Freud’s Stages of Development: Neurotic Behavior of Kanye West through Freud’s Theories

In 2009, Kanye West created the one of the most iconic award show moments. Taylor Swift's video "You Belong With Me" won best female video, knocking Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video out of the winning spot. Kanye West was displeased with the results and was not afraid to show it when he jumped on stage while Taylor Swift was thanking her supporters. "I'mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time," hit the headlines of magazines and became the most conversational topic on social media sites and worldwide news.

Kanye was called ignorant and many other inappropriate names as people sought to defend Taylor Swift from humiliation. President Barack Obama even made a statement calling Kanye a "jackass" for his disrespect to eighteen-year-old Taylor Swift at the time. Though this incident was a shock to many, Kanye's willingness to speak out came as no surprise to me. During an interview following hurricane Katrina in 2005, Kanye went completely off script to bash how the media covered the survival of the victims.

Determined, he continued to voice his opinion and created yet another iconic moment when he added, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Not only does he take advantage of all "freedom of speech" opportunities, Kanye West has always been known as a lyricist who is not afraid to overstep boundaries to say what he wants. Using his music as his platform, Kanye voices his absurd opinions about people, even about the government. In one of his many hit songs "Heard 'Em Say," he voices that he believes the government administered AIDS to people in Africa.

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Even after the incident with him and Taylor Swift, years later he mentions her in one of his songs insisting they would have sexual relations because he made her famous. Kanye West is well known for his extremely forward remarks and deep lyrics, and it is that very reason that encourages me to take a deeper look into his character, which may make notice of a disturbing neuroticism. Sigmund Freud, an extremely influential German psychoanalyst, developed a theory of neurosis that can help explain the development of Kanye's supposed neurotic behavior. Freud theorizes that your childhood experience is what shapes your overall personality.

According to Freud's theory, neurotics are traumatized by painful experiences that they encounter as young children. Instead of letting certain feelings and memories go, they are instead affected by them. (Freud, 1910) Freud's psychosexual stages of development rely heavily on how your sexual and physical pleasures are being satisfied, as you become an adult. Freud characterizes what needs have to be met as you get older in order to have a healthy personality through a series of stages. If needs are met accordingly by a child's caregiver during the early years of development, the child is able to develop into a healthy adult. However, if a person is unable to overcome conflicts and distressing experiences during a particular stage, fixation occurs and strong urges are made unconscious instead of becoming outgrown.

Kanye West exhibits a strong urge to speak his mind, disregarding the feelings and opinions of others. Applying Freudian ideas, Kanye's oral aggressiveness demonstrates fixation at a specific psychosexual stage. Considering Kanye's childhood, his adulthood personality and behaviors can be described as an example of what Freud would call "oral fixation." To further examine Kanye's neuroticism, it is appropriate to apply Freud's ideas and examine Kanye's childhood and his development into an adult. Being that Freud's theory insisted that the primary care giver plays a crucial role in this process, Kanye's mother may play a crucial role in the development of his neurotic behavior.

Kanye West and his mother have a very strong bond. He describes her as "dope" and admires her for abilities to not only teach new things but to also learn as well. (West & Hunter, 2007) Donda West is a good listener according to Kanye, which allowed her to be a lot more open minded than other parents. Although Kanye admired his mother to a great extent, he also had a relationship with his father. Kanye's parents got a divorce early in his childhood, but he still was able to see his father on the weekends. In return, he spent most of his time with his mother. This made Kanye extremely dependent on his mom and created a close bond between them. She would give him anything he needed and allowed him to be as loud as he wanted to be. Kanye West was known as a "Mama's boy" because he was always under his mother and depending on her presence.

As a child, Kanye adopted habits like sucking his thumb and continued this habit until he was eight years old. (West & Hunter, 2007) According to Freudian theory, during the oral stage, the part of the body that is most sensitive to stimulation is the mouth. During this phase, pleasurable activities center on satisfaction by eating or sucking. Freud believed that this phase begins to shift to the next stage after a child's first year of life. However, according to Freudian theory, fixation can occur if the child is overly allowed satisfaction, for example sucking their thumb too much. Kanye's mother would allow him to suck his thumb whenever he wanted to which could have contributed to his supposed neurotic behavior.

Applying Freudian theory, Kanye would be described as demonstrating oral character. From a psychological perspective, because Kanye was overly allowed oral gratification, it is difficult to deal with a world that doesn't satisfy all of his demands. Kanye demonstrates this when he continuously speaks his mind when he is unsatisfied with a particular outcome. When he doesn't like something, Kanye believes that it is difficult not to voice his opinion about it. Although Freud suggests that people fixated in this stage are extremely dependent, optimistic and passive during adulthood, he also suggests another type of oral character the Kanye West is demonstrating. Freud suggests a person that has developed an oral character can be highly independent as an adult, and under stress become a total different person.

On November 10, 2007, Donda West passed away. When Kanye West's mother died, he was under extreme distress. His mother was his everything and more and she is whom he was depending on to keep his sane. When she passed away, Kanye West began to make music that was different from his old music. Previously, Kanye would make songs that would speak about what the world is going through but also speaking about seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

All his songs weren't necessarily positive but his lyrics represented a more fun side to Kanye. However, when he was going through a stressful period in his life, Kanye began to make songs that contained extremely violent lyrics. "I paid for them titties, get your own. It aint safe in the city, watch the throne," which are lyrics from a song on one of his albums titled "That's My B****.) Kanye begins to use his music as a way to express how he really feels about his mother passing away. According to Freudian theory, Kanye would be demonstrating the use of the defense mechanism sublimation.

Sublimation is a way of coping with an unconscious conflict by expressing how you feel in a way that is socially acceptable. Kanye is aware that people enjoy him as an artist and that they will listen to him. However, he doesn't make music because he only wants the money, he generally wants to verbally express his unconscious thoughts from a Freudian perspective. According to Freud's theory, any way that Kanye negatively expresses himself is a sign that he may have developed a neurotic behavior because he was fixated during the oral stage of development.

References

1. Freud, S. (1910). The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis. The American Journal of Psychology, 21, 181-218, DOI: 10.2307/1413001.
2. West, D., & Hunter, K. (2007). Raising Kanye: Life lessons from the mother of a hip-hop superstar. New York: Pocket Books.
3. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/kanyewest/thatsmybitch.html
4. http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/L8-5Freud PsychosexualStages Development.html
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDMyArldzY
6. http://genius.com/Kanye-west-heard-em-say-lyrics

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