Main causes of psychopathology_Psychoanalytic Perspective

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Psychoanalytic theorists and clinicians have waved between the traumatic experience and the misinterpreted childhood fantasy, as the main causes of psychopathology. Freud supported both positions. First, with his seduction theory, he claimed that the impact of nurture is the causative factor of psychological disorders and particularly traumatic experiences, like an infantile sexual abuse, that cannot be assimilated. Later, he shifted to infantile sexuality as the cause of psychopathology and emphasized on its nature, which is problematic and conflictual. A redefinition of “trauma”, from sexual molestation to insufficient parental correspondence to the child’s needs, led to a refocus on the nurture side of the dialectic. The child is traumatized by the pathology of the caregiver, who is not able to meet the psychological needs of the child because of one’s own distracting anxieties or because of incompatible parental style. However, nature and nurture are social constructions which reflect the current society, thus can be regarded as supplementary causes.