Psychosexual Stages

Freud (1905) proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of xed
psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.
These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the xa&on of libido (roughly
translated as sexual drives or ins&ncts) on a di'erent area of the body. As a person grows physically
certain areas of their body become important as sources of poten&al frustra&on (erogenous zones),
pleasure or both.
Freud believed that life was built round tension and pleasure. Freud also believed that all tension was
due to the build-up of libido (sexual energy) and that all pleasure came from its discharge.
In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud meant to convey that what
develops is the way in which sexual energy accumulates and is discharged as we mature biologically. (NB
Freud used the term 'sexual' in a very general way to mean all pleasurable ac&ons and thoughts).
Freud stressed that the rst ve years of life are crucial to the forma&on of adult personality.
The id must be controlled in order to sa&sfy social demands; this sets up a con1ict between frustrated
wishes and social norms.
The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct the need for gra& ca&on into
socially acceptable channels. Gra& ca&on centers in di'erent areas of the body at di'erent stages of
growth, making the con1ict at each stage psychosexual.
The Role of Con1ict
Each of the psychosexual stages is associated with a par&cular con1ict that must be resolved before the
individual can successfully advance to the next stage. The resolu&on of each of these con1icts requires
the expenditure of sexual energy and the more energy that is expended at a par&cular stage, the more
the important characteris&cs of that stage remain with the individual as he/she matures psychologically.
To explain this Freud suggested the analogy of military troops on the march. As the troops advance,
they are met by opposi&on or con1ict. If they are highly successful in winning the ba8le (resolving the
con1ict), then most of the troops (libido) will be able to move on to the next ba8le (stage).
But the greater the di9culty encountered at any par&cular point, the greater the need for troops to
remain behind to ght and thus the fewer that will be able to go on to the next confronta&on.
Frustra&on, Overindulgence, and Fixa&on
Some people do not seem to be able to leave one stage and proceed on to the next. One reason for this
may be that the needs of the developing individual at any par&cular stage may not have been
adequately met in which case there is frustra&on.
Or possibly the person's needs may have been so well sa&s ed that he/she is reluctant to leave the
psychological bene ts of a par&cular stage in which there is overindulgence.