is mostly a product of
its time when indoor plumbing was new and less numerous per household, and families were large,
causing "much more control of defecation than was necessary in a world of chamber pots and
outhouses."[3]
If these qualities continue into later life, the person is said to be "anal-retentive". Conversely, those
who reject anal-retentive characteristics are said to have "anal-expulsive" personality types.
Although Freud's theories on early childhood have been influential on the psychological community,
research suggests that the overall pattern of parental attitudes has a much more concrete effect on how
an infant will grow up. There is no conclusive research linking anal stage conflicts with "anal"
personality types.[4]
*, **, ***, *****, *****, ******Source: Wikipedia
Keith and Rice
Psychosexual Fixations and Personality 2011
Understanding how personality develops - how we become who we end up as - is
one of the ‘holy grails’ of modern Psychology. Since psychologists can’t even agree a
definition of ‘personality’, however, that’s no easy task!
As the aim of Integrated SocioPsychology is to align and integrate the behavioural
sciences, exploring common ground in theories of personality, to arrive both at a
definition of it and an understanding of the forces (both internal and external which
shape the development of personality is a key consideration. One of the most
important theories to consider is that of the great Sigmund Freud.
In his Psychoanalytic Theory Freud argued that fixations can occur in the first 3
psychosexual stages the child develops through. If the child is either frustrated (needs
not met) or overindulged (needs met too much - ie: too easily), some libido (life
force) will get locked in that stage, resulting in fixation. (The libido needs to be spent
in a stage for that stage to be resolved completely. The consequent adult personality
will want to gain some satisfaction from that stage. People can be fixated at any or all
of the stages and fixated to a degree - ie: either from very slightly to very much.
The fixations and their basic effects on personality are depicted in the graphic
below....
10 What is undoubtedly disturbing to the ‘Freud-bashers’ is how much evidence has
accumulated over the years to say that, in broad terms at least, if not always in detail,
Freud’s observations pretty much stand up so many years later.
The text below will present brief descriptions of the fixations and some of the
evidence supporting them conceptually. It will also look at how these Freudian
concepts can be interpreted in terms of Integrated SocioPsychology.
From a sociopsychological perspective, there needs to be some caution in talking
about stages as though they are rigid; it is better to talk about motivational systems in
people (vMEMES) which emerge and dominate the selfplex in such a way as to give
the impression of stages - though the length of stages and just how one stage is
transitioned to another varies from individual to individual and from culture to
culture. For more of an Integrated SocioPsychology perspective on Freud’s
psychosexual stages, see Psychosocial Development.
Oral Fixations
‘Oral receptive’ is brought on by too much nursing whereas ‘oral aggressive is
brought on by not enough nursing and/or by early weaning. Oral receptive people are
often cheerful, unrealistically optimistic and very self-centred yet can’t bear the
disapproval of others. Through the defence mechanism of sublimation, they may
show an interest in languages, be a compulsive talker and be good at ventriloquism.
The language used to describe overly-dependent people may reflect their orality - eg:
‘leech’. Very gullible people may be called ‘suckers’.
‘Oral aggressive’ people are often perceived as greedy and acquisitive, envious,
pessimistic, cynical, sarcastic, scornful and contemptuous.
Orally-fixated people often seek gratification through smoking, thumb-sucking, nailbiting and chewing objects like pens and pencils. A predilection for oral sex is also
seen as an indication of an oral personality.
Support for the concept of the ‘oral personality’ comes from Martin Jacobs et al
(1966) who found smokers were significantly more ‘oral’ than non-smokers. Jacobs et
al used the Rorschach ink blot test - a projective test in which what we say we see in
11 the image is meant to reflect our own personality, motivations and inner conflicts. The
Rorschach Oral Dependency scale (used by Jacobs et al) measures the degree to
which people see food, aggressive and dependency images in the inkblots. (However,
the validity of Rorschach Inkblot tests is a matter of fierce debate. Hans Eysenck's
(1959) criticisms led to disillusionment with it in British psychological circles.)
L J Yarrow (1973) discovered a significant correlation between the amount of time
the infant spent feeding and thumb sucking later in life. Seymour Fisher & Roger
Greenberg (1977) found oral receptive types crave approval and support from
significant others. In contrast Steven Huprich et al (2004) found sexual psychopaths
high in oral aggression. The researchers were attempting to distinguish between sex
murderers, non-sexual psychopaths and non-violent paedophiles in terms of orality.
As predicted sexual psychopaths emerged as significantly higher in oral aggression
while the non-violent paedophiles were higher in oral dependency.
