Sigmund Freud’s 5 stages of psychosexual development

Oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages. What was Freud's vision of human sexuality?

The current of psychoanalysis initiated by Sigmund Freud more than 100 years ago is one of the main influences of contemporary Western culture.

If his theories on the functioning of the unconscious have served as an influence in many areas of the humanities and art, it is no less true that a good part of his approaches have to do with human sexuality. The theory of psychosexual development with its different stages is the embodiment of this idea, and that is why, historically, the theory of psychosexual development, with its different stages, is the embodiment of this idea.This is why it has historically received so much attention.

Sexuality according to Freud

For Freud, human sexuality is one of the main strands of the vital energy that drives human behavior.. This energy, to which he gave the name of libido, is the source of the impulses that for the father of psychoanalysis make us tend towards certain short-term goals and, at the same time, force other instances of our psyche to repress these tendencies so as not to put us in danger or not to come into conflict with the environment in which we live.

The vital energy that expresses itself through sexuality, according to Freud, is already present from the first weeks of our life, which means that our sexual side is not born in adolescence, as many researchers of his time maintained.

But the implications of this are not simply a matter of locating the onset of our sexual development at one point or another in our life calendar. It has profound implications for the way in which Freud related our personality to our personality. Freud related our personality to our intimate, affective and impulse-basedaffective, impulse-based, intimate side.

The development of the unconscious

One of the essential ideas behind Freud's theory of psychosexual development is that the way in which we manage the satisfaction of the libido during childhood leaves traces in our unconscious that will be felt during adulthood.

Thus, if factors external to a child make it impossible to satisfy these tendencies as desired (for example, because of parental reprimands), this anguish translates into a fixation that has to do with ideas related to a particular erogenous zone (which does not necessarily have to be in the genital area). For Freud, therefore, both biology and upbringing are involved in psychosexual development.