Psychosexual Stages

• Psychosexual stages all stem off of the assumption that early childhood experiences remain in our unconscious and affect later adult behaviour

  Freud believed child development happens in 5 stages

  In each there is a different conflict that a child must resolve in order to progress into the next

  Any conflict that is unresolved leads to a fixation - the child becomes stuck and carries certain behaviour through to adult life
• Stage 1 - Oral - Up to 1 year

  Mouth is focal point of sensation ( mother's breast often the object of desire )

  Child gains pleasure through sucking and biting

  Oral fixation - smoking , biting nails , chatty
• Stage 2 - Anal - 2 to 3 years

  Anus is focal point of sensation

  Child gains pleasure though withholding and expelling faeces

  Development of ego - child becomes aware of reality demands and the need to conform to the demands of others

  Anal fixation -

  • Anal retentive - developing perfectionist and obsessive traits
  • Anal expulsive - developing thoughtless and messy traits
• Stage 3 - Phallic - 3 to 6 years

  Genital area is focal point of sensation

  Major conflict is the Oedipus complex and Electra complex

  Phallic personality - narcissistic and reckless , gender dysphoria
• Stage 4 - Latency - 6 to 12 years

  No further psychosexual development takes place

  Instead , stage is when earlier conflicts are repressed and cannot be remembered

  Super Ego beings to develop as the ID's energies are suppressed

  Sexual energy is sublimated towards school work , hobbies and friendships

  If conflict is unresolved - sexual ' deviancies ' and weak or confused sexual identities
• Stage 5 - Genital - 12 plus

  Fixing of sexual energy on the genitals

  Sexual desire becomes conscious

  Super Ego and Ego should be fully developed and able to handle the id's impulsive desire - drive demands

  Freud believed the proper outlet for sexual energy to be heterosexual intercourse

  Fixation or conflict would lead to sexual perversions for example , fixation in oral stage may result in a person gaining sexual pleasure from kissing or oral sex