O psiquismo infantil sob a luz da teoria de Freud da sexualidade e da neurose

Abstract

Since the formulation of his seduction theory, Freud perceived the relationship between childhood experiences and neurosis. With the abandonment of this theory and the realization that there were infantile sexual fantasies at the origin of neuroses, he was led to formulate a theory of sexuality that encompassed infantile sexuality. In

(1905), he rethinks the concept of sexuality and seeks to describe the characteristics of infantile sexuality. The hypotheses elaborated there were subsequently developed in his theory. According to Freudian theory, the adult subject's psyche is marked by infantile psyche, and the marks of infantile psyche are manifested, above all, in the characteristics of the mental life of neurotic patients. Infantile sexual activity, whether spontaneous or provoked, prescribes the course to be taken by subsequent sexual life in maturity. Freud observed that childhood mental life can be observed in dreams and also in the sexual life of adults through his patients' accounts of their experiences, fantasies, or sexual reminiscences from childhood. These reports led him to investigate further into the psychic life of children and to formulate hypotheses that were later confirmed through the analysis of some cases of neurotic illness in early childhood. The objective of the present work is to go through some of Freud's texts that allow us to grasp his hypotheses about the infantile psyche, in order to define and discuss his theory on this subject. We intend, with this research, to contribute to the understanding of the infantile psyche from a Freudian perspective.