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The brain is one of the most complex organs of the human body. Science has attempted to explain its functioning on two levels; the neuro-biological level and the cognitive level. The latter approach tries to look into the functioning of the brain through its processes which we term as the human mind. Experts have long held that our childhood experiences have a direct bearing on our future personalities.
One of the earliest pioneers of this approach was Sigmund Freud who is often called as the ‘Father of Modern Psychoanalysis’. Freud laid great stress on the dynamics of human sexuality as the foundation on which future human personality would develop. “According to Freud’s theory of infantile sexuality, the first five or six years of life pretty much determines the rest of the person’s life” (Leman & Carlson, 2).
Therefore, humans who had a less stable childhood, abusive parents or an imbalanced lifestyle as a child were most likely to have serious psychological difficulties in later life which could surface time and again and affect their lives disastrously. (Westen, 350) states that “Male participants who were under controlled and impulse-ridden in early childhood were more likely to be depressed as young adults”.
Mike Tyson, the former World’s Heavyweight Boxing Champion typifies a person who having had a difficult childhood, rose to fame and riches but ultimately could not conquer the ghosts of his troubled childhood and paid the price. This essay aims to explain the basic precepts of Sigmund Freud’s psycho-sexual theory and its likely affect on adult characteristics using the life of Mike Tyson as an illustrative example.
Freud’s Psycho-sexual theory states that there are five stages of childhood development from birth to puberty which define the person’s sexual orientation and personality development. The first stage is called as the ‘Oral stage’ which extends from birth to about 18 months of age. During this stage, the baby concentrates on sucking for oral gratification. If the baby gets too little or too much of oral gratification it can lead to an oral fixation or an oral personality.
The manifest adult characteristics of this type of personality are excessive smoking, drinking, alcoholism, eating or biting finger nails and overt aggression towards others as also depression. Mike Tyson exhibited many of these characteristics in his career. His alcohol fuelled rages saw him attacking people at slightest provocation. As far as biting fingernails go, Tyson topped that tendency by a series of ‘biting’ incidences. In 1996, Time magazine filed a report stating “Under investigation. Mike Tyson, 29, boxer; for sexual assault; in Chicago. —-Tyson was at a South Side night spot when, according to his accuser, he touched her lewdly and bit her cheek” (TIME, Monday, 1996).
His other more infamous ‘bites’ included his opponent, Evander Holyfield’s ear during a fight and boxer Lenox Lewis’s thigh during a pre-fight press briefing. After the Holyfield incident, Tyson was forced to undergo a psychological review by a team of experts. CNN article on the report says “Tyson has a “constellation of neurobehavioral deficits” that includes problems with “attention span, memory, reading, spelling and impulse control”(CNN, 1998).
His overt aggression where channeled constructively in the boxing ring brought him fame, the inability to control those urges off the ring led to his troubles with the law. Interviews of Tyson by many journalists reveal that he had a troubled childhood where his father left his mother when Tyson was just two years old, leaving the mother to bring up the young Tyson singly. It can be surmised that the mother, living in a tough neighborhood of Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York, may have found bringing up a child alone a difficult task which may have resulted in the ‘oral personality’ so significantly displayed by Mike in his later years.
The next stage of personality development is from 18 months to three years also called as the ‘anal stage’. The child derives pleasure from the sensation of passing excreta or conversely by holding on to the excreta which also gives pleasurable sensation during its ‘expulsive’ discharge. Depending upon the strictness of toilet training imparted by the parents, the child may develop into a personality fastidious about cleanliness or uncaring about personal toilet hygiene.
Strict toilet training is also known to have had produced ‘rule bound’ personalities who become rigid, inflexible and quick tempered as adults. While not much is known about the degree of toilet training control exercised by Tyson’s mother, one can presume that it may have been strict going by Tyson’s well documented flights of rage when not getting his way. However, in this aspect, the Freudian explanations for sudden rages are not really substantiated, it being just a presumption for illustration.
From the age of three to six, the perception of childhood sexual pleasure shifts from anal to genital region and Freud calls this the ‘Phallic Stage’. In this stage, boys unconscionably develop physical attraction for their mothers and feel threatened by their fathers whom they consider as possible contenders for the mother’s affection as also possible ‘enemies’ who might castrate them. This phenomenon is also known as the ‘Oedipus Complex’ which has its share of detractors.
