Benjamin Franklin

David Duron

AP Psychology 5th Hour
Mr. Compton
April 12, 2013

Benjamin Franklin was a very astonishing man who accomplished many things not only for America as a politician and Founding Father, but for all of humanity. Our father of electricity is known and remembered for many things, poet, for being and inventor, a mediator, and probably best known for flying a kite with a key tied on during a lightning storm. Franklin was the son of a Bostonian soap boiler, born on January 17, 1706 the eighth child of ten. His parents were Josiah Franklin, and Abiah Folger Franklin. Abiah franklin was the second wife of Josiah and raised his late wife’s eight, and her own ten children, eighteen total Franklin children. Abiah was born in Nantucket Massachusetts and raised as a Puritan, which had influence on young Benjamin. Not to a lot of other extended information is known about his mother (NSDAR). His father Josiah was born in England in 1657 and migrated to Boston for more religious freedom. Again not too much information is known about his father as well. Josiah had a very influential role in Benjamin’s life. The most noted is that he encouraged all of his children to pursue an honest and worthwhile trade after attaining an education. He was certain that Benjamin was going to be a minister but could only afford two years of schooling (Shmoop). Placed at the Boston Latin School, these two short years made him ten and gave him a heightened need for reading, so much so that he basically taught himself a basic education solely form borrowed books. After his formal schooling, he went to his fathers show where he had dipped candles, this dull and boring work merely inspired him to his the books even harder. Ben had some thoughts that he conveyed to his father of going to the sea and beginning a trade there like on of his older brothers had done which, did not abide by his father. Instead, he sent him to his older brother James who was a proud owner of a printing shop. His brother was a very stern boss and treated Ben not so justly for the quality of work that he brought forth. His new apprenticeship exposed him to many new things that could be read and more importantly, newly learned. He took a liking to his printing and pleaded with his brother to publish some of his books which, was met with an immediate not from his brother James. Benjamin adopted the name and alias of Mrs. Silence Dogood and wrote the sum of fourteen letters to his brother’s newspaper. These witty and astute letters were praised by his ignorant brother and by his newspapers readers alike. Being fed up with his brother, he gave up his apprenticeship and ran away to New York state and then settled in Philadelphia where he would for the rest of his life have a home. He left on a ship by telling the captain that he had gotten a girl in trouble and had to leave the city discretely. Upon arrival to his new city, with no friends, no food in his stomach, and with very little money, he ran into Deborah Read who laughed when she was the exhausted Ben and brought him into a tavern for Quakers. Unfamiliar with their silent form of prayer, promptly fell asleep in the tavern. Then, drawing on his skills and a printer and writer in his brothers shop, he quickly found a job in another printing shop. After settling down in Philadelphia, he wrote a letter to his parents explaining where he was and why he ran away from his brother. The letter somehow managed to be read by Pennsylvania’s governor Sir. William Keith who was so impressed by the style and format of the letter that he aided him in being an independent writer and printer. After his notice form the governor, he told Benjamin to go to England to make connection and to learn but on arrival, he found out that the promises of the governor were not kept and had no money and no means to get home. So he did the only thing he knew how to do which was to work at a printing shop and earn enough money to go back home. He spent two years in England learning that culture and as much as he could before leaving again for Philadelphia. On his voyage back he wrote life goals and summed them up in twelve simple words which were: Temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility (Franklin). After establishing himself again in Philadelphia as a striving entrepreneur, we went to court the Deborah Read who had rejected him once on his leave for England. She then accepted Benjamin as his husband where they adopted his illegitimate child William and then had two more with Deborah but sadly the youngest, Francis, died at the age of six. His prominence in Philadelphia flourished where he found needs and created measures of feeding these needs and supporting them. He created the first hospital in Philadelphia along with a police force and fire brigade. Also with these monuments improvements, he had a keen eye for personal economic growth by setting up other printing shops in almost every major city in the thirteen colonies. Franklin went on to invent many new things that he refused to patent because of his deeply held belief of benefiting all of mankind. The most noted inventions were the Franklin stove and the lighting rod. He then wrote the standing book on electric theory were he wrote down all the laws and knowledge he gained form his experimentation. His most prominent electrically related experiment was the one where he harnessed the power of a lightning storm proving that lightning is the same electrical shock as the ones you get when you dry cloths. This discovery made him a well-known scientist and inventor on two continents and his fame only grew from there. About to retire, Ben Franklin took a diplomatic trip to England in attempts to dissolve land tax disputes. It was intended to be a very short trip but his love for the country made his return in no such haste; he spent seven years there writing to his wife asking for a few months to stay at a time. He promised to return as soon as a could when he did finally leave only to return a few years later on the account that he was summoned to a hearing of a political competitor he defamed. It is said that he was personally ridiculed and teased which made him cold towards the English from then onward. During his preparations on leave, he had received news that his wife Deborah had died shortly after he asked her to visit him in London. He returned to his city of Philadelphia preparing for a revolution against the British who only weeks before fought the first of Americas rat-taf army at Lexington and Concord. Before, Franklin was reluctant to take up arms against the English. Only after authorities issued a warrant for his arrest did he found cause and certain reason to support the rebellion. Being to old to actually fight in the battles, the