Psychosexual stages

• Psychosexual stages

  Freud claimed that child development occurred in 5 stages. Each stage (apart from latency) is marked by a different conflict that the child must resolve in order to progress successfully to the next stage. Any psychosexual conflict that is unresolved leads to a fixation where the child becomes 'stuck' and carries certain behaviours and conflicts associated with that stage through to adult life.
• Oral

  • 0-1 years
  • Focus of pleasure is the mouth, mother's breast can be the object of desire
  • Consequence of unresolved conflict - oral fixation; smoking, biting nails
• Anal

  • 1-3 years
  • Focus of pleasure is the anus. Child gains pleasure from withholding and expelling faeces
  • Consequence of unresolved conflict - anal retentive; perfectionist, obsessive / anal expulsive; thoughtless, messy
• Phallic


  • 3-6 years
  • Focus of pleasure is the genital area
  • Consequence of unresolved conflict - phallic personality; narcissistic, reckless
• Latency


  Earlier conflicts are repressed.
• Genital

  • Sexual desires become conscious alongside the onset of puberty
  • Consequence of unresolved conflict - difficulty forming heterosexual relationships