Who is Sigmund Freud?

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis

Psychosexual Development
In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory,
that human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido (sexual energy) that develops in five stages. Each
stage – the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital – is characterized by the erogenous zone that is the
source of the libidinal drive. Being unsatisfied at the particular stages can result fixation. On the other hand, being
satisfied can result a healthy personality. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experienced sexual frustration in
relation to any psychosexual developmental stage, they would experience anxiety that would persist into adulthood
as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.[1][2
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) observed that during the predictable stages of early childhood development, the
child's behavior is oriented towards certain parts of his or her body, e.g. the mouth during breast-feeding,
the anus during toilet-training. He argued that adult neurosis (functional mental disorder) often is rooted in
childhood sexuality, and consequently suggested that neurotic adult behaviors are manifestations of childhood
sexual fantasy and desire. That is because human beings are born "polymorphous perverse", infants can derive
sexual pleasure from any part of their bodies, and that socialization directs the instinctual libidinal drives into adult
heterosexuality.[3] Given the predictable timeline of childhood behavior, he proposed "libido development" as a
model of normal childhood sexual development, wherein the child progresses through five psychosexual stages –
the oral; the anal; the phallic; the latent; and the genital – in which the source pleasure is in a different erogenous
zone.

Stage Age Range Erogenous zone Consequences of psychologic fixation

Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils,

etc.
Birth–1 Orally passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual
Oral Mouth
year practices[4]
Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible,
immature, manipulative personality.

Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, or excessively

neat
Anal 1–3 years Bowel and bladder elimination
Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant,
disorganized, coprophiliac

Oedipus complex (in boys and girls); according to

Phallic 3–6 years Genitalia Sigmund Freud.
Electra complex (in girls); according to Carl Jung.

Latency 6–puberty Dormant sexual feelings Sexual unfulfillment if fixation occurs in this stage.

Puberty–
Genital Sexual interests mature Frigidity, impotence, unsatisfactory relationships
death

Oral stage[edit]
Main article: Oral stage
Oral needs may satisfied by thumb-sucking
The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, spanning from birth until the age of one year,
wherein the infant's mouth is the focus of libidinal gratification derived from the pleasure of feeding at the
mother's breast, and from the oral exploration of his or her environment, i.e. the tendency to place objects in the
mouth. The id dominates, because neither the ego nor the super ego is yet fully developed, and, since the infant
has no personality (identity), every action is based upon the pleasure principle. Nonetheless, the infantile ego is
forming during the oral stage; two factors contribute to its formation: (i) in developing a body image, they are
discrete from the external world, e.g. the child understands pain when it is applied to his or her body, thus
identifying the physical boundaries between body and environment; (ii) experiencing delayed gratification leads to
understanding that specific behaviors satisfy some needs, e.g. crying gratifies certain needs.[5]
Weaning is the key experience in the infant's oral stage of psychosexual development, his or her first feeling of loss
consequent to losing the physical intimacy of feeding at mother's breast. Yet, weaning increases the infant's self-
awareness that they do not control the environment, and thus learns of delayed gratification, which leads to the
formation of the capacities for independence (awareness of the limits of the self) and trust (behaviors leading to
gratification). Yet, thwarting of the oral-stage — too much or too little gratification of desire — might lead to an
oral-stage fixation, characterised by passivity, gullibility, immaturity, unrealistic optimism, which is manifested in a
manipulative personality consequent to ego malformation. In the case of too much gratification, the child does not
learn that they do not control the environment, and that gratification is not always immediate, thereby forming an
immature personality. In the case of too little gratification, the infant might become passive upon learning that
gratification is not forthcoming, despite having produced the gratifying behavior.[5]

Oral stage fixation

Psychologically, Sigmund Freud proposed that if the nursing child's appetite were thwarted during
any libidinal development stage, the anxiety would persist into adulthood as a neurosis (functional mental
disorder).[1] Therefore, an infantile oral fixation (oral craving) would be manifest as an obsession with oral
stimulation; yet, if weaned either too early or too late, the infant might fail to resolve the emotional conflicts of the
oral, first stage of psychosexual development and he or she might develop a maladaptive oral fixation.
The infant who is neglected (insufficiently fed) or who is over-protected (over-fed) in the course of being nursed,
might become an orally-fixated person. Said oral-stage fixation might have two effects: (i) the neglected child might
become a psychologically dependent adult continually seeking the oral stimulation denied in infancy, thereby
becoming a manipulative person in fulfilling his or her needs, rather than maturing to independence; (ii) the over-
protected child might resist maturation and return to dependence upon others in fulfilling his or her needs.
Theoretically, oral-stage fixations are manifested as garrulousness (talkativeness), smoking, continual oral stimulus
(eating, chewing objects), and alcoholism. Psychologically, the symptoms include a sarcastic, oral sadistic
personality, nail biting, oral sexual practices (fellatio, cunnilingus, analingus, irrumatio), et cetera.