best thing and the most famed thing Franklin ever did was to serve in the continental congress. He was on of only a few men who drafted the Declaration of Independence and helped Thomas Jefferson as he edited his first draft of the constitution, which he added the words “…We hold these trues to be self evident.” and then along with fifty-six other men signed it off to King George. From the beginning of the war is was obvious that America needed aide from France who wanted to stand up to England but had no assertive allies that would do so. The continental congress asked no other than Ben Franklin to plead with the French to send supplies and men to fuel their revolution of the tyranny of England. It is noted that him and his some William, who is now the staunch loyalist governor of New Jersey, had quarrel with his father over the issue of this rebellion. Franklin now in full support of his country and this revolution, unbefriended many of his English friends, some of which he had been friends with since when he first landing to England. Franklin arriving in France, found them eager but cautious to not start a long drawn out war against the English to whom they would surely loose but they could also not afford to loose one of their most important allies. They were both in agreement and devised a plan for American ships to pseudo-capture French vessels with supplies of the war type as to not tip the English of the French aid. While in France, Franklin found himself to be somewhat celebrity. He was invited to many balls, and dinner parties where he could have a laugh and flirt with as many women as he wanted. It can be said that Benjamin found his hub. When John Addams joined Franklin in France on the delegations, he noticed that he was praised by the lowliest of the poor to the King and Queen himself. To Addams surprise, women of all ages sometimes literally threw themselves to Benjamin. Both John Addams and Benjamin Franklin were in France when they received word of the American victory in York Town. This ultimately set the ball rolling for full French involvement. Him and two other men now made it their project to create grounds for a peace treaty with England which was then signed if France. At the age of seventy-nine, he was granted by the newly found order of the America Government to return home to a new nation. When returning to America, Franklin was asked to represent Pennsylvania in the new Congress, which he did. Soon after this though, he would be left to his sick bed where he died on April 17 1790. He wrote his own epitaph when he was Twenty, which still is plated at his site, says: The body of B. Franklin, Printer. Like the Cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stript of its lettering and gilding lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in the new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author. From a very Freudian, Psychoanalytic approach, Benjamin Franklin was a very troubled man because of his not so guided youth. He had in his early life an all around sense of neglect from his mother and father because there were in all eighteen kids. His father was not very accepting of his sons ideas for independence with his entrepreneurial endeavors. Him being frustrated with his parents most likely led him to do things to vent his frustration, which everyone does differently. He obviously turned away from his fathers boring and unfulfilling job at the candle making shop and took to books and started teaching himself how to do things and to be a literary genius. Then after that he was sent to his older brother James’s printing shop because his he told his father he would go to work on a boat that would go out to see like one of his other brothers. At the time working on an oceanic vessel was considered to be dangerous, unhygienic, and labor intensive job that is a big red flag. It stands out as the first major sign of his troubled self because he was a learnit boy and would never in his right mindset go off to voluntarily take up a job like that. He loved books not the sea. His abusive brother, who did not take Benjamin’s ideas lightly or at all, caused the end of his apprenticeship. He then instead of telling someone that he was going away he just up and ran away. Form a Psychoanalytic point of view this was his ID, the unconscious part of the mind working without logic because of Eros instinct started to take over (Hillyer). His later in life endeavor consisted of he fooling around with many prostitutes and loose going women in England, which gave him a son, William. This behavior of built up sexual tension would persist throughout his life, even during his marriage he would constantly flirt with other women. This fraternizations would only occur when he was out of the thirteen colonies, away from his wife and family. On the voyage back from England one time he came to realization with his moral and sexual mishaps and wrote twelve Virtues on being a man, which some directly dealt with his subliminal issues. From a strictly Humanistic point of view, Ben franklin was not always a very self-motivated and had a very high self-esteem. He was able to accomplish an almost self-therapeutic method that wounded him somewhat because his goals that he made were never fully accomplished. Another reason why Benjamin Franklin failed to reach his full potential was because he failed to take the spotlight off of himself. Most politicians and large public figures throughout time were not successful because of this. He also participated in very few deep relationships. He was, when he was away from his wife and children, flirting and fraternizing with other women and seeking company with other esteemed gests. His love for the spotlight was so insatiable that he would stay in England for ten years, so long as he was in the view of people that admired him, he did not care for anything else not even his family. His constant seeking for outside approval would almost define him. In on situation in France, he was a guest at a small dinner party where he was the active center of attention and a young Frenchman misspoke and called him a Quaker. Being familiar with the Quaker belief system, he played himself off as being a Quaker just to receive this small amount of approval the young man found enjoyable. Once when summoned to England for a hearing of one of his political rivals, he was publically mocked and laughed at by the men of the court and parliament. This was the actual moment where he would turn from the British from being a self-declared Brittan to an American Revolutionary. When ever he does not meet the approval of others, he immediately falls into a deep scene of depression that the only way to bring him out would be to make another gesture of seeking outer acceptance.

