In humans the task of forming an identity is not solely determined by our natural instincts. As we acquire consciousness of our separate selves we make judgements and take actions in response to our interpretation of the world as we find it.
In the first phase we interpret the world through our lips and the ease or difficulty we experience in finding food. The second phase is where we sense our environment through the skin.
The third phase is called the anal primacy when we identify with what we produce. Again this can go one of two ways. Either the infant is pleased with the process of potty training and identifies positively with what has been produced or splits off from the object produced if the experience is made anxious and displeasing.
To quote George Frankl:
€If love and trust towards the mother is well established, the child will offer his product to her as a very intimate and precious part of himself. He will expect her to be pleased with his gift offering€.
However this phase is a difficult one to navigate because we have built up many cultural taboos around defaecation. Unlike our Ape ancestors who were vegetarian our faeces are poisonous so fascination with the product has to be tempered with caution.
Psychologists argue that we must necessarily displace the interest in exploring the product into playing with other substances €" especially mud and sand. This is the stage that infants begin learning about the differences between good and bad external entities. The aesthetic interest in playing with mud and smelling earthy things plays a part in the development of sculpture and painting. Plasticine and putty hold endless fascination for kids as they explore their capacity to create.
Slowly children are migrated to cleaner objects of exploration such as sand and building blocks. Collecting and heaping blocks or stones into piles are positive ways in which the child can develop the creative function and feel good about self and environment.
In this phase children go on to learn €quantification€ by collecting, counting, comparing, weighing and measuring different things. From one and a half to two and a half children learn to apply rules to objects to determine what is good and safe and what isn't. These rules reflect parental anxieties about the world around us. This discriminatory function underpins our conception of number, value and trade. Children exhibit an early fascination with collection and basic exchange.
If the process goes well the child gains pleasure and self affirmation in presenting its creation back to the mother but a range of problems emerge if this phase goes wrong.
If the relationship with the mother is not warm and loving the child will tense the stomach and anal muscles to prevent a joyful and giving creative act.
€This trait leads to a marked acquisitiveness, to hoarding, to compulsive saving and often a relentless pursuit of material possessions and wealth€. I am becomes what I retain. This in turn generates the anxiety that everything and therefore identity itself might be taken away.
Anal retention is a form of active punishment of the denying mother. Nietzsche called people who develop this tendency €guilt makers€ as they take pleasure in making others feel unwanted or despised as they were once made to feel.
If a child has been met with reactions of disgust when showing interest in its faeces the child itself can be made to feel dirty, disgusting and unacceptable. He splits off his sense of attachment to the product and it then appears to have an independent life. The character splits into a dirty and a clean self. The dirty self is unacceptable so is contained and projected onto others €" the clean and the unclean. Splitting creates the basis for paranoia, phobias and free floating anxiety because the two personalities are nearly impossible to integrate within a balanced sense of self. Racism can be traced to this splitting function as can obsessive cleansing and ritual as a counter to the invasive force of something dirty €" the part of us that represses the urge to punish the denying parent.
The attempts to deal with disturbances in the anal phase lead to serious distortions in the adult personality beyond ambition and obsessive hoarding or cleansing. The sense of hopelessness associated with the shame of rejection leads to depression and manic over-compensation. Exhibitionism is temporary relief from the fear of not being acknowledged or even of having no right to be visible.
Frankl writes about problems resulting from this phase:
€A constant battle between pride and shame, superiority and inferiority will dominate their personalities and bedevil their personal relationships. While many will develop high aesthetic expectations and obsessive perfectionism, they will be forever plagued by doubts about their ability to fulfil these expectations. A self defeating compulsion will dominate their lives€.
In the first phase we interpret the world through our lips and the ease or difficulty we experience in finding food. The second phase is where we sense our environment through the skin.
The third phase is called the anal primacy when we identify with what we produce. Again this can go one of two ways. Either the infant is pleased with the process of potty training and identifies positively with what has been produced or splits off from the object produced if the experience is made anxious and displeasing.
To quote George Frankl:
€If love and trust towards the mother is well established, the child will offer his product to her as a very intimate and precious part of himself. He will expect her to be pleased with his gift offering€.
However this phase is a difficult one to navigate because we have built up many cultural taboos around defaecation. Unlike our Ape ancestors who were vegetarian our faeces are poisonous so fascination with the product has to be tempered with caution.
Psychologists argue that we must necessarily displace the interest in exploring the product into playing with other substances €" especially mud and sand. This is the stage that infants begin learning about the differences between good and bad external entities. The aesthetic interest in playing with mud and smelling earthy things plays a part in the development of sculpture and painting. Plasticine and putty hold endless fascination for kids as they explore their capacity to create.
Slowly children are migrated to cleaner objects of exploration such as sand and building blocks. Collecting and heaping blocks or stones into piles are positive ways in which the child can develop the creative function and feel good about self and environment.
In this phase children go on to learn €quantification€ by collecting, counting, comparing, weighing and measuring different things. From one and a half to two and a half children learn to apply rules to objects to determine what is good and safe and what isn't. These rules reflect parental anxieties about the world around us. This discriminatory function underpins our conception of number, value and trade. Children exhibit an early fascination with collection and basic exchange.
If the process goes well the child gains pleasure and self affirmation in presenting its creation back to the mother but a range of problems emerge if this phase goes wrong.
If the relationship with the mother is not warm and loving the child will tense the stomach and anal muscles to prevent a joyful and giving creative act.
€This trait leads to a marked acquisitiveness, to hoarding, to compulsive saving and often a relentless pursuit of material possessions and wealth€. I am becomes what I retain. This in turn generates the anxiety that everything and therefore identity itself might be taken away.
Anal retention is a form of active punishment of the denying mother. Nietzsche called people who develop this tendency €guilt makers€ as they take pleasure in making others feel unwanted or despised as they were once made to feel.
If a child has been met with reactions of disgust when showing interest in its faeces the child itself can be made to feel dirty, disgusting and unacceptable. He splits off his sense of attachment to the product and it then appears to have an independent life. The character splits into a dirty and a clean self. The dirty self is unacceptable so is contained and projected onto others €" the clean and the unclean. Splitting creates the basis for paranoia, phobias and free floating anxiety because the two personalities are nearly impossible to integrate within a balanced sense of self. Racism can be traced to this splitting function as can obsessive cleansing and ritual as a counter to the invasive force of something dirty €" the part of us that represses the urge to punish the denying parent.
The attempts to deal with disturbances in the anal phase lead to serious distortions in the adult personality beyond ambition and obsessive hoarding or cleansing. The sense of hopelessness associated with the shame of rejection leads to depression and manic over-compensation. Exhibitionism is temporary relief from the fear of not being acknowledged or even of having no right to be visible.
Frankl writes about problems resulting from this phase:
€A constant battle between pride and shame, superiority and inferiority will dominate their personalities and bedevil their personal relationships. While many will develop high aesthetic expectations and obsessive perfectionism, they will be forever plagued by doubts about their ability to fulfil these expectations. A self defeating compulsion will dominate their lives€.