Teresa Durstine
PSYC 250 – DOL 1
Professor Stone
October 28, 2013

Beyond Biography A person’s character and personality will leave a great impression on others. Although some of these impressions are positive ones; however, others may be negative. A person’s childhood will often have a great influence on a person’s personality and character. An individual’s identity will be a reflection of their religious beliefs, ethnic background, gender, as well as their birth order. All of these will aid in the development of their own uniqueness. In a sense, we become a product of our childhood, or our up-bringing. The first theorist is Alfred Alder, he was the younger of two siblings and this made him become competitive. Whereas, his is older brother, Sigmund was very healthy, robust, and full of energy; Alfred suffered from poor health and required extra attention during his childhood. Alfred developed a combative side, and he would often challenge authority. He also strived for superiority over Sigmund. Because his older brother was domineering, competent, and intelligence, Alfred always felt inferior to him. This would cause Alfred to feel like he was the underdog, who was constantly competing against a very powerful foe. All this aided in Alfred developing a fierce rivalry against his brother Sigmund. When Alfred was just five years old, he almost died from pneumonia. Young Alfred went skating with an older boy who abandoned him on the freezing, ice cold skating rink. However, somehow Alfred managed to find his way home, but his body was so cold that he was shivering. Instead, of allowing this illness to overcome him, Alfred became more determined than ever to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. He defeated many obstacles with the strong will and determination that he had developed through this experience. Therefore, overcoming obstacles became a strong personal characteristic for Alfred. Consequently, he could never overcome the rivalry that had developed between him and Sigmund. In addition, Alfred seemed to resent his brothers’ favored position and status within their family. Therefore, Alfred’s lifelong desire for superiority over his brother seemed to be carried over to his relationship with Sigmund Frued. One of the primary reasons of this conflict was due to their personality differences. There seemed to be constant animosity and jealousy between them. Since Alder would challenge authority, and he had different views regarding the theories of psychoanalysis then Frued, he often would question Frued’s approaches. This would upset Frued who was very ambitious and protective of his psychoanalytic theories and concepts, especially to those like Alder who had different views than his own. Another example of their differences is their attitude towards women. Frued could never quite understand them, and he would make the claim that ‘anatomy was destiny.’ Frued assumed since males and females were different anatomically that they had psychological differences as well. Whereas Alfred advocated equality among the sexes, supposing that men and women desired to have the same things since they had the same physiological and psychological needs. Therefore, Alder’s personality seemed to become quite the opposite of Frued’s. From these views, we can see how a child’s upbringing can definitely affect their personality. In the same sense, through Alder’s own theory of Individual Psychology that early childhood recollections are a valid indicator of a person’s style of life, because Alder’s own adult life is a prime example of his childhood memories. The next theorist is Erik Erikson, who spent nearly a lifetime trying to determine his true identity. This caused him to become confused, exhausted, and depressed. Because of a lie his mother told him regarding the identity of his biological father. He always fantasized about who his father really was. Since his mother always tried to be a Dane instead of a Jew, he convinced himself to believe that his father was an artistically gifted Dane. Consequently his Scandinavian features made him to look like an outsider; he just could never seem to fit in. This seemed to create more confusion with his identity, so he became a wanderer. He drifted around trying to become an artist or poet but he was unable to find his niche with either one. He even changed his name from Erik Salomonsen to Erik Homburger Erikson then eventually he just used Erik H. Erikson. Meanwhile, this identity search had become a challenge for Erik his whole life and it seemed as though he was unable to find any peace with it. Because of this, he experienced a challenge during his generative stage which is middle adulthood. According to Erikson’s own opinion of this stage, it requires a person to take care of their own children, and generate new ideas or products. He failed to meet his own standards. This was due to his constant struggle with identity; it created problems with his own parenting skills as well. During his generative stage of life, he failed to properly take care of his youngest son, Neil, who was born with Down’s syndrome. Immediately after his birth, Erik decided to put him in as institution while his wife was still sedated. Afterwards, Erik went home and lied to his other three children by telling them that their little brother had died at birth. By doing this, he failed to realize that he was repeating what his mother had done to him by lying. Eventually, he did confess to his older son Kai but he continued to deceive the other two. Because he did not realize how much distress his mother’s lie had caused him, he failed to understand how much anguish this lie would cause his own children. Through his deceit, Erik failed two of his own main principles of life, “Don’t lie to the people you care for,” and “Don’t put one family member against another.” By telling his oldest son the truth and deceiving his younger two, he did not live what he professed. The development of identity seems to have been one of Erikson’s greatest concerns of his own life as well as in his theory. He also seemed to coin the term ‘identity crisis.’ Lastly, we will look at Sigmund Frued who was very domineering. He had developed a masculine bias due to being raised in Austria during a time of male dominance. Women in the 19th century were regarded as second-class citizens who were only given a few rights or privileges. Women at this time had very little opportunity of ever having a profession, because they were expected to stay home to nurture and care for their husbands and children. Since Frued was the oldest and most favored son, he reigned supreme over his younger siblings who were mostly girls. He would instruct his sisters on what books to read, and refused to allow them to play their piano, since this would distract his studying time. Furthermore, because he was the favorite son his parents allowed him to rule the home. Consequently, due to his own upbringing, Frued often looked down on women. He did not think of them as being equal to men. Often, he would refer to women as being the ‘tender sex.’ He became attracted to women who carried the same feminine, domestic traits of his mother. When he fell in love with Martha, he would address her as ‘my little girl,’ ‘my little woman,’ or ‘princess.’ After they married, she did take on the same feminine roles like his mother. Martha stayed home to provide care and nurture to their children and she took care of all the household chores and duties. Additionally, she stayed out of his business. However, when others would criticize him because of his feministic views, he would respond by becoming sterner regarding them. He would refer to women as being the “dark continent for psychology.” He would tell his colleagues that if they wanted to learn more about women to review their own involvements with them or just ask the poets. Their questions only made Frued became more ambivalent towards women. Consequently as a result of Frued’s upbringing, his masculine bias, and his lack of understanding of the female’s psyche, his personality theory is oriented mainly toward males. Frued insisted that the psychological differences between males and females were due to their anatomical differences. Near the end of his life, he continued to ask the same question, “What do women want?”

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