Freud further theorizes that because boys fear their fathers they try and identify with him and attain his ‘manly’ attributes. According to Freud, poor or weak reinforcement of this fear may lead to ambivalent sexual tendencies at a later stage and conflict with authority. In Tyson’s case since his father had left home at the age of two, there was no fixed competition for the affections of his mother.
The other aspects of the mother’s personal life are not well documented to substantiate the ‘Oedipal’ ramifications on Mike Tyson’s future personality. That he had an abusive relationship with his two wives, who later separated from him, is well documented. Tyson was also indicted for rape of an 18-year old beauty contestant, Desiree Washington for which he was sentenced to six years in prison. All these incidences point to a confused personality who has poor sexual control over his impulses.
Tyson’s acceptance of authority remained confused and quite early in age he had problems in judging what was right or wrong. As a young child, Tyson joined a street gang and was arrested by the law on a number of occasions, all this before the age of 12. He was also arrested for carrying out an armed robbery and sent to Tyron Correctional School for juvenile delinquents in 1978. In 1999, Tyson was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for assaulting two motorists after a traffic accident.Thus it can be deduced that possible dissonance in Tyson’s life during the ages of three to six and a lack of a role model father figure affected the way his personality shaped in the years to come.
In the latency stage from the age of six until puberty, children try and suppress their sexual urges and play within their own peer group. This is the stage of ‘I hate Boys’ or ‘I hate girls’ which is seen amongst children. The latency stage according to Freud is the period of ‘male bonding’ where the male attributes are consolidated. During this stage, many stereotypes and ‘belief systems are reinforced depending upon the peer group influence. The final stage is called as the ‘Genital Stage’ which takes hold after puberty with main urges being directed towards the opposite sex for sexual gratification. Too much gratification or too less gratification leads to poor sexual impulse control and can manifest in rape impulse as was evident from the infamous rape case for which Tyson was indicted and sentenced.
However, Freud’s psychosexual theory has come under lot of criticism by latter day psychoanalysts. The experts in the field opine that Freud laid too much stress on the sexual angle which was not substantiated by clinical evidence in the later years. The works of Erik Erikson have had more sympathetic acceptance by the psychology community than Freud’s original theory.
According to (Wintrob, 117) “Erik Erikson emphasized the historical and cultural influences on group and on individual personality development.” In fact Erickson’s ‘psychosocial theory of personality development’ could answer many gaps in explanation for Tyson’s personality traits rather than the classical Freud’s ‘psychosexual theory of personality development’.
It must be remembered that Tyson was a product of circumstances – a disadvantaged childhood, no stable parent-child relationship, a socially disadvantaged environment, poor economy and social standing of the community and the lawlessness and utter despair which typifies districts such as Brooklyn, New York.
Such circumstances definitely would have had more deleterious effect on the psyche of a young boy living in a ‘urban jungle’ where ‘survival of the fittest’ was a reality rather than an academic thought. Therefore, it is logical to assume that there is more to explanation of deviant human behavior than just a narrow explanation of individual sexual behavior to circumstances. Nonetheless, the theories of Freud have their undeniable place in the pantheon of human psychological understanding and have helped serve the role of pathfinders for the world of psychology.
Works Cited
About.com quoting CNN website. 1998. “Doctors give Tyson thumbs up”. CNN.com Posted: Tuesday October 13, 1998 07:21 PM. Web.
Leman, Kevin & Carlson, Randy. “Childhood Memories and Birth Order”. Quoting from Chapter 15 of Prophets of Psychoheresy II by Martin and Diedre Bobgan. 2008. Web.
Time Magazine Website. 1996.
“Under Investigation Mike Tyson 29”. 2008. Web.
Westen, Drew.1998. “ The Scientific Legacy of Sigmund Freud: Toward a Psychodynamically Informed Psychological Science”. Psychological bulletin , 1998, Vol 124, No. 3, 333-371. American Psychological Association Inc. Web.
Wintrob, Ronald. 2006. “The Influence of Jewish Culture on Cultural Psychiatry:Personal Reflection”. World Cultural Psychiatry review.WCPRR :114-121. Web.
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