Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Fixation (German: Fixierung) [1] is a concept (in human psychology) that was originated by Sigmund Freud (1905) to denote the persistence of anachronistic sexual traits. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] The term subsequently came to denote object relationships with attachments to people or things in general persisting from childhood into adult life.
Functional fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used. The concept of functional fixedness originated in Gestalt psychology, a movement in psychology that emphasizes holistic processing.
According to intellectual historian Jan E. Goldstein, the initial introduction of idée fixe as a medical term occurred around 1812 in connection with monomania. [1] The French psychiatrist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol considered an idée fixe – in other words an unhealthy fixation on a single object – to be the principal symptom of monomania. [2]
Therefore, an infantile oral fixation would be manifest as an obsession with oral stimulation. If weaned either too early or too late, the infant might fail to resolve the emotional conflicts of the oral stage of psychosexual development and might develop a maladaptive oral fixation.
Cognitive shifting is the mental process of consciously redirecting one's attention from one fixation to another. In contrast, if this process happened unconsciously, then it is referred to as task switching. Both are forms of cognitive flexibility.
For example, an individual fixated at an earlier developmental stage might cry or sulk upon hearing unpleasant news. Michael Balint distinguishes between two types of regression: a nasty "malignant" regression that the Oedipal level neurotic is prone to... and the "benign" regression of the basic-fault patient. [ 17 ]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Anal retentiveness is a personality trait that is characterized by excessive concern with details. [1] The concept originated in Freudian psychoanalytic theory, where one aspect of the anal stage of psychosexual development is pleasure in the retention of feces.