Bu çalışmanın amacı, Psikanalitik kuramların sağlamış olduğu verilerden hareketle din eğitimi açısından gelişim ve değişimin imkânını ortaya koymaktır. Din eğitiminin kişilik bütünlüğüne sahip mü’min bireyler yetiştirme ideali, gelişim psikolojisinin ortaya koyduğu verileri dikkatlice incelemeyi gerektirmektedir. Yapılan bu incelemede, Psikanalizin kurucusu Freud’un beş yaşından sonraki değişimi kabul etmediği anlaşılmaktadır. Adler de bu görüşe katılmaktadır. Kişilik gelişiminde içgüdüleri öne çıkaran Freud, bununla beraber aile çevresinin etkisiyle çocukta üst-benliğin gelişerek çocuğun davranışlarını kontrol altına alabildiğini kabul etmektedir. Yeni-Freudcu psikologlar, kişilik gelişimindeki ilk beş yılın önemini kabul etmekle birlikte, sonraki dönemlerde de gelişimin devam ettiğini vurgulamaktadırlar. Kişilik gelişimindeki sosyal ve kültürel etkiyi ihmal eden Freud’un aksine, yeni-Freudcu psikologlar kişilik gelişimindeki sosyal ve kültürel etkiyi artan bir şekilde dile getirmişlerdir. Gelişim evrelerini sekiz dönem halinde detaylı bir şekilde inceleyen Erikson, yaşam boyu gelişim anlayışıyla gelişim ve değişimin sürekliliğini net bir şekilde ortaya koymuştur. Daha da önemlisi Erikson, bir önceki evrede oluşabilecek bir hatanın, bir sonraki evrede düzeltilebilme imkânını dile getirmektedir. Freud ve Adler’a göre ilk beş yıl, Sullivan’a göre ön ergenlik, Erikson’a göre ergenlik, Jung’a göre orta yaş dönemi kişilik gelişiminde kritik öneme sahiptir. Din eğitimi penceresinden bakıldığında, Psikanalitik kuramın dikkatlerden kaçırılmaması gereken pek çok veri sağladığı söylenebilir.
Human has continuously asked questions about himself and searched for an answer to those questions since the ancient ages. And the question “Does man change?” is one of those eternal questions about mankind. The issue of understanding man, which was a mental and philosophical effort in the beginning, has become the only subject of the science of psychology for more than a century. Despite the philosophical heritage accumulated over thousands of years and the experimental studies of recent times, man still remains to be a big “mystery” to us. Altogether, when it comes to accessing reliable and scientific data on man, the only resource to be resorted to is again the data provided by the psychology.
Education, which may be defined as the effort to shape man in line with a certain model, has to apply to the science of psychology to learn about the development and change potential of man. The success of educational studies depends closely on following the results revealed by the science of psychology concerning man’s development and change. Accordingly, the religious education’s ideal to raise faithful individuals with personal integrity entails taking into consideration the data provided by developmental psychology.
As a result of the man’s complex and complicated nature, there is no conventional definition of personality. However, one may tell that the two most emphasized characteristics of such definitions are its uniqueness and consistency. The most remarkable aspect of personality is its uniqueness. In fact, it is widely agreed by the psychologists that there are as many personalities as the number of individuals. The second aspect emphasized in the definitions of personality the concept of consistency. There must be a continuity and consistency in an individual’s attitudes and behaviors to speak of a certain personality. While the concept of consistency helps us better understand the nature of personality, it faces us to another question on the other hand: “If our behaviors show consistency, then how could a change be possible?”
While emphasizing the consistency as one of the main elements of personality, the field of psychology also exposes the personality’s possibility and potential to change. At this point, one must look at the data revealed by the personality theories with respect to possibility of change. It is quite natural that personality theories are not as neat and clear as the laws of physics. However, the data revealed by the personality theories with the respect to man must be reviewed carefully. As a matter of fact such theories focusing on a different aspect of personality endeavor to provide the most reliable and coherent information to the science world on the basis of the observation and accumulation of many years. As the comprehensive analysis of all personality theories exceeds far beyond the limits of a single article, this study analyzes only the views of the psychoanalytical approaches on the development and change of personality. When we speak of psychoanalysis, we mention Freud in the first place. Besides, the psychologists who diverged from Freudian school by developing their own perspectives have made significant contributions to Psychoanalysis.
