Psychology - the Science of Mental Life

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This example can also relate to where Dr. James said, “It will be safe to lay down the general law that no mental modification ever occurs which is not accompanied or followed by a bodily change”. (4) This can be viewed as either a voluntary bodily change, or an involuntary bodily change. When the desire reaches a peak, the sympathetic nervous system to involuntary flood the body with adrenaline, which causes the voluntary action of using energy to get past the glass window. The sympathetic nervous system kicks in because The Id is taking over, when the primitive desire of sex is prevalent. The Ego allows your primitive desire of sex to be rationalized into the emotion of love, and The Superego allows the functions to proceed and guide you towards your end.

Freud’s psychosexual stages can also back up Dr. James’s views on psychology. The stages are characterized into a category called fixations, which are conflicts that can persist beyond the stage of development, which they first occur. The five psychosexual stages are the Oral Stage, the Anal Stage, the Phallic Stage, the Latency Stage, and the Genital Stage. Each of these stages presents a specific feeling, desire, reason, or decisions that is made.

For example, the Genital Stage can be related to the Romeo and Juliet example Dr. James presented to us earlier. This stage begins in adolescence and continues into adulthood. The stage is when the reemergence of sexual interests and establishment of mature sexual relationships occur. If in the previous stage, the Latency Stage, Romeo may have acted like the iron shavings taking a direct path to Juliet and being stopped at the window. This stage is between the ages 5/6 through adolescence between the Phallic Stage and puberty where sexual concerns are not of importance. However, Romeo must have been in the Genital Stage because his desires for sex and love helped him decide to move around the window to get to his end goal.

I believe that the works of Dr. James may have influenced the Freudian psychodynamic perspective. Freud’s approach to psychology and the way he explains the way personality is described is something that I believe true. I personally feel that my personality and desires stem from my Id, where my Ego and Superego control and help me make rational decisions that are accepted in society due to what my elders have taught me. The unconscious mind is still a mystery but until further explanation occurs, Freudian psychology is the way I will view others and myself.

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Works Cited

Feldman, Robert S., Ph.D. "Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality." Essentials of Understanding Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.

James, William, M.D., Watson, John B., Ph.D. "The Scope of Psychology." Introducing Psychology. 4-7. Print.