To understand how vMEMES affect development in the Oral Stage, it is helpful to
consider Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development version (Oral-Sensory)
which Erikson portrays as an issue of trust vs mistrust. In a vMEME harmonic,
PURPLE’s need to find safety in belonging is facilitated by having BEIGE needs
met - primarily food from the mother/caregiver. Failure of the mother to meet
needs consistently can lead to the development of an oral aggressive type ie:RED has emerged in a unhealthy form in the selfplex to compensate for
PURPLE’s needs not being met. Having needs met with the baby having to make
little or no effort to get its mother’s attention equates to the BEIGE-PURPLE
harmonic having its needs met too easily - potentially producing the oral receptive
type. Temperament of both the mother/caregiver and the child will have an effect
here - see Caregiver Sensitivity Hypothesis vs Temperament Hypothesis.
The impact of temperament is perhaps better reflected in Paul Kline & R Storey’s
1977 slant on the oral personality, in which they proposed 2 oral types: ‘oral
optimistic’ ( a variation on oral receptive) and ‘oral pessimistic’ (a variation on oral
aggressive). Oral optimistic was characterised as having dependency, liking, fluency,
sociability, liking of novelty and relaxation were clustered together as traits. Oral
pessimistic was characterised as having independence, verbal aggression, envy,
coldness and hostility, malice, ambition and impatience clustered together as traits.
Kline & Storey took their lead from the 1948 work of Freida Goldman-Eisler, on
which they based their 2 oral types. However, Goldman-Eisler only provided
evidence at face validity. Aaron Lazare, Gerald Klerman & David Armor (1966),
though, found similar results in a questionnaire using Goldman-Eisler's items - as did
Kline & Storey in their own investigations. Storey (1980) found a relationship
between these oral characters and smoking, food preferences and nail biting.
While there do indeed seem to be ‘oral personalities’ who either over-trust and are,
therefore, overly dependent, or under-trust and are, therefore, aggressive in overcompensating for lack of trust, relationships between such types and oral activities
such as smoking, nail-biting, thumb-sucking and engaging in oral sex are correlations
only. There is nothing like enough substantive evidence to postulate cause-and-effect.
Anal Fixations
According to Freud, the ‘anal expulsive’ child gets pleasure from defecating whereas
12 the ‘anal retentive’ gains satisfaction from being able to hold it in until it is acceptable
to defecate. Anal retentive types are often described as ‘tight’. Interestingly, many
swear words reference anal-urinary activities - eg: ‘crap’, ‘shit’, ‘piss’, etc.
Anal expulsive types ‘performing’ for others - eg: giving presents, donating to
charity, etc - could be seen as sublimations of the wish to ‘perform on the potty’ for
parents. Sculptors, potters and gardeners can all be said to be sublimating the desire to
smear.
Through the defence mechanism of reaction formation, anal retentive types may
feel compelled to give things away or lose them through gambling or playing on the
stock market.
Freud saw the trials and tribulations of the Anal Stage and the stress of potty training
in particular as leading to the development of the Ego with its brief of restraining the
actvities of the Id to avoid unpleasant consequences - eg: parents chastising the infant
when there is an ‘accident’ which stains the carpet. This drive to conform to external
expectations to avoid unpleasant consequences and the loss of acceptance also
characterises much of the PURPLE vMEME’s activities.
In his version of this stage, Erikson points to the building up of self-esteem through
gaining control of the sphincter and other major muscle groups - thus, feeding the
RED vMEME’s need for esteem.
It is possible to interpret the anal expulsive type as resulting from RED rebelling
against the stress of toilet training while the anal retentive type could be the result of a
premature awakening of BLUE to compensate for the failure to PURPLE to please.
We’re a long way from understanding why difficulties at the Anal Stage could result
in one person becoming expulsive and another retentive - but key factors could
include the memes our parents throw at us - ie: just how important they make it that
the child gets it right. Temperament could also play a part: a more Melancholic type
would seem to have a natural potential to be retentive while a more Choleric type
would be prone to the rebelliousness that characterises the expulsive type.
While anecdotal evidence for apparent anal types abounds - especially retentive,
scientific evidence for the existence of ‘analytic’ mainly consists of correlations of
‘anal traits’ that seem to cluster together. Fisher & Greenberg found the strongest anal
trait pairing was between orderliness and meanness. They also correlated obstinacy
with orderliness and meanness - as did Kline (1972) and Jerrold Pollak (1979) though not quite as strongly, A knock to Freudian theory is that Fisher & Greenberg
could not find a relationship between anal traits and the stress of toilet training. This
could mean that temperament, rather than experience, plays a greater role in the
development of anal personality traits. However, Richard O'Neill, Roger Greenberg
& Seymour Fisher (1992) found that 'toilet humor' correlated with stubbornness,
stinginess, orderliness. (40 women for were assessed for 3 anal characteristics and
enjoyment of toilet humor, using a standard questionnaire.) This, the researchers
claimed, supported the notion of 'anality'.
