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Interpretive Questions on Freud and Malinowski
   

1. Sigmund Freud, section II and III, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

Stephanie K. Dalquist
-What "sexual imulses are already present in the new-born child?" He makes an argument for breast-feeding, and thumb-sucking... Doesn't much of what he qualifies as auto-eroticism simply involve exploring the body? (p42)
-Why will thumbsuckers turn into drinkers and smokers only if they're men (p48). Were women *still* largely ignored in this age, or is there some Freudian erotic connotation he's assigning to these actions? Does Freud consider "pubertal recession" (p87) of females a given, or are there other (even infrequent) results of this not occurring?

Adam Smith
-Freud mentions the concept of sublimation, or the redirection of sexual drive for other purposes. He then goes on to describe the stages of infant sexuality. Is sucking or anal fixation this redirectment or do children gain some of their ability from a lack of sexual relief? Is this different from adults?

Hilarie Claire Tomasiewicz
-(chap. II) "Cruelty is intimately related to the childish character, since the inhibition which restrains the mastery impulse before it causes pain to others - that is, the capacity for sympathy - develops comparatively late." How late? Late enough that a jury should foremost attribute an act of violence/murder by a 9 yr old as a failure to restrain/understand his "mastery impulse?"
-(chap. III) Freud states, "The sexual instinct of childhood is objectless or autoerotic." Then goes on to say, "When a once healthy person falls sick after an unhappy love affair, the mechanism of the disease can be distinctly explained as a return of his libido to the persons preferred in his infancy." Sexually preferred in infancy? Doesn't this contradict his theory of infant autoeroticism? When exactly, then, does Freud believe infants defy being labeled as autoerotic beings? The reading never makes this clear.

David Spitz
-Freud offers a useful corrective to those would overlook child sexuality, but are there any aspects to children's culture that are not sexual in nature? Conversely, in deeming almost everything sexually driven, does Freud not deny the more explicit forms of child sexuality? More realistically, what might we say distinguishes "sex play" from mere "muscular activity"?

Char DeCroos
-Freud states that perversion is like a negative to a neurosis, and goes on to imply that symptoms of pervsion stem from a neurosis. If this is true, why is so much of our culture's efforts focused upon the symptoms of perversion instead of the actual neurosis? Personally I think it's because for the majority excess perversion leads to the neurosis and not the other way around.

Max Bajracharya
-Is the tension created by the pleasure of fore-pleasure really consistent with an evolutionary model? How does something pleasurable create tension that then creates even more pleasure?

Mike Ananny
-Freud says that "the sexuality of little girls is of a wholly masculine character", that "libido is masculine in nature" and only in puberty does Freud acknowledge a difference between men's and women's sexuality. Is this an omission/error due to his extreme focus on male sexuality (penis envy, etc.; i.e. his theory only supports making statements about male sexuality so he simplifies and omits female sexuality from his discussion) or is he really arguing for a unified, gender-neutral development of sexuality?

Walter Dan Stiehl
-How much weight does Freud really hold in light of the fact that his studies were conducted on primarily white, cultured children of Europe? It seems that such an approach to characterize all children from a distinct group is dangerous.

Jeannie R. Ben-Hain
- Freud claims that "the child's sexual impulses towards his parents, which are as a rule differentiated owing to the attraction of the opposite sex"? Isn't this assuming way too much? On the one hand, he claims that "higher animals" can be bisexual, but that the 'natural' tendency is heterosexual sex. Isn't the only reason this is so natural because of the society we are raised in?

Carlos Cantu
-I guess I'm still caught up with the whole "normal aim" thing but to say suggest that any sexual activity other than coitus is considered to be perverted just makes no sense to me. But, I was especially drawn to the mental resistances such as shame, disgust and so on and how they help restrain the sexual instinct to its normal expressions especially in how this train of though differs so much from Malinowski's. With such little bearing on any other family structure (apart from the mom, dad, kid model) how exactly did he earn any validity?

Anindita Basu
-Why is sex considered to be such a bad thing that childhood must be conceived of as asexual and therefore innocent? How do his notions of childhood as sexual relate to child pornography? Does the idea of "penis envy" have anything to do with women wanting to take on male roles because they have more freedom and power? How prominent were alternative lifestyles in the early 1900s? Is freud claiming that sexual activity is only acceptable when it leads to penetration?

Girim Sung
-It was interesting how Freud was able to forge connections between children's sexuality and their development. Yet, there were many times in the text, I felt, where he seemed to be trying too hard to prove his theory. For instance, he even connected "railway-travel and sexuality." He says that those who experience "[exhaustion] by a railway journey" are sexually repressed. How seriously are Freud's studies considered in the academic world of psychology? Did parents in Freud's time actually consider his conclusions in raising their children? Or were his theories considered too abstract for practice like Rousseau's?

