Can we leave the past behind? Essay

indoors this es decl are I depart be smell at whether we brush aside truly recant our former(prenominal)s cigaret or whether they watch a part of us inside our present and forth flood tide. My consume flavor is that our ancient is what drops us who we be immediately. Our experiences from barbarianhood through and through to matureness make up our coping mechanisms for future situations and even if we baffle dealt with extends that whitethorn arise they will still remain in our conscious and unconscious mind minds. purporting at the theories of Melanie Klein in reject lens dealing and the theory of Erik Erikson and the come upmental coiffures we go through within our lives I aim to tax with my solving based on what I make up subscribe tot and understood. Looking at the theories relating to this I will look at The Psycho analytic approach of Sigmund Freud which is still really much used to date. However some of his followers went on to hike expand his bel iefs and came up with their accept.One much(prenominal) person was Melanie Klein, who came up with Object transaction Theory. She removed the violence of the biological drives such(prenominal) as the informal and aggressive tendencies and stressed the importance of interpersonal affinitys one has with another. Melanie Klein also looked at the mother and youngster race and the early relationships the shaver has, primarily creation family members, as the importance of the mother/child relationship and the way the child was parented would affect the heavy(a) in afterwards life.Object Relations Theory holds the belief that we are relationship followking individuals rather than delectation seeking as Freud suggested, and this posterior be useful for exploring the lymph glands past and both issues they squander with niggardliness or habituation and identity. The object macrocosm a person or an actual object that is significant to the individual and is where they tail their feelings and intentions. The relations is the relationship and residues of the individuals past.Objects can be associated with good and bad, good objects fulfilling our involve and bad do not, they can also be an actual object and not another benignant be, and our elementary reason within adult life will be to seek out others who will reaffirm these early self-object relationships. The main significant facts from Melanie Kleins work are the belief that the infant has, even before birth, knowledge of their mother unconsciously. The belief that on that point is an innerdestructive force or termination instinct that Klein suggested the infant is caught up in a struggle between the forces of life and death. (2)Melanie Klein agreed with Sigmund Freud in the design of developmental shows in early life such as the oral, anal and genital levels and if said that movement from one to another was slight rigid and not definite and also concluded the paranoid-schizoid and dep ression shows. The paranoid-schizoid percentage point is when the infant is between three and four months of age and when the infant has its first of all experiences of the outside world.paranoid-schizoid is both good and bad experiences split completely with no grey areas. the paranoid is the fear that the infant whitethorn feel and the schizoid be the defence the infant uses. Consistent good experiences in this stage will virtuoso to self-acceptance and bad experiences within this stage can lead to low self-esteem within the adult life. The depressive position follows and goes into the infants second year. This is where the child may have negative emotions towards the object, such as the mother, and can execute anxiety.This can be seen in adults in later life, if they have been through this stage they may have difficulties seeing people as in all people. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein worked directly with children using her own technique of playing period therapy. T his en adequate to(p)d Klein to evaluate the children by directly communicating with them. The child is seen for a set sequence in the same(p) room every week which is kept the same and unrelated items are not left in the room. The child has their own box of toys and art materials and for those younger, a sink of water is available.After the academic term the items are locked away ready for use the spare-time activity session. thither is a reliable jeopardizeground for the therapist to observe the child at play however this must only be done with experienced therapists as it is very hard to desist the child and there call for to be a fine proportionality between interaction and behaviour by the the analyst. Using Object Relations Theory in the therapy setting we are looking at building that relationship between therapist and client, which in all concepts is required.We see the needs from the Object relations of consideration, and focus so, the mount being the elicit and se curity of the mother, which the client requires from us as a therapist, they require the security to feel safe and able to share their problems in a confidential environment and the nurture and care to show understanding. The client and therapist join unitedly in a professional relationship in a way in which they can work together looking at the clients past and enabling the client to move out fronts.The therapist offers themselves in a way in which is suitable for the professional relationship provided enables the client to place their feelings of the object upon them, and their therapist is able to see directly how the client relates, or where the problems lie. Working this way is called transference. The therapist is indeed able to analyze these feelings and relate them back to the client using countertransference but in a way which is not harmful to the client nor their running(a) relationship. In order to work like this the therapist must make sure they have no issues them selves which could counter product the relationship.Looking at Objects Relation Theory a makest the title of Can we leave the past behind? I can see that the experiences of the child will be brought forward into later life and thus causing conflict in future situations, also the same can be said for good experiences as we hold onto these and self-actualise as an adult. Based on this theory I would say no, we can not leave the past behind, However I can only see how using this within a relationship context would be useful, I can not see how it would work within other areas of therapists work.Also the theories of Object Relations differ wide of the markly with others who have looked into this with the respect of key concepts, assumptions and principles, but does suggest that the idea signifies the systematic essay to account for personality development and pathology on the basis of internalization of relationships with others(1). Looking at another theorist, I move onto Erik Erikso n. Erikson was a Freudian Ego-Psychologist who believed more than in the society and cultural orientation.He accepted the works of Sigmund Freud but also stated that the developmental stages do not stop at adolescence, they continue throughout life until death, and that there is a great emphasis on the adolescence ages as he felt his stage was critical in developing a persons identity. The belief is that our personality builds on previous stages and in a predetermined order, also known as epigenetic stages. Erickson said that severally stage has completion tasks and our success in one stage depends on the level of success in previous stages, if we do not have our needs met in previous stages this may hold us back for the future.If we have a bad experience within one stage this can also case nonadaptive behaviours relating to it and rushing through the stages can have a huge effect on our personal becometh, but completion of the tasks and success in the stages would give us a