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Introduction

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who was born in 1856 (Jay, 2020) . Freud
derived his inspiration from hypnotherapy. He explained the unconscious causes of mental
illnesses by studying psychoanalysis, the mind’s structure, psychosexual states, and dream
interpretations. Even though Freud was very influential, many of his theories have gone under
severe scrutiny. For instance, “his stance on infants being sexual beings has been widely
criticized. However, it has helped spark other theories from psychologists such as Alfred Adler,
Erik Erickson, and Melanie Klein” (Cervone & Pervin, 2016) . Likewise, Freud’s theory of
psychosexual development suggested that childhood experiences impact adults’ personality and
behavior. It is the idea that parents control their child’s aggressive and sexual drives during the
first few years of life to promote proper development (Freud, 1905) .

Inborn Motives and Instincts or Products of One’s Environment
Children are products of their environment. There have been prejudiced and racial biases
in our present social climate, which has caused protests and social clamor among numerous
Americans. Even though our nation abolished slavery and integrated communities, racists
undertones continue. Despite the change, racially-biased principles persist across America and
frequently present themselves in the form of what many refer to as “white privilege.” White
privilege is the inalienable advantages controlled by a white person centered solely on their race
in society and characterized by racial inequality and injustice. Dr. Mahzarin Banaji, a
psychologist, racism, and physical prejudice expert from Harvard University, found that children
as young as three years old have learned discriminatory and racial behavior (Burnett III, 2012) .
Pahike and associates (2012) discovered that children whose parents have more diverse friends
show decreased racial bias than children whose parents have less varied friends. Likewise, Bar-

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Haim, Ziv, Lamy, Hodes (2016) stated that children who experience childhood in a multi-racial
climate versus a mono-racial climate displayed race-based response differences as early as three
months of age. This suggests that children may learn race preferences from their environment.
Freud believed that personality developed during five psychosexual stages marked by a
conflict that could help build or stifle development dependent upon the conflict resolution
(Freud, 1905) . This would propose that throughout the onslaught of personality development
during Freud’s Oral Stage, it is crucial for parents to expose their child to diversity to make sure
they are balanced and unprejudiced.

Major Assumptions

Freud’s psychosexual developmental theory suggested that children are submissive
beings who are influenced by their experiences. He also thought that parents played a substantial
role in managing their child’s aggressive and sexual drives throughout their first few years of life
and noted that obsessions during any of the three stages might cause an unbalanced personality.
Additionally, Freud suggested that the relationship between the child and parent was accountable
for everything from the child’s mental status to behavior (Cervone & Pervin, 2016) . Likewise,
many of Freud’s theories indicated that the environment and the role the parent plays in that
environment not only influence but also cause the child’s behavior and/or ailments (Freud,
1905) . For example, the development of the superego took place when parental interactions with
the child encouraged society conformity, oral fixation produced a narcissistic personality, and a
rigid personality was the cause of anal fixation.
When analyzing the racial bias example mentioned above, children who were either not
subjected to diversity or grew up in a household where the discussion of race was averted were
found to demonstrate a preference for their own race over others (Pahike et al., 2012). As a

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result, racial bias was detected, and it could be argued that it was a foundation for racial issues,
and racial bias was detected and could be argued as the foundation for racial issues.

Children and Adolescent Classification

Freud believed that parental figures were the main driving force in their child’s
development and hypothesized that psychopathy development was dependent on individual
failures, experiences, and/or fixations (Freud, 1905) . He also believed that conflict resolution
was fundamental in stage progression and transpired between the unconscious and conscious
mind (Freud, 1905) . The absence of parental guidance throughout any of the stages of
development may result in the lack of progression to the following stage or decreased motivation
to advance. Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) is a disruptive childhood disorder that consists
of a persistent pattern of defiant or disobedient behavior, irritable mood, and negative or hostile
behavior that is frequently shown towards adults and authority figures (American Academy of
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019). In order to be diagnosed with ODD, there must be a
pattern of hostile and defiant behavior present for a minimum of six months. In addition, a
minimum of four specific characteristics must be present. For example, losing their temper,
being argumentative with adults, often angry and/or resentful, or vindictive (American Academy
of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019) . Inspired by Freud’s theory, the parents would be
accountable for the behaviors of a child with ODD, and the symptoms of the behavior would be
caused by oral, anal, and/or phallic fixations.
There have been many criticisms of Freud’s theories. The most common critic is that
there is a lack of validated evidence, and it is hard to prove scientifically. For example, in
Freud’s psychosexual theory, the stages are centered on child development; however, he applied
his theory research to adults and never worked with children. Another critic regarding this theory

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is that he “focused mainly on male development with little mention of female psychosexual
development” (Stuart, 2019). There have also been allegations that Freud just utilized
information that validated or supported his theories while ignoring others. However, “research
has found that Freud’s theories need to be assessed based on the specific hypothesis instead of
the theory as a whole. Additionally, evidence supports many of Freud’s concepts on oral and
anal personalities” (Fisher & Greenberg, 1996).

Ethical Implications

It is vital for mental health professionals to ensure that proper ethics are Mental health
professionals are tasked with making sure that ethics are being followed when interacting with a
client or potential client. Most of Freud’s work included children. Some ethical implications seen
in working with children are their age and level of comprehension. Informed consent is
mandatory before any assessments, research, or treatment can begin. Coffman and Barnett
(2015) add that federal and state regulations of mental health professionals and the APA Code of
Ethics have made informed consent a standardized practice (Coffman & Barnett, 2015) .
Informed consent involves gaining permission for the client and the parent or guardian when the
client is under the age of eighteen (American Psychological Association, 2017) . During this
process, the professional will discuss information concerning the potential risks, benefits,
treatment options, and alternative options before moving forward with health services. Because
children and adolescents cannot legally consent, the parent or guardian is held accountable for
the child’s treatment plan.

References

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Oppositional Defiant Disorder (2019). American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Retrieved from
https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Resource_Centers/Oppositional_De
fiant_Disorder_Resource_Center/Home.aspx
Bar-Haim, Y., Ziv, T., Lamy, D., & Hodes, R. M. (2006). Nature and Nurture in Own-Race Face
Processing. Psychological Science, 159-163.
Burnett III, J. H. (2012, June 10). Racism learned: New research suggests prejudices may form at
a much earlier age, but it also offers hope that biases can be unlearned. Boston Globe.
Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. (2016). Personality. Theory and Research. Hoboken: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
Coffman, C., & Barnett, J. (2015). Informed consent with children and adolescents. Retrieved
from Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy:
http://www.societyforpsychotherapy.org/informed-consent-with-children-and-adolescents
Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2017) American Psychological
Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.
Fisher, S., & Greenberg, R. P. (1996). Freud scientifically reappraised: Testing the theories and
therapy. New York: Wiley.
Freud, S. (1905). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Standard Edition, 123-246.
Jay, M. E. (2020, May 4). Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from Encyclopedia Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud
Pahike, E., Gigler, R., & Suizzo, M. (2012). Relations Between Colorblind Socialization and
Children’s Racial Bias: Evidence From European American Mothers and Their Preschool
Children. Society for Research in Child Development, 1164-1179.

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Stuart, A. (2019) The problems with Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Predict. Retrieved
from https://medium.com/predict/the-problems-with-sigmund-freuds-psychoanalytic-
theory-c830bb119807