Synonyms
Definition
To pamper or to spoil is to overgratify the needs and desires of a developing child.
Introduction
The terms pampering and spoiling have roots within early psychoanalytic literature, and over time they have become a part of the vernacular. This entry will focus on pampering/spoiling as described in psychoanalytic literature and address the following: the mechanics of pampering/spoiling, why it might happen, and the possible risks for development.
Overview
Freud (1953/1905) first referred to the pampering and spoiling of a child in reference to the mother-child dyad during the feeding experience as described in The Three Essays on The Theory of Sexuality. As an infant moves out of the stage of primary narcissism and into the oral stage of psychosexual development, the mother serves as an “unending source of sexual excitation and satisfaction” for id impulses associated with the erotogenic zone of the mouth (p. 223). Sexual...
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References
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Freud, S. (1953). Three essays on the theory of sexuality. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.) The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 7, pp. 125–243). (Original work published 1905).
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Pad, R., Dauphin, V. (2020). Pampering/Spoiling. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_614
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_614
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