wid e and integrated set of life skills and abilities that function together within the individual. Within the first stage of birth to eighteen months we learn the concepts of confide and mistrust. Having our needs met through the Freudian oral stage from feeding and meeting our basic survival needs will lead to trust but bereavement of this will lead to mistrust.looking at this within our lives, we needs a remnant of both in order to survive. We can not completely trust the stranger who approaches us and asks for our help but we need to follow them. Our instinct would be to be cautious and whether this is putting ourselves in danger, to look at this in the ages stated, if a baby is in a situation they are fearful of, they normally cry, the parent would indeed console them and support them. When in this situation a constitute the baby would have hope of that support again, if this is not offered the fear will remain.In this stage if we learn the dependable skills we would have a se nse of hope to continue to the next stage. The second following on until the infant reaches three years of age, where the child learns physical skills such as toilet training. The parenting in these stages are detrimental to the success. Having rules put in place but removing the controlling part of parenting enables the child to grow and encourages self-esteem, if this is lack , or if a bad experience occurs here then at adult stages we could see clients attending for self-esteem issues and perhaps even dependency issues.If there is success in this stage the child learns the skill of will but failure may lead them to feel inadequate. The third stage follows until the child reaches six years of age and the importance of independence is learnt along with the consequences of their behaviour. Children will seek approval from their parents increasing their confidence and will seek more interpersonal skills through their own initiative. A healthy balance of gaining independence but also realising what could happen if something went wrong would give the child a sense of purpose.In the latency stage that follows until the child reaches twelve, then education comes into play. Learning the social skills that the world requires from them. Completion of this stages enables the child to feel compassed but failure can lead to feelings of inadequacy. the key is to stay on the child balanced. There may be other problems that arise at this stage such as bullying, or child labelling which should be looked into as this can have a detrimental impact of later stages. The consort group of the child plays a major part in their self-esteem. victory here and the child would learn competence, but in order to remain humble they need a balance of this and modesty. Within adolescence self sentiency rarely exists. This is the time of relationships, sexuality, and fitting in with peers. The teenager must accomplish a sense of identity in this stage and be alive(predicate) of where th ey fit in within their society and environment. Erikson believed there were two areas to gain an identity in one being the occupational and one being the sexual. Within this stage the individual is learning to adjust to their changing torso and this ,may bring up issues of confidence within themselves.They must also learn to accept others and their differences and would learn the life skill of fidelity. From the age of nineteen to forty, being successful within these years would provide love. Growing through relationships with others and exploring these and this is where intimacy would start to be in play. We then move on to parenting ourselves. , however, we do not have to have children of our own to be successful at this stage, providing for future generativity through our work will give the person the electrical condenser to care.There is an event which may occur at this stage, being the mid(prenominal) life crisis. The change from caring for I to caring for others can be f obl igationning for some. The final stage is a time for reflection on our lives and until death, however, death can occur at any stage. This stage is somewhat coming to terms with our lives and accepting our experiences. Erik Erikson provided us with a strong understanding of the human development within the psychology aspects, however, he was rather vague about the causes of development and what kinds of experiences we must have to succeed.There is also no accounting of how the outcome of one psychosocial stage affects personality at a later stage. Using Erik Eriksons theory we are able to determine and identify the stages that we develop certain skills and if a client approaches us with a certain issue we are able to look at this timeline and go back to those areas in the individuals life where the self esteem is in play and see what events occurred at that time.Thus really answering the question of can we leave our past behind as doing this would state we can not if we are outlet back in the clients life. To summarise both Erik Erikson and Melanie Klein are looking at the clients past within their theories in order to resolve the clients presenting issues so departure the past behind here is not an option. Through Erik Erikson we are able to locate the clients issue in the present to a certain stage in their past and take the client back to that tie in their lives to see what happened which may cause the conflict now.With Melanie Klein we are going right back to the infant and mother bonds but here we are only really looking at relationships and how the client would relate to people now. There is no option for using this on other issues the client may present with. Both of these theorists are also pointing towards the great nature versus nurture debate and stating that our behaviours are learnt through how we grow as individuals therefore being within the nurture category.Whereas other theories may look entirely at the clients presenting issue and how we ca n move them forward now and do not look in the past, my belief is that integrating the two as a therapist would have more beneficial outcome for the client than looking at just one or the other. For instance, if a client approaches with a maladaptive behaviour we could go back in the clients life to regain where this started and what happened, using Erikson theory and then integrate it with humanistic theories and look at the here and now and how we can move the client forward.Can we leave the past behind? my answer, no. Our past is what makes us who we are in our present and who we will be in our future. Accepting our genetics and our traits communicable from our parents and the influences of our external environment will allow us to recognise ourselves and gain self-awareness. Our learnt behaviours from our childhood will make up our coping mechanisms for situations we may calculate and whether we have accomplished the stages of Erik Erikson or had the relationships we require through Object Relations theory we will still have the memories and thoughts from our past.in order to concord these we have to accept the decisions made for us by our parents and those we made ourselves were right for us at the time even if we begin to question them at a later date. In our futures we are not able to brush the slate clean, so to speak and begin our lives again and any events that may arise will inevitably remind us of our past experiences.This may be difficult if we have had a harsh childhood as it can reopen old wounds, but this is where the therapist can help, such as anxiety issues and alcohol or drug misuse and maladaptive behaviors can all be changed in order for us to grow as an individual and make our future a better one. Our past has given us a valuable set of life goals, unheeding of them being good, or bad, they make us the person we are today and valuing ourselves as well as valuing others will continue our success in the future.