Adrienne DeWolfe
-What is the basis for Freud's theory of sexuality? Clinical observation, firsthand experiences, conjecture...?
-Is Freud's misogyny a reflection of his own childhood? What do we know of his family life?

Melanie Wong
-In the footnote on page 43, I found the "two puberties with an intermediate phase" very interesting. "What has hitherto been described in a summary way as puberty is probably only a second major phase of puberty which sets in about the middle of the second decade of life..." Have there been other findings that agree with this hypothesis?

Daniel Huecker
- I'm fascinated by Freud's use of the body in psychological and social development. In his first essay he uses sexual (psychological) aberrations to establish a developmental norm in the second and third essays. --Does Freud, or any other, approach the question from the opposite direction: how might physical aberration (such as chronic illness or paralysis from the waist down) influence normal sexual development? How does a child negotiate the anal phase is there is no sensory awareness of the anus?

2. Bronislaw Malinowski, section I, V, and VI, "The Formation of a Complex"

Stephanie K. Dalquist
-Part I: In response to the two problems Malinowski raises: There are surely other family structures besides the Nuclear Heterosexual American Dream. Do these cultures indeed thrive on different myths and legends? Or even within today's many subcultures where once existed the Nuclear Heterosexual American Dream, has the shape of the family complex changed these characteristics of the (sub)culture?
-Part V: Could any of the proposed alternative child-rearing techniques proposed by Rousseau, etc., avert the curiosity in "shame-faced desires?" Should this curiouity be averted? I'm glad to see he mentions a cross-cultural difference in Melanesia, where he has "failed to find any traces of what could be called infantile indecencies." Has any further investigation occurred to explain why? Could it be in part related to the family complex? Is the difference a function of the cultural taboos?
-Part VI: Do other familial relations play similar roles in other cultures? If not, why does it happen in the cultures cited and not others?

Adam Smith
-Early in the article Malinowski points out that the "… family is not the same in all human societies." How should childhood be studied cross culturally when families differ so greatly?

Hilarie Claire Tomasiewicz
-(I) Given the very different nature of the constitution of families in human society, is developing a single "appropriate formula" of psychoanalytic theory somewhat unhelpful if it cannot be universally applied? What are the common characteristics that all families share? Are there any?
-(V) Malinowski disagrees with Freud regarding the age of onset of sexual rivalry between mother and daughter, and father and son, but doesn't it seem likely that this rivalry may never manifest itself in most families, but when it does, it is the exception and not the rule? Is sexual rivalry really held to be a commonly documented dynamic of same-sex familial relationships?
-(VI) "This [the age of 5 through 7] is the time when play begins to pass into more definite occupations and serious life interests." If adults continue to use play as a recreational activity outside the stresses of their "occupations and serious life interests," does it make sense that children - at any age - would use their playtime to explore their career possibilities and to look toward their "serious" futures? It seems to me that Malinowski is associating play with everything but.

David Spitz
-Malinowksi suggests "savage" society has just one taboo, whereas Western society has many. First, is this reality or an idyllic projection? Second, is the one taboo sufficient to cause neurosis, sublimation and the like? Third, although Malinowski at one point refers to Freud as an observer of Western European culture, did Freud not consider his own work to be universal? Fourth, *can* Malinowksi's expanded view of the family-social unit be reconciled with Freudian analysis, which puts so much emphasis on strict readings of biological relationships?

Char DeCroos
-Malinowski states that in some societies, "society relieves him (the child) of a great deal of responsiblity by laying down rules of strict morality." What exactly is the great deal of responsiblity that society is kindly shouldering the burden of? Doens't every society set down some set of standards and rules (not necessarily a strict morality) that when broken have penalities, from guilt to ostracism? Where exactly is the relief?

Max Bajracharya
- Is a child's authority figure (like the uncle) always well defined? Or, in certain cultures, is it spread thin among people or even society (the Inuit)? With single parents, where do characters like the authoratitive uncle and playful father come from? Can they both be represented in a single person (it doesn't seem like they can); or must they be created by the child from something less concrete? How do these roles in society evolve (why are they different across cultures)?

Joseph Kaye
-Do you feel you had an Oeidpus or Electra complex? (More importantly, why is this an interesting question to ask?)