Treatment from a Psychoanalytic psychologist would be for him to undergo and continue lengthy therapy sessions that would be analyzed by the psychologist himself. They would probe his mind by asking specific questions about his life experiences, specifically about childhood and parents. Questions like what was your relationship with your father and mother? Benjamin Franklin’s response was that he felt like they had and made no time for him personally and that often his father would not be supportive of his ideas and endeavors. Then being the owner of the session, I would ask him more vague questions about his father like what was your father like? Or what did he mean to you? These questions would provoke free association. This free association would make Benjamin Franklin regress, or return to a more child like mind set to which he would be more open and genuine. This bond between analyst and patient would bring a greater sense of openness and would make it easier for the analyst to detect patterns in Benjamin’s life to the point where he would offer solutions. This would most likely help Benjamin Franklin because of his more than troubled youth and this approach is the only one that deals with childhood to this extent. Helping him this way would help him with his problems with running away or wanting to leave unwanted situations because he would learn how he is misinterpreting how he perceives other people in his life. Through this new perception of how he sees people he can better establish lasting relationships and maybe reconcile a few like the one with his own son. Benjamin Franklin was known for his constant need to better himself and to always make new connections. This sense of autonomy was caused by his perpetual fear of being lethargic and non-progressive. This could be viewed as a good thing because he was producing many inventions and ideas that proved very useful to a lot of people at an astonishing rate. Though this was not the case for him (Farlex). Every waking moment he was not bettering himself he would worry about what possibilities could be had. This anxiety could be simple fixed by prescribing a drug like Xanax would be most beneficial to his state of mind in his down time while he was not partaking in education or any other form of progression. As a matter of fact, this drug would make his down time more enjoyable and relaxing that he would be able to spend a greater time on his projects with more clarity and focus. This would then make Benjamin able to exceed his previous state of mind and proliferate his ability to get things done. A Humanistic point of view would mainly offer a treatment of therapy that would be all encouraging and accepting, making Benjamin feel more self accepting and help him find purpose. This construction of Franklin’s self-image would make him break from the constant need of being accepted by others and changing himself for the amusement of others. An analyst would do two forms of therapy, put him in a group session, which would be beneficial for him because he would be able to reflect on his own self and compare to others how he is different and unique and a client-centered which would give him one on one direction on how to look towards the future and focus on the now instead of the past (CRC). This one on one session would be beneficial also because he would be guided to break from his self-centeredness and focus more on his works that can be helpful top others and not only himself. Taking this approach would make him more accepting of himself and his accomplishments making him more productive because he would seek other people approval of these accomplishments a noticeable lesser amount or completely. This will also give Ben Franklin a wider choice possibility because he would be able to choose his passions more freely. The instances where he would fall into a deep depression when he would not meet the approval of others could be fixed by taking a drug would alleviate his depression. Taking the drug Prozac would make him being able to handle his rejection and most certain criticism from political rivals and competing scientists. This could be a borderline behavioral therapy also because removing the side affect of depression because he had failed to meet the approval of others, he would be conditioned to stop this behavior because he would have no reason to continue it. This form of negative reinforcement would condition him to stop because after his ideas or some of his behaviors are rejected by his peers, competitors, and spectators, he would not become depressed anymore because of the drug and would up and stop seeking the attention and approval of others and merely grow neutral.

Work Cited

A+E Television Networks, LLC. "Benjamin Franklin Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, Oct. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

"Benjamin Franklin - Full Episode | Tv-pg." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Farlex. "Psychoanalysis." PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT. Farlex, 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Franklin, Benjamin. "Benjamin Franklin's Epitaphs." Benjamin Franklin's Epitaphs. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Franklin, Benjamin. "The Virtuous Life: Wrap Up." The Art of Manliness RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

NSDAR. "Abiah-franklin." Abiah-franklin. NSDAR, 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

Hillyer. "The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality." The Psychoanalytic Approach to Personality. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

Shmoop University, Inc. "Josiah Franklin." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.