Fixation () is a

concept A concept is an abstract idea that serves as a foundation for more concrete principles, thoughts, and beliefs. Concepts play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied within such disciplines as linguistics, ...

(in human

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

) that was originated by

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

(1905) to denote the persistence of

anachronistic An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common typ ...

sexual traits. The term subsequently came to denote object relationships with attachments to people or things in general persisting from childhood into adult life.

Freud

In '' Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality'' (1905), Freud distinguished the fixations of the libido on an incestuous object from a fixation upon a specific, partial ''aim'', such as voyeurism. Freud theorized that some humans may develop psychological fixation due to one or more of the following: #A lack of proper gratification during one of the psychosexual stages of development. #Receiving a strong impression from one of these stages, in which case the person's personality would reflect that stage throughout adult life. #"An excessively strong manifestation of these instincts at a very early age hichleads to a kind of partial ''fixation'', which then constitutes a weak point in the structure of the sexual function". As Freud's thought developed, so did the range of possible 'fixation points' he saw as significant in producing particular neuroses. However, he continued to view fixation as "the manifestation of very early linkages which it is hard to between instincts and impressions and the objects involved in those impressions". Psychoanalytic

therapy A therapy or medical treatment is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. Both words, ''treatment'' and ''therapy'', are often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx. As a rule, each therapy has indications a ...

involved producing a new

transference Transference () is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person. Traditionally, it had solely co ...

fixation in place of the old one. The new for example a father-transference onto the may be very different from the old, but will absorb its energies and enable them eventually to be released for non-fixated purposes.

Objections

*Whether a particularly obsessive attachment is a fixation or a defensible expression of love is at times debatable. Fixation to intangibles (i.e., ideas, ideologies, etc.) can also occur. The obsessive factor of fixation is also found in symptoms pertaining to obsessive compulsive disorder, which psychoanalysts linked to a mix of early (pregenital) frustrations and gratifications. *Fixation has been compared to psychological imprinting at an early and sensitive period of development. Others object that Freud was attempting to stress the looseness of the ties between libido and object, and the need to find a specific cause any given (perverse or neurotic) fixation.

Post-Freudians

Melanie Klein saw fixation as inherently pathological – a blocking of potential sublimation by way of repression. Erik H. Erikson distinguished fixation to zone – oral or anal, for example – from fixation to mode, such as taking in, as with his instance of the man who "may eagerly absorb the 'milk of wisdom' where he once desired more tangible fluids from more sensuous containers". Eric Berne, developed his insight further as part of

transactional analysis Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions (or "transactions") are analyzed to determine the id, ego, and superego, ego state of the communicator (whether parent-like, childlike, or adult- ...

, suggesting that "particular games and scripts, and their accompanying physical symptoms, are based in appropriate zones and modes". Heinz Kohut saw the grandiose self as a fixation upon a normal childhood stage; while other post-Freudians explored the role of fixation in aggression and criminality.

In popular culture

*Coleridge's '' Christabel'' has been seen as using

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

as a vehicle to explore psychological fixation. *

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (; 6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's ...

has been considered to show a romantic fixation on days of old.Kathryn Ledbetter, ''Tennyson and Victorian Periodicals'' (2007) p. 52

References

External links