Mike Ananny
-The author discusses the "third stage" of childhood and how, there is a correlation between the entrance into school, etc. around this time. This raises a question: do children enter into stages of development independently or do they do so because of societal constructs (like school, etc.)? I.e. are a child's stages of development caused by society or are they reflected in society? Can children's developmental stages be separated into those that are the result of sociocultural changes in attitude toward the child and those that are the result of internal psychological changes in the child?
-I also have a question about the Melanesian part of the essay (more out of a desire for clarification than class discussion)
-The Melanesians have separated the role of the father into 2: one who is ore of a compatriot and companion (the father) and the other who is more of the authority figure (the uncle). However, this doesn't seem to be a good argument against the presence of the Oedipal complex in this society (as Malinowski argues earlier) since the Oedipal complex seems to be fundamentally based on competing for the mother's affection with the father - how has this separation of father into 2 roles proven that the Oedipal complex does not exist in Melanesian society?

Walter Dan Stiehl
-I find it incredibly interesting that the maternal brother has the ultimate say and role of dominance in a family. It is interesting to analyze how this separation of intimacy from leadership causes a more peaceful transition to adulthood.

Carlos Cantu
-What brought about Malinowski's criticism towards the "Fruedian drama" besides the obvious (the different "families" in each society and the whole family conflict influence on social organization)? Was he envious, perhaps? But seriously, are there always two types of intellectuals? The one who thinks of the wierd, and off the wall theories (Freud) and those who only work towards debunking the wierd guy? He(Malinoswki) is quick to point out his role as "sociologist" so I guess his job is just different...hmmm.

Anindita Basu
-Malinowski at one point refers to the Trobriand clans as a matriarchal society. How can he claim this when the women must move from their clans to live with their husbands and are dominated by their brothers? He also seems to be claiming that the simpler the relationship to the father, the easier and more idyllic the childhood-- across class and culture. How do differing relationships with mothers affect the transition from childhood?
-Does he perceive less variation between mother-roles than father-roles?

David Mellis
-Justine talks a lot about standards for proof, and what qualifies s evidence for the various people we read from. I think that question is especially relevant here. Malinowski talks about the differences in attitudes towards fathers in European versus another society (and the lack of an Oedipus complex there). What evidence does he have for this? This seems especially relevant in the case of one footnote. In the text, he says it is clear that infants are sexually attracted to their mothers. Then, in the footnote, he calls his own statement absurd. However, he gives little evidence for either statement, making me wonder if his new opinion is any more valid than his old one.

Christian Baekkelund
-The section that really intrested me is when Malinowski talked about the formation in a child of "decent and indecent" and "pure and impure". What other pairs of such words are frequently used, and why are these pairs of words in particular used? I find the use of the terms decent, pure, and such very bizarre. What secondary meanings could be found specifically in the use of these words?-Additionally, I wondered through a lot of "Formation" about Malinowski's facts...he seemed to do some research, but it was unclear as to how much before claiming various things as more fact, rather than his opinion. I found this somewhat odd
.-Finally, a lot of Malinowski's examples and references seemed exceedingly outdated. Especially in his selection of different family structures and what is considered to be "the norm". How has this changed specifically since the writing of these papers, and how do this time shift effect various points of reference Malinowski uses? Numerous statements were made about what was "expected" of children at the numerous stages of development that all seemed horribly dated.

Raffi Krikorian
-"chapter V states that the father is always treated with fear and reverance in 'our type of society' -- no sexual matters are discussed with him. however in the island society described in chapter VI, the father is treated like a companion or a friend since all the familial power is concentrated in the uncle. where in our society does the father figure become a friend to the male son? this happens a lot when the father attempts to goad or cheer the son on."

Girim Sung
-Malinowski writes of the family's influence on the development of the child. As he says, "the family is not the same in all human societies." Today, more and more, people are beginning to consider their group of friends as their "family." How would Malinowski explain a child's development with this contemporary definition of family?

Adrienne DeWolfe
-Malinowski sees in the society of Melanesia a very different development of sexuality in children, one which replaces the latency period with infantile independence and many other differences. What effect historically did Malinowski's thesis have upon the credibility of the theories of Freud?

Melanie Wong
- If Malinowski has "observed" that these puberty stages/situations are highly dependent on social class, culture, and racial differences...how can we possibly propose a "normal" juvenile puberty? It seems like there are too many corollaries to this hypothesis!

Daniel Huecker
-As Malinowski realizes, anthropology can provide an important diversity of data sets with which to test psychoanalytic theories. Despite his "absurd" conclusions, Malinowski points out considerable flaws in what is offered as a universal theory of sexuality. Does Freud really claim a universal theory and if so, how might the psychoanalyst explain the cultural variation described by anthropologists?