Psychodynamic Approach

• Pre-phallic children


  • Under 3 years old
  • Freud's psychosexual stages outlined in his psychodynamic theory
  • Before the age of 3, children have no concepts of gender identity
  • Between 3-6 they enter the phallic stage, the key period of gender development
• Oedipus complex


  • Phallic stage
  • Boys develop incestuous feeling towards their mothers; they want them for themselves
  • They feel a jealous hatred for their fathers; their rivals in love
  • They recognise their father is more powerful and fear that they will be castrated if they find out (castration anxiety)
• Electra complex


  • Jung - girls' conflict
  • Freud called it 'penis envy'
  • Phallic stage - girls feel competition with mother for father
  • Resent mother; she is responsible for lack of penis
• Identification


  • Boys
  • Conflict and castration anxiety
  • Solution - Identify with father
  • Girls
  • Love conflict and penis envy
  • Solution - Substitution (maternal longing), identify with mother
• Internalisation


  Child begins to adopt attitudes and values of their same-sex parent, at first out of anxiety