Anal stage[edit]
Main article: Anal stage
A boy with open-crotch pants and diaper
The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, spanning from the age of eighteen months to
three years, wherein the infant's erogenous zone changes from the mouth (the upper digestive tract) to
the anus (the lower digestive tract), while the ego formation continues. Toilet training is the child's key anal-stage
experience, occurring at about the age of two years, and results in conflict between the id (demanding immediate
gratification) and the ego (demanding delayed gratification) in eliminating bodily wastes, and handling related
activities (e.g. manipulating excrement, coping with parental demands). The style of parenting influences the
resolution of the id–ego conflict, which can be either gradual and psychologically uneventful, or which can be
sudden and psychologically traumatic.
The ideal resolution of the id–ego conflict is in the child's adjusting to moderate parental demands that teach the
value and importance of physical cleanliness and environmental order, thus producing a self-controlled adult. Yet, if
the parents make immoderate demands of the child, by over-emphasizing toilet training, it might lead to the
development of a compulsive personality, a person too concerned with neatness and order. If the child obeys the
id, and the parents yield, they might develop a self-indulgent personality characterized by personal slovenliness and
environmental disorder. If the parents respond to that, the child must comply, but might develop a weak sense
of self, because it was the parents' will, and not the child's ego, which controlled the toilet training.

