Personality Theory and The Concept of Bisexuality - Coursework Example

Running head: Personality Theories Personality Theories [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Abstract:- Bisexuality has been a topic of interest from the 18th century, whether male or female, but after Freud’s revolutionaries ides about bisexuality, the whole dimension of psycho analysis changed, and his conclusion that bisexuality come much more clearly to women than men, paved way for a discussion that might have come to a conclusion but not a clear one. Role of “Penis Envy”, Role of sexual dreams, sexual desires, sexual fantasies, etc. all more or so play a part the bisexual characteristic of every person. Personality Theories "The bisexuality, which is present…in the innate disposition of human beings, comes to the fore much more clearly in women than in men" Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the subject “person”. Most of the psychologists consider to be arising from within one self. Personality deals with a variety of human behaviour among which few are observable whereas others are not. There are various characteristics that vary from person to person and therefore, in this way, we differentiate people and identify them with specific personality. Psychologists put this on the top most level in the hierarchy of various fields of study in psychology. To study personality, psychologists use research method and study various aspects of personality. In research method there are two major categories to study; one is quantitative method and other is qualitative method. In quantitative methods, personality psychologists use to conduct various tests of personality whereas in qualitative study, psychologists use introspection method, observation, case study and the interview. Sigmund Freud proposed the first theory of personality, psychoanalysis. He was also the pioneer of proposing psychotherapy technique. He believed that human nature is more inclined toward evils and the only instincts in one’s personality are aggressive and sexual ones. To explain personality, he provided the idea of id, ego and super ego. He divided the human personality on various stages called psycho sexual stages. He was of belief that dreams are royal roads to understand the unconscious. Freud developed the technique of “free association” to help his patients to get rid of repressed ideas. Freud asked his patients to express whatever comes in his mind either relevant or irrelevant. He then interpreted the dreams by using this free association technique. His analysis helps one to differentiate between manifest dream (Engler, 2008, p.36) and the latent dream (Engler, 2008, p.36).The concept of sexuality was redefined by Freud who said it to be a pleasure seeking drive of one. In his work, he focused on two major areas e.g. mental process and the sexuality, in psychological perspective. The four psycho sexual stages of his analysis are oral, anal, phallic and latency. The psycho analysis school of thought provides explanation of many of the concepts e.g. homosexuality, bisexuality. Bisexuality is a specific type of behaviour that involves the physical or lover attraction for both males and the females. The term has widely been studied and still many of the theorists prefer to conduct their research in the respective field. Charlotte Wolf examines the concept of bisexuality for the view point of genetics, brain research and endocrinology and states that referencing the research that, “female are more primitive sex” and more likely to be bisexual, as according to her, the psychosexual characteristics of any individual male or female depends largely if not entirely on hormonal secretions, and comes to a distinguishing conclusion about the gender identity and sexual identity with the latter being influenced by environment and the initial is based not only on environmental condition but also on “Sexual Dreams”, “Sexual Contacts” and “Sexual Fantasies”. (Wolf, 1979). Freud started his work on bisexuality at the start of his career and remained in his discussion throughout his life. About bisexuality, he himself writes in his letter to Fliess; “I am accustoming myself to regarding every sexual act as a process in which four individuals are involved” (Freud, 1985, p. 364). About female sexuality, Freud explained that in response to male’s excess of libido, females develop a defence mechanism of neurosis. He wrote in his latter that; “In order to account for why the outcome [of premature sexual experience] is sometimes perversion and sometimes neurosis, I avail myself of the bisexuality of all human beings. In a purely male being there would be a surplus of male release at the two sexual boundaries as well—that is, pleasure would be generated and consequently perversion; in purely female beings there would be a surplus of unpleasurable substance at these times. In the first phases the releases would be parallel: that is, they would produce a normal surplus of pleasure. This would explain the preference of true females for neuroses of defence. In this way the intellectual nature of males would be confirmed on the basis of your theory” (Freud, 1985, p. 