The psychoaggressive stages of psychological development in an authority-based socialization process

In a brief review of the psychiatric literature on the psychological development of the child it is noted that only scant attention has been given to the influences of man's inborn aggressive drives in determining "how we get to be the way we are." The sexual, behavioral, and cognitive milestones of psychological development have been described in great detail from a variety of perspectives, but the historical evidence clearly shows that man is an aggressive creature, and that it is largely through the disciplined expression of this aggressiveness that he has achieved a position of dominance over all other creatures. Surely the psychoaggressive aspects of psychological development deserve more attention and greater emphasis than has so far been apparent in the psychiatric literature (Lidz, 1976). An attempt is made here to describe man's gradual process of gaining control over his instinctual aggressive drives through his reactions to the gradual imposition of challenges from external authorities associated with the socialization process. The psychoaggressive stages occur in a developmental sequence which parallels the approximate age periods in classical descriptions for sexual, behavioral, and cognitive phases in an evolving process. The psychoaggressive stages coincide with those crucial phases in development when impositions of external authority required by the socialization process act as frustrating challenges to the uninhibited expression of instinctual aggressive drives. These cultural challenges block direct expression of instinctual drives, create intrapsychic conflicts, and evoke the use of intrapsychic defense mechanisms which serve to redirect the energies of the drives toward more socially desirable expressions (Figure 2). In early life this takes place under the supervision and control of the nurturing mother figure with whom there is strong affective bonding. There is some research evidence that these early life experiences during the time of rapid brain growth are actually imprinted on a cellular-molecular level and may permanently alter behavioral responses to challenges from external authority in the socialization process. When consistently imposed in a gradual manner during infancy and early childhood by the mother figure, these guiding and redirecting influences operate to inhibit the often harmful direct expression of instinctual aggressive drives and result in the child's more effective adaptation to living by the rules of a civilized society.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)