There are two important models in Freud’s configuration of personality. These are topographical model and structural model. When we look at from the perspective of religious education, the most important concept of topographical model is unconscious. Although Freud faced various criticisms for developing this concept, the “power of unconscious” has long been used by different segments for different purposes. Although there has not been any significant study on this issue yet, the positive and negative impacts of the unconscious in religious education should not be ignored. In the structural model developed by Freud, the concept of superego becomes prominent with respect to religious and moral development. According to this model, superego operating on the moral principle has the power to control id which operates on the pleasure principle. Considering that the superego develops at the ages of 4-5, it turns out that the family has a tremendous responsibility. It is the responsibility of the family to develop a strong sense of conscience and superego in the child. According to Freud, superego develops at the age of five and this age marks the end of personality’s development. There cannot be a significant development or change in personality after this period.
Adler agrees Freud’s view that the personality development ends at the age of five. However, Adler also emphasizes the effects of parents which were not dwelled upon enough by Freud. In his view, the attitudes of parents play important role in the child’s personality problems in his/her latter ages. Another difference between Freud and Adler is that Adler does not handle the personality development in certain periods.
Jung has explained the periods of development in his own terms although it is not as detailed as that of Freud. Jung has emphasized the “middle life” stages against the pregenital phase. According to Jung, the critical threshold at the ages of 35-40 shapes the whole personality.
The main emphasis of Horney is the cultural and social effects neglected by Freud. Horney, who studied all his academic life the cultural and social effects on personality development, has made significant contributions to psychology in this field. According to Horney, the childhood experiences, as well as the cultural effects, are of paramount importance in personality development.
Sullivan rejects Freud’s hypothesis that our behaviors are shaped by our instincts and states that the personality is shaped by social forces. Sullivan suggests that the child’s nature is ready to be affected by others due to the long period of dependency that the child experienced. Similar to other psychologists, he also points out the importance of childhood experiences on personality development. Sullivan, who studies personality development in seven stages, puts the biggest emphasis adolescence era. As a matter of fact, three of these seven stages include adolescence era. According to Sullivan, the experiences of the early adolescent are extremely important for the personality development. Because mistakes made earlier can be corrected during preadolescence, but errors made during preadolescence are nearly impossible to overcome in later life.
We see that Erikson carried the views on personality development to a step forward. Erikson examines the stages of personality development in eight stages, which was previously studied in seven stages at most. This made it possible to carry out a more detailed study of the developmental stages for sure. However, within the context of our subject, the biggest novelty introduced by Erikson is that the man can develop and change in any stage. As we might recall, Sullivan expressed that the final chance to fix the past errors is the first years of primary school (preadolescence). Erikson states that personality development does not end with adolescent but continues throughout the whole life. Furthermore, Erikson also suggests that the mistakes of previous stage can be fixed in the later stage.
As a result, psychoanalytical theory provides non-negligible and important data on the development and change of personality to those teaching religion or those who assume responsibility of educating a child. The early years of childhood are of paramount importance for personality development. Altogether, there are risks and opportunities in the later ages for radical changes of personality. Social and cultural environment, especially the family, plays a big role in a healthy and correct development of personality. The primary school years are a prime opportunity to fix certain mistakes in the family environment. One must pay attention to the sensitivity of adolescent era during which the sense of identity develops and the middle age stage when man seeks the sense of integrity. At the latest version of psychoanalytical theory, the possibility of “lifelong development” as expressed by Erikson must be turned into an opportunity to develop a healthy and complete personality by those assuming the theoretical and practical responsibility of religious and moral education.
Keywords: Personality, Psychoanalysis, religious education, development, change.