212). Although the concept of bisexuality was under discussion from many decades but it gained more interest of the theorists in the past twenty years. Bisexuality is a specific form of sexual behaviour that initially theorists discussed it in the context of “sexual liberation” and lately theorists discussed it in the context of “Gay liberation”. However oxford dictionary defines bisexuality as “sexually attracted by the members of both sexes”. Freud states that in Bisexuality comes to the fore much more to women than to men. The rationale for stating such an argument with confidence is that, “a repeated alternation between periods in which masculinity or felinity gains the upper hand” is found to be in some women lives, thus illustrating disturbance by “the residual phenomena of the early masculine period. Similarly, Kubie argues that bisexuality prevails in both sexes, and there is an omnipotent wish to have both sexes at the same time, but he argues that women are more prone to accept their bisexuality because of the dominant factor of Penis Envy. (Kubie, 1974) In the “classic”, Freudian oedipal pattern, a girl in her early stages of development is disappointed in her mother because of insufficient suckling experience or birth siblings is further disillusioned and realizes that her mother does not have a penis and is responsible for her not having one either, and wishes to have a baby with the father. Should the attachment to father “come to grief”, the girl may remain asexual or instead identifies with father and returns to her earlier masculinity complex. And the wish for a baby precedes penis envy. (Freud, 1925). Stoller’s emphasis on gender identity might be best comprehended by understanding it as a female for both genders. He argues that a sense of one’s does not rely on one’s sexual orientation or identification; both of them depend upon treatment and rendezvous as a particular gender. Therefore, the focal point of Freudians, penis envy, love for mother, the “very circuitous path” to the normal” feminine Oedipus complex with father as love object – are later phenomenon and do not involve a girl’s fundamental sense of being female. (Stoller, 1972) Serebriany (1976) and Storm (1980), both agree that prevalence or acceptance of bisexuality among women is deeply related to “Penis Envy” and the idea about “Anatomy is destiny”. According to them, “Vagina Envy” isn’t that dominant among males as “Penis Envy” among females and gender role is very likely in developing of personality traits. Mitchell argued against Freud’s references to penis in 1974 by stating that, in an attempt to split penis from phallus, the problem still persists because men have both power and penises, so penis kept on collapsing. Heterosexuality poses a problem for women as it forces them to fall under the phallic power of penis. And Keeping in mind this particular scenario, there have left two complied with two options, either renounce their heterosexuality or become repressed with men phallic powers. (Mitchell, 1974) Moore creates a party line between biological and psychological findings bisexuality (identifications) but describes psychoanalytic findings that both sexes unconsciously regard the clitoris as an inferior penis. He corresponds with Freud that girls have a stronger premedical period, and he emphasizes that the inadequate genital schematic of girls leads to the desire that any object replacing the mother, “serve the same needs for pregenital gratification.” According to human insufficient narcissistic catheter genital and its close relationship with object loss may account for an apparently greater object relatedness and dependency in women. (Moore, 1976) Meluk’s views are in contrast with Freud’s, parenting is the thing that matters the most in adequate gender development, while not entirely diminishing the importance of penis as factor of sexual development, he states that, “Penis can be clearly seen & easily manipulated, may lead to earlier integration of certain aspects of gender identity in boys and contribute to some aspects of penis envy among girls. (Meluk, 1976) Many of the psychologists now believe that Freud’s concept of sexuality should be reconsidered by considering the recent trends in the approach. Critics have argued that many of the cases that have been reported in the literature are those that present the severe condition in the maladjustment of the disease. There are many other areas where psychologists don’t focus by using the psycho analytical approach. By following Freud, it can be well said; “From the point of view of psycho-analysis the exclusive sexual interest felt by men for women is also a problem that needs elucidating and is not a self-evident fact” (Freud, 1905, p. 146). Critics argue that other then homosexuality the concept of heterosexuality has not come under the consideration by the theorists. As; “We cannot claim that homosexuality is more symptomatic than heterosexuality without better accounts of heterosexuality, and the accounts we have suggest that we will not. And that it is” (Chodorow, 1992, p. 300). The emerging literature about the gay and the lesbian has opened a new chapter for the psycho-analytical