Rather interestingly, J Maltby & J Price (1999) assessed anality and political
conservatism in 285 students and found a strong tendency for highly anal students to
be politically conservative. Perhaps more disturbingly, Fisher (1978) found that
racial prejudice based on skin colour could be related to participants' attitudes
13 towards cleanliness and thrift. Fisher thought this implied that racial prejudice is the
consequence of an unconscious connection between skin colour and faeces. A better
explanation might be that, since PURPLE and prematurely-emerged BLUE, working
together, may produce characteristics of the anal retentive type, then it should be no
surprise that anal retentive can be linked to racial prejudice since PURPLE not-ofour-tribe discrimination and BLUE’s search for absolute certainties also fuel racism.
The Phallic Fixation
Fixation at the Phallic Stage is often associated with being unable to identify with an
adult - particularly the same sex parent. Fixation at this stage, according to
Psychoanalytic Theory, can result in homosexuality, exhibitionism, impulsiveness,
extreme vanity, authority problems and rejection of appropriate gender roles. People
who appear overly-confident sexually are sometimes referred to as ‘cocky’.
The link with homosexuality centres around the boy having too close a relationship
with the mother, identifying with her rather than his father and, thus, adopting female
behaviours and thinking patterns. However, research has largely failed to support this.
More than 1 in 10 male children in the UK are raised by lone mothers without any
research correlating homosexuality to lack of a male role model. Indeed, research
over the 15-20 years has tended to indicate homosexuality has a strong genetic and/or
biological component - see: Homosexuality: Nature or Nurture?. Interestingly,
though, current thinking does tend to reflect Freud’s contention that we are all
potentially bisexual!
As to other aspects of the phallic fixation, there is a certain logic to Freud’s idea that
you become vain, impulsive and exhibitionistic because, when you masturbate as a
child, you don’t get told enough that you can’t do that so you grow up feeling you can
do anything. Certainly those high on the temperamental dimension of Psychoticism
would express themselves unrestrainedly if not taught through Operant Conditioning
that certain things were not acceptable. However, such an explanation would only
apply to males and to those females with exceptionally high amounts of testosterone
in their systems and it would apply to all impulsive and compulsive behaviours. The
psychoticist explanation cannot be applied to females generally as they don’t have
enough testosterone in their system for such impulsiveness and compulsiveness to be
biologically-based. Social Learning Theory could be implicated here in that we model
the impulsive and compulsive behaviour of others - particularly if the RED vMEME
saw that kind of behaviour as a short-cut to getting what it wants.
While we all know people who would seem to some of the traits said by Freud to be
indicators of a phallic fixation, there is almost no evidence directly linking such traits
to a ‘Phallic Stage’ of development.
Latent Fixations
There are not usually fixations associated with the Latent Stage - probably because
there isn't much going on in terms of psychosexual development. However, there have
been suggestions from some commentators that problems at this stage can result in
difficulty in feeling comfortable with members of the opposite sex, resulting in
avoidance of the opposite sex or conducting sexual activities in an emotionallydetached or even aggressive way.
14 As Freud noted, it is very common for boys and girls to separate themselves from
each other in this stage - a tendency noted by Phil Erwin (1998) as first starting
around 3-4 years of age. However, there is little evidence to relate this separateness to
later problems with the opposite sex and sexual relations.
There can be very serious problems in the Latent stage which can shape the entire
direction of a person’s life, as Erickson notes. However, these are associated with
psychosocial issue rather than psychosexual ones.
Genital Fixation
According to Freud, this is the fixation we all should be aiming for: to be in a state
where we are able to love and be loved - to enjoy and sustain warm and loving sexual
relationships. This, in Integrated SocioPsychology terms, of course, is primarily about
the health of the PURPLE and its capacity for adult attachments.
How well we enter the Genital Stage will be influence by how well we journeyed
through the earlier stages. Unresolved issues at earlier stages can hinder people
shifting focus from their own immediate needs to sharing relationships with others in
the Genital Stage.
In conclusion...
Summing up, we can say that Freud’s great powers of observation have given us some
powerful descriptors of character traits. Quite how these traits develop is still not fully
understood. Integrated SocioPsychology can go a long way in complementing Freud’s
explanations for oral and anal characteristics. Freud’s explanation for phallic types
does not really hold up and we are obliged to look for alternative explanations.
http://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/psychoseuxal_fixations.html
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