There are many ideas in psychology as to what shapes a person. There’s the classics like nurture vs nature, behavioral and sociocultural, but psychoanalysis is the perspective which I think has the most profound effect on shaping a person especially a young child. As a child many things can be traumatizing and be very difficult to get over. As a result the child who is now an adult will act in a certain way due. This is what psychoanalysis is; the explaining of personalities and psychological problems due to past childhood events, usually traumatic ones.

The first ten years of my life my family of six and I lived in the Bronx in a two bedroom apartment that had limited amenities. One of those things was a washer and dryer. So it was normal for my mom and I to go to the laundry mat down the street when ever we needed clean clothes. What was supposed to be a normal trip of washing clothes and staring at the clothes as it went through the spin cycle turned into a nightmare that I will never forget.

As our family was not financial well off, we always had to wait until the last possible second to wash our clothes. Washing clothes once a week was not possible and as you can imagine a family of six would have a lot of clothes piled up by the time laundry day came. It was common for my mother and I to be in the laundry mat for a good four hours between the washing, drying, folding clothes and waiting on machines to be open.

So long story short being at the laundry mat for a while made me be in need of using the restroom that particular day. Not wanting anyone to come in as there was only one restroom in the place, I locked the door, but without my knowledge the lock was broken. I ended up being locked in the bathroom and it was the most terrified I can ever remember being. I screamed and pounded on the door, but with numerous machines and people in one place the noise I was making reached no ones ears. I have no clue how long it was before I was found, but I was extremely relieved to be out of that bathroom. For a long time after I would not go into bathrooms where you had to lock the door unless someone was standing outside.

Being in such a small space with no way out was so traumatizing for me I became claustrophobic as a result and I still am. Though I am not scared to an extent of bathrooms anymore, but I still hate small tight spaces. Even being in a elevator is a no go for me even though I know it will open eventually. I’m just afraid that it will get stuck so I make sure to go out of my way to avoid elevators. This one event in my nineteen years of life has shaped a psychological problem in my life which is what psychoanalysis is deemed.