theorists to rethink about various concepts of sexualities or the sexual behaviour. To provide explanation about the human sexual desires, Freud explains that; “...each individual seeks to satisfy both male and female wishes in his or her sexual life, we are prepared for the possibility that those [two sets of] demands are not fulfilled by the same object” (Freud, 1930, p.106) Many of the psychologists believe that the reason behind the bisexual behaviour more common in females is the development of their anal cavity and consider it to be a crucial organizer in the sexual behaviour of females. Chasseguet-Smirgel provides explanation about the sexual behaviour more in females as; “...anality underlies a bisexual fantasy in which the bodily attributes and organs of both sexes are present simultaneously, with the arrogant aim of achieving superiority over the parental couple through the capacity for self-begetting” (Chasseguet-Smirgel, 1985) The child mother relation or the bond present between both is also considered to be crucial factor in making the bisexual phenomenon more prominent in females then in males. Females use to nourish their child that creates a bond that sometimes becomes very difficult to break. Freud explains that in all the relationships Oedipus complex is the factor responsible for all acts of sexual behaviour. “The final result an Oedipus complex-an internally felt and phantasized situation that has become a persisting structural feature of a given individual mind-by no means corresponds exactly to the real outer parental situation. It is more akin to a final summary form in which the problem relationship of a child’s infancy-life comes to be preserved in his mental makeup” (Guntrip, cited in Chodorow, 1992, p.159). In the context of social view of bisexuality, socialists including Freud were of the belief that sexual behaviour was generally discussed in the ancient times whereas nowadays each and every concept is discussed in a broader and specified form. Theorists believe that the social context in which person lives also leaves an impact on his or her sexual behaviour. Although the concept of bisexuality was also present in ancient Greece and Rome. The clash of ideas among the scholars also results when men or the women both also remain engaged in the sexual relation at any part of their life. Culturally if someone studies the classic literature then he finds so many jokes about the men liking both men and women. There are also so many tales in the humorous literature of china and the medieval Europe about the females feeling envoy about the boy friend’s of their husband. “It is thus most likely that even if an adult male had both a male "partner" and a wife, he would actually live with the former rather than the latter, at least until he was relatively old” (Boswell 1994) If someone may ponder upon the history then he well knows that in ancient Greeks there was a general belief that bisexuality was a part of every man. However it is rightly to say that their assumption exactly was their desire of homosexuality. In the Rome, on the other hand “most young men had male lovers’ (Greenberg 1988). In a general sense this involves the people who experience bisexuality other than having wives. However in a strict sense, this involves people who remain bisexual only and attracted toward the same sex. Because in India there are many ladies who are lesbian and do not call them bisexual but the “married lesbians” (Thadani 1996).here the clash about the utilization of the term arises. However the term married homosexual is also better for the males then the bisexual. Alot much research is needed to differentiate both the term of married lesbian and married homosexual males from the bisexual ones. Many of the reports come out to the scene when women leaves her husband and enters in the lesbian culture and remains in that culture for long and in last moves back to her heterosexual relationship. Therefore this is a subject of research of many of the studies under discussion. Such type of cases arise as when women remain in the heterosexual relation for a long period and then suddenly turn into homosexual for long period and then again become heterosexual that creates confusion among the people about their sexual identity. This is this is the proof of the involvement of the cultural factor to be responsible of their sexual behaviour. This phenomenon discussed is much more present in females if it is compared with males. Along with the cultural factor their also comes the possibility of the involvement of biological factors as because of the difference in the sexual arousal in both the males and females. In females the drive for the sexual arousal is more diffused in comparison to the males. If consideration is given to the cases then it can be rightly observed that the females first move in the direction that goes straight and then the second step of them moves to the lesbian culture. Their also comes the possibility for the reverse to occur. Therefore in most of the cases, this phenomenon comprises of two stages and sometimes three. Along with the cultural factor their also comes the possibility of non cultural