A significant step in understanding human development was gained at the end of the 19th century through Sigmund Freud's work on the unconscious and its influence on a person's conscious life. Although some of Freud's theories have since been dismissed, others have been built upon and continue to be used in the early years today - including the belief in the importance of detailed observation of children and gaining close relationships with them.
Freud's theories
Freud and his colleague Josef Bruer began the psychoanalytic tradition as a result of their work with mentally ill adult patients diagnosed as having 'hysteria'. Freud and his team explored ideas about the influence of the human mind, especially the unconscious.
They also realised their patients' symptoms were usually preceded by fear, so Freud developed a therapeutic technique called 'free association', where the patients would be encouraged to talk about whatever came into their minds and give accounts of their dreams. He concluded that their streams of consciousness were meaningful and that they included symbols that could be interpreted, because they were universal.
Freud drew the conclusion that the hysteria was linked to painful experiences in childhood which had been repressed. He suggested these had often been experiences of sexual abuse but changed this conclusion later, proposing that the children had fantasised because of their yearnings for the parent of the opposite sex.
Freud proposed 'libido' as his central idea. Libido is sexual energy and Freud saw it as a life force, aimed at reproduction. He felt that although sexuality in children is different from that in adults, pleasure in being cared for has its origins in libido.
Freud's work was prolific and it is impossible to do justice to the full extent of his theorising here. Other important ideas include his stage theory of psychosexual development in children (the 'oral stage' - birth to around two years, 'anal' - two to four, and the 'phallic' - four to six), said to be especially sensitised at certain ages, with warnings that a person could become fixated at a particular stage, if their needs were not met. His suggestion that the personality comprises three parts - the 'id' (the pleasure-seeking part of the personality), the 'ego' (the rational, realistic aspect), and the 'superego' (the moral 'thought police') - formed further connections with his psychosexual theory.
Post-Freudian research
Others who followed in Freud's tradition include his daughter, Anna, who specifically focused on children. Other post-Freudians who are widely known for contributions to thinking about child development include Erik Erikson and Donald Winnicott.
Erikson accepted Freud's stage theory and built on this, suggesting the process of physical and psychological development begins in the womb and follows innate laws of development, making clear the biological nature of his theory. However, he also recognised that Freud had not taken account of the differences in behaviour attributable to cultural variations. So Erikson proposed that psychosocial crises beset individuals in adjusting to a particular social environment. His ideas influenced thinking about the development of self-esteem and the self- concept.
Even John Bowlby, whose work on 'maternal deprivation' mistakenly created great anxiety and guilt in generations of mothers following the wide publication of Child Care and the Growth of Love in 1953, built on the foundations laid by Freud. Bowlby's 'attachment theory', based on his observations of the grief and despair of young children separated for long periods of time from the adult to whom they had become attached (usually their mothers), concluded that attachment is vital to infants.
He argued that maternal deprivation would have damaging long-term consequences. However, attachment theory was interpreted as indicating negative effects would result for babies whose mothers went out to work and it is claimed to have been used politically when the Government no longer required many women in the workforce.
Subsequent research by psychiatrist Michael Rutter showed how Bowlby's ideas had been taken to extremes. His own work through the past 30 years has drawn attention to the need to treat children sensitively and for research to be used appropriately.
Research
It has been relatively impossible to provide scientific evidence for Freud's theories and one can recognise the influence of the contemporary social and cultural context in which Freud and his colleagues were working for clues about their origins and subsequent amendments. For example, his proposition that girls suffer from penis envy can be countered by several arguments, not least issues related to the positive discrimination in favour of males and male power which would have been prevalent at that time. However, psychoanalysis still has followers who value this approach to mental health. Psychotherapy is widely used in the treatment of children who have experienced trauma.
Current practice
One aspect of the tradition for which we should be grateful is that of close observation of young children. Both nursery pioneer Susan Isaacs and psychotherapists trained by the Tavistock Institute base their observational approaches on the work of the post-Freudians. Isaacs was keen to observe and reflect on young children's fears and jealousies. Judy Shuttleworth, one of the authors representing the Tavistock's methods, argues that psychoanalysis is not an unchanging body of dogma, that the model of the mind portrayed by psychoanalysis is not one of early experience causing later difficulties, rather it is the 'phenomenology of the mind' - the mind's 'experience of itself and the world'.
Freud himself clearly believed problems linked to early trauma were not irreversible and that they could be cured. This corresponds with the ways in which recent research on brain development indicates the plasticity and continuing nature of human development throughout life.
Our theories
Each of us develops our own theories in attempts to make sense of human life and development. The 'grand theories' help us in this. We can 'stand on the shoulders of giants'. For example, Mary Jane Drummond draws on the theory of another post-Freudian, Erich Fromm, in her discussions of early childhood education and children's 'powers to be' at this early phase in their lives, re-emphasising what children are, rather than what we want them to be or where they are in relation to prescribed goals. She adds that young children can be members of a harmonious community to which they can make contributions.
Similarly, I exploit the theories of Freud and the post-Freudians to draw attention to the importance of children's inner lives and meaning-making, and the role of close, loving relationships as the basis for being a competent and emotionally strong learner.