Section 1
Learning and Applying the Theories
Sigmund Freud
Case Study 1

Application Questions

Use Freud’s states of consciousness and stages of psychosexual development to help explain Hank’s behavior by answering the following questions.

1. What personality (or character) type does Hank display according to Freudian theory?
Provide evidence for your answer. At what stage is Hank fixated, according to the Freudian perspective? Find evidence of fixation in the case study. What would have caused this fixation?

Hank displays the oral aggressive personality as evidenced by his sarcasm and argumentative nature. There is evidence of fixation at the oral stage. It includes his chain smoking, continuous eating, and chewing on his …show more content…

Some can become homosexual. Women might become cold, calculating, career women or women who flirt and tease men.

Theory Comparison Questions
1. How could Fromm’s relatedness need explain Steve’s relationships with women? How does this compare with the Freudian explanation?

Fromm’s relatedness need suggests that humans have a drive for union with other humans. This need can be met only through genuine love. Steve is attempting to fulfill this need but will be unable to do so because his relationships with women are not genuine love relationships. Genuine love relationships, according to Fromm include feelings of caring, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

According to the Freudian explanation Steve would be fixated at the phallic stage of development which would have been caused by an unresolved Oedipus Complex.

While both Fromm’s and Freud’s theories can be considered psychodynamic, they differ in that Fromm’s is more humanistic. Fromm also emphasized social and cultural influences on personality more than did Freud, who emphasized more psychosexual influences.

2. How could Horney’s concept of basic anxiety explain Steve’s relationships with women?
Basic anxiety, a feeling of insecurity, according to Horney, develops out of feelings of being unloved. We combat basic anxiety in any number of ways. One way is through withdrawal, which is when someone distances themselves from others by becoming emotionally detached. Although Steve develops sexual