The anal stage is the second stage in Sigmund Freud's theory of psychosexual development, lasting from age 18
months to three years. According to Freud, the anus is the primary erogenous zone and pleasure is derived from
controlling bladder and bowel movement. The major conflict issue during this stage is toilet training. A fixation at
this stage can result in a personality that is too rigid or one that is too disordered.[1]
According to Freud's theory, personality developed through a series of stages throughout childhood. These stages
are focused on erogenous areas. Freud believed in the libido, which he referred to as psychosexual energy. To
Freud, the libido was the driving force behind all of human behavior.[1]
In order to obtain a healthy personality later on in adulthood all of these stages need to be completed successfully.
If issues are not resolved in a stage then fixation will occur resulting in an unhealthy personality.
The anal stage, in Freudian psychology, is the period of human development occurring at about one to three years
of age. Around this age, the child begins to toilet train, which brings about the child's fascination in the erogenous
zone of the anus. The erogenous zone is focused on the bowel and bladder control. Therefore, Freud believed that
the libido was mainly focused on controlling the bladder and bowel movements. The anal stage coincides with the
start of the child's ability to control their anal sphincter, and therefore their ability to pass or withhold feces at will.
If the children during this stage can overcome the conflict it will result in a sense of accomplishment and
independence.
Conflict[edit]
This is the second stage of Freud's psychosexual stages. This stage represents a conflict with the id, ego, and
superego. The child is approached with this conflict with the parent's demands. A successful completion of this
stage depends on how the parents interact with the child while toilet training. If a parent praises the child and gives
rewards for using the toilet properly and at the right times then the child will successfully go through the stage.
However, if a parent ridicules and punishes a child while he or she is at this stage, the child can respond in negative
ways.
Parents' role[edit]
As mentioned before the ability for the children to be successful in this stage is solely dependent upon their parents
and the approach they use towards toilet training. Freud believed that parents should promote the use of toilet
training with praise and rewards. The use of positive reinforcement after using the toilet at the appropriate times
encourages positive outcomes. This will help reinforce the feeling that the child is capable of controlling their
bladder. The parents help make the outcome of this stage a positive experience which in turn will lead to a
competent, productive, and creative adult. This stage is also important in the child's future relationships with
authority.
According to Freud's Psychosexual Theory, parents need to be very careful in how they react to their children
during this sensitive stage. During this stage children test their parents, the authority figures, on how much power
they really have as opposed to how much room the child has to make his or her own decisions.
Anal-retentive personality[edit]
The (-ve) negative reactions from their parents, such as early or harsh toilet training, can lead the child to become
an anal-retentive personality. If the parents tried forcing the child to learn to control their bowel movements, the
child may react by deliberately holding back in rebellion. They will form into an adult who hates mess, is obsessively
tidy, punctual, and respectful to authority. These adults can sometimes be stubborn and be very careful with their
money.
Anal-expulsive personality[edit]
Main article: Anal expulsiveness
The opposite of these adults would be anal expulsive adults. Such adults underwent liberal toilet training as
opposed to the above reaction. These adults, as children, usually relieved themselves at inappropriate times. As
children, they soiled their pants whenever they pleased in rebellion against using the toilet. They did not like to be
ordered how and when they should use the toilet. These adults will want to share things with their peers and give
things away. They can sometimes be messy, disorganized, and rebellious. They will also be inconsiderate of others'
feelings.
However, a child who has successfully completed this stage will be characterized as having used proper toilet
training techniques throughout toilet training years and will successfully move on to the next stage of Freud's
psychosexual developmental stages. Although the anal stage seems to be about proper toilet training, it is also
about controlling behaviors and urges. A child needs to learn certain boundaries when he or she is young so that in
the future there will not be contention regarding what is overstepping the boundaries.
Related to cognitive psychology[edit]
According to the field of cognitive psychology, Freud's anal stage falls into the category of internal mental states.
These internal mental states are referring to belief, idea, motivation and knowledge. Freud revolves the basis of his
stages around these main ideas as well. The result of whether a child completes this stage successfully or becomes
fixated has a lot to do with the child's knowledge of his or her past with their toilet training experience, the
motivation he or she received from the parents during the stage and the child's own belief in how they should react
to the situation. Cognitive psychology also focuses on and studies how people perceive, remember and learn their
surroundings, environment, and experiences. These are the three main reasons why a child will become either anal-
retentive or anal-expulsive after childhood.[1]
 Phallic stage[edit]
Main article: Phallic stage
The third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein
the child's genitalia are his or her primary erogenous zone. It is in this third infantile development stage that
children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents; they gratify
physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, and so learn the physical (sexual)
differences between "male" and "female" and the gender differences between "boy" and "girl". In the phallic stage,
a boy's decisive psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex, his son–father competition for possession of
mother. This psychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who
unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and sexually possessed his mother, Jocasta. Analogously, in the phallic stage, a
girl's decisive psychosexual experience is the Electra complex, her daughter–mother competition for psychosexual
possession of father. This psychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic
character Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge with Orestes, her brother, against Clytemnestra, their mother,
and Aegisthus, their stepfather, for their murder of Agamemnon, their father, (cf. Electra, by Sophocles).[6][7][8]
Initially, Freud equally applied the Oedipus complex to the psychosexual development of boys and girls, but later
developed the female aspects of the theory as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the negative Oedipus
complex;[9] yet, it was his student–collaborator, Carl Jung, who coined the term Electra complex in
1913.[10][11] Nonetheless, Freud rejected Jung's term as psychoanalytically inaccurate: "that what we have said about
the Oedipus complex applies with complete strictness to the male child only, and that we are right in rejecting the
term 'Electra complex', which seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes".[12][13]

Oedipus complex: Oedipus explains the riddle of the Sphinx, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (ca. 1805)

Electra complex: Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, c.1869

Oedipus : Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's desires, the child begins forming a
discrete sexual identity — "boy", "girl" — that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents
become the focus of infantile libidinal energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and
focuses jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father — because it is he who sleeps with mother. To facilitate
uniting him with his mother, the boy's id wants to kill father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based
upon the reality principle, knows that the father is the stronger of the two males competing to possess the one
female. Nevertheless, the boy remains ambivalent about his father's place in the family, which is manifested as fear
of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile
Id.[14]
Electra : Whereas boys develop castration anxiety, girls develop penis envy that is rooted in anatomic fact: without
a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id demands. As a result, the girl redirects her desire for
sexual union upon father; thus, she progresses towards heterosexual femininity that culminates in bearing a child
who replaces the absent penis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl's psychosexual development includes
transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl's
Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, potentially resulting in a submissive woman of
insecure personality.[15]

In Freudian psychoanalysis, the phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual development, spanning the ages of
three to six years, wherein the infant's libido (desire) centers upon his or her genitalia as the erogenous zone. When
children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents, they gratify
physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, the center of the phallic stage, in
course of which they learn the physical differences between "male" and "female", and the gender differences
between "boy" and "girl", experiences which alter the psychologic dynamics of the parent and child
relationship.[1] The phallic stage is the third of five Freudian psychosexual development stages: (i) the oral, (ii)
the anal, (iii) the phallic, (iv) the latent, and (v) the genital.

Complexes: Oedipus and Electra[edit]

In the Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy's decisive experience is the Oedipus complex describing his
son–father competition for sexual possession of mother. This psychological complex indirectly derives its name
from the Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his mother.
Initially, Freud applied the Oedipus complex to the development of boys and girls alike; he then developed the
female aspect of phallic-stage psychosexual development as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the negative
Oedipus complex;[2] but his student–collaborator Carl Jung proposed the "Electra complex", derived from Greek
mythologic character Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge against her mother for the murder of her father, to
describe a girl's psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father.[3]
Oedipus[edit]

Oedipus complex: Oedipus and the Sphinx, by Gustave Moreau, 1864.

Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's desires, the child begins forming a discrete
sexual identity — "boy", "girl" — that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become
the focus of infantile libidinal energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses
jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father — because it is he who sleeps with the mother. To facilitate uniting
him with the mother, the boy's id wants to kill his father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon
the reality principle, knows that his father is the stronger of the two males competing to psychosexually possess the
one female. Nonetheless, the fearful boy remains ambivalent about his father's place in the family, which is
manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious
manifestation of the infantile Id.[4]
Electra[edit]

Electra complex: Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, c.1869

In developing a discrete psychosexual identity, boys develop castration anxiety and girls develop penis
envy towards all males. The girl's envy is rooted in the biologic fact that, without a penis, she cannot sexually
possess mother, as the infantile id demands, resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father.
She thus psychosexually progresses to heterosexual femininity (which culminates in bearing a child) derived from
earlier, infantile desires; her child replaces the absent penis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl's
psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the
adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl's Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy,
resulting, potentially, in a woman of submissive, less confident personality.[5]
Defense mechanisms[edit]
In both sexes, defense mechanisms provide transitory resolutions of the conflict between the drives of the Id and
the drives of the Ego. The first defense mechanism is repression, the blocking of memories, emotional impulses,
and ideas from the conscious mind; yet it does not resolve the Id–Ego conflict. The second defense mechanism
is identification, by which the child incorporates, to his or her ego, the personality characteristics of the same-sex
parent; in so adapting, the boy diminishes his castration anxiety, because likeness to father protects him from
father's wrath as a rival for mother; by so adapting, the girl facilitates identifying with mother, who understands
that, in being females, neither of them possesses a penis, and thus are not antagonists.[6]
An unresolved fixation in the phallic stage could lead to egoism, low self esteem, flirtatious and promiscuous
females, shyness, worthlessness and men that treat women with contempt.

Latency stage[edit]
Main article: Latency stage
The fourth stage of psychosexual development is the latency stage that spans from the age of six years
until puberty, wherein the child consolidates the character habits they developed in the three, earlier stages of
psychologic and sexual development. Whether or not the child has successfully resolved the Oedipal conflict, the
instinctual drives of the id are inaccessible to the Ego, because his or her defense mechanisms repressed them
during the phallic stage. Hence, because said drives are latent (hidden) and gratification is delayed — unlike during
the preceding oral, anal, and phallic stages — the child must derive the pleasure of gratification from secondary
process-thinking that directs the libidinal drives towards external activities, such as schooling, friendships, hobbies,
etc. Any neuroses established during the fourth, latent stage, of psychosexual development might derive from the
inadequate resolution either of the Oedipus conflict or of the Ego's failure to direct his or her energies towards
socially acceptable activities.

Genital stage[edit]
Main article: Genital stage
The fifth stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage that spans puberty through adult life, and thus
represents most of a person's life; its purpose is the psychological detachment and independence from the parents.
The genital stage affords the person the ability to confront and resolve his or her remaining psychosexual childhood
conflicts. As in the phallic stage, the genital stage is centered upon the genitalia, but the sexuality is consensual and
adult, rather than solitary and infantile. The psychological difference between the phallic and genital stages is that
the ego is established in the latter; the person's concern shifts from primary-drive gratification (instinct) to applying
secondary process-thinking to gratify desire symbolically and intellectually by means of friendships, a love
relationship, family and adult responsibilities.

You can remember the order of these stages by using the mnemonic: “old (oral) age (anal) pensioners (phallic) love
(latent) grapes (genital).