PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

* Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

- Pleasure That Transcend Genital Sexuality
- Childhood Sexuality
- Linkage Between Neuroses and Perversion
Oral Stage (0-18 mos)

Instincts
- Sex
- Aggression
- Libido Force by which sexual instinct is represented in the mind
- Sexual Instinct complex process; psychosexual devt
Anal Stage (1-3 yrs)

Definition

- focus on mouth, lips, tongue

- other organs related to oral
zone

- maturation of anal sphincters

(voluntary control over retention
and expulsion of feces)
- neuromuscular control of anal
sphincters

Description

- oral sensations: thirst,

hunger, pleasurable tactile
stimulation, sensations related
to swallowing and satiation

- intensification of aggressive
drives mixed with libidinal
components and sadistic impulses

- 2 separate components
+ oral drives: libidinal
(earlier oral erotism) and
aggressive (oral sadism)
biting, chewing, spitting, crying
primitive wishes of biting
devouring and destroying
- oral tension oral
gratification quiescence after
nursing

Objectives

Urethral Stage
- transitional stage not
explicitly treated by Freud
- shares some characteristics
with anal stage and phallic
stage
- Pleasure in Urination
- urethral erotism: urethral
retention

- conflicts w/ anal control

- urethral sadism: pleasure in

urination

- struggle over separation,

individuation

- enuresis: loss of urethral

control

- fantasies over expressions,

bombing

- increased ambivalence, struggle

over separation, individuation, and
independence
- anal erotism retaining
precious feces and presenting as
precious gift

- to establish a trusting

- anal sadism discharging

feces as powerful and destructive
weapons (fantasies about
bombing and explosions)
- to achieve autonomy without

- focus: sexual interests,

stimulation, excitement in the
genital area
- penis: organ of principal interest
- penis envy (feminine sense of
shame and inadequacy in being
unable to match male urethral
performance)
- increase in genital masturbation,
unconscious fantasies of sexual
involvement with opposite sex
parent

- shift from passivity to activity

- oral triad: wish to eat, wish to

sleep, to reach relaxation that
occurs at the end of sucking just
before onset of sleep

Phallic Stage (3-5 yrs)

Latency Stage (5/611/13 yrs)

- relative quiescence or
inactivity of sexual drive
- resolution of Oedipus
complex
- formation of superego
AND further maturation of
ego functions greater
control of instinctual
impulses

Genital Stage (10-11 yrsyoung adulthood)

- Adolescent Phase
Preadolescent
Early adolescent
Middle adolescent
Late adolescent
Postadolescence periods
- physiological motivation
of genital (sexual)
functioning and attendant
hormonal systems leads to
intensification of libidinal
drives regression

- homosexual affiliations,
sublimation of libidinal
and aggressive energies
- learning and play
- development of
important skills

- threat of castration and related

anxiety arise in connection with
guilt over masturbation and
oedipal wishes
- oedipal involvement and conflict
are established and consolidated

---

- to focus erotic interest in genital

- further integration of

- ultimate separation and

dependence on nursing and

sustaining objects

excessive shame or self-doubt

from loss of control

- to establish comfortable
expression and gratification of
oral libidinal needs without
excessive conflict or
ambivalence from oral sadistic
wishes

- Striving for independence and

separation

area and genital functions

- lays foundation for gender
identity
- genital-sexual orientation

oedipal identifications
AND consolidation of
sex-role identity and
sex roles

dependence to parents and

establishment of mature,
nonincestuous object
relations

- Contact w/ figures
outside the family,
teacher and other adults

- mature sense of personal

identity
- integration of adult roles

- sense of industry
- essential for Future
Satisfaction in Work
and Love
Pathological
Traits

Character
Traits Resolution

Excessive optimism,
narcissism, pessimism
(depression)
Demandingness
Excessively
dependent
requires others to give
to them and to look
after them
Extremely dependent
on objects for
maintenance of selfesteem
Envy and jealousy
Excessive Oral
Gratification
Libidinal FIxations

Capacity to give and

receive without
excessive
dependence or envy
Capacity to rely on
others with a sense of

Orderliness
Obstinacy
Stubbornness
Willfulness
Frugality
Fixation on Anal
Character
Parsimony
Heightened
ambivalence
Lack of tidiness
Messiness
Defiance
Rage
Sadomasochistic
tendencies
Obsessive-compulsive
neuroses
Development of personal
autonomy

Capacity for
independence and
personal initiative without
guilt

Competitiveness and
ambition
(compensate for
shame due to loss of
urethral control)
Control
Shaming
Set the stage for
Gender Identity

Determinants of human
character development:
Complex Phenomenon
Core of Neuroses
Males: castration
Females: penis envy
Patterns of
identification

Provide:

Foundations for
sexual identity

Sense of curiosity
without
embarrassment

Initiative without guilt

- ego development
Danger:
- lack of development of
inner control failure of
child to sufficiently
sublimate energies in the
interests of learning and
development of skills
- excess of control
premature closure of
personality development

Period of
integrating and
consolidating
previous
attainments in
psychosexual
development

Capacity for selfrealization and

meaningful
participation in the
areas of work and love
and in the creative and
productive application
to satisfying and
meaningful goals and
values
- Erikson: Identity Diffusion

trust, self-reliance
and self-trust

Sense of mastery not

only over objects and
persons in the
environment but also
over internal
processes and
impulses

Regulation of drive
impulses and direction
to constructive ends

Superego: internal
source of regulation
parental figures

Capacity for selfdetermining behavior

without a sense of shame
and self-doubt

and
establishing
decisive
patterns of
adaptive
functioning
sense of
industry and
mastery of
objects
Basis for mature
adult life of
satisfaction in
work and love