factors to be responsible for the sexual drives to be more prominent in females then in males. This factor could arise from the presence of the drive in the person by birth that makes them to get attracted toward a specific phenomenon. Because of their motivation they move in this direction without the guidance of the cultural factor and the deflections. Cultural factor is considered to be responsible when the females move directly to the lesbian side and then after spending time they directly move back. However those who remain in that same culture are considered to be those who explore themselves and consider that to be better for them. Lillian Faderman in 1991 discussed the same phenomenon in her book A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America that during 1970’s majority of the women in America became lesbian because of the influence of feminism. In this all there was the general perception that social factor was responsible for all that behavior of American ladies. Fademark in her book mentions that the reason behind this phenomenon in that period was the redefinition of the concept of lesbianism at that time. In this way they named it as 'woman-identified-woman' that was considered to be in the category of the women when she fought against the heterosexual regime and not for those women who had specific desires in them for women. Faderman, in his book, also gives reference to the study conducted by Elizabeth Wilson in 1983 which states that; “Many of the young women who elected to become lesbians through radical feminist dogma were doomed to disillusionment and eventually returned to heterosexuality” (Wilson, 1983) Another study conducted about the same phenomenon states as; “two-thirds of the lesbian-feminist students Defries treated returned, more or less, to heterosexuality” (Defries, 1976) This phenomenon of changing in the course of action of lesbians has supported faderman to prepare a model of sexuality. Therefore ladies who choice lesbianism for them were more eager to begin with it. There could be two reasons behind that they might subjugated their drastic feminism as an opportunity or they might had explored their true selves through conscious raising. In 2002, National Center for Health Statistics conducted a survey to check different sexual behavior in the general public. From their survey they found the result that between the ages of 18-44, 1.8 percent of men were considering themselves as bisexual, 2.3 percent people demonstrated them as homosexual whereas 3.9 percent were in the category of “something else". The same study also demonstrated results for females and resulted that in between the ages of 18–44, 2.8 percent of females shown them as bisexual, homosexuality was present in 1.3 percent females whereas 3.8 percent of females were in something else category. By giving consideration to the factors responsible for the arousal of bisexuality, Dr. Fritz Klein was of the view that the attraction of both social and the emotional factor contributes mainly in the bisexual attraction in both males and females. However their so no specific study that may suggest that there is a single factor responsible for the bisexual behavior in both males and females. There is the possibility of the any of the factor e.g. biological, social or the environmental responsible for the particular sexual behavior. One of the study conducted by American Academy of Pediatrics stated that “sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences.” Bisexuality is a particular type of behaviour that is present in both males and females and involves the special attraction toward a particular sex especially to the person having same sex. The phenomenon has been studied by many of the theorists by covering a special aspect of that. In the bisexual phenomenon there are many factors that could be responsible for this behaviour e.g. diffenciation in the arousal of sex drives, social factor, cultural factor or the environmental factor. There are surveys that were conducted by international organizations to focus that in female’s bisexuality is present more then males. However Freud has also faced criticism for the reason of the involvement of the unconscious part of the mind in the whole phenomenon. Therefore along with this concept, Personality theories are major in exploring various aspects of personality and Freud and Erikson are among the major because of their remarkable contribution. But because of the more and more emerging trends in the society and emergence of particular type of sexual behaviour, more explanation is needed to explain personality issues from all perspectives. References American Psychiatric Association (May 2000). "Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues" Berzoff, J., Flanagan, LM., and Hertz, P. (2007). Inside out and outside in: psychodynamic clinical theory and psychopathology in contemporary multicultural contexts. Rowman & Littlefield. Boeree, CG. (2007). Personality Theories:  An Introduction. Shippensburg University. Chasseguet-Smirgel, J. (1976) Freud and female sexuality. Int. J. Psycho-Analysis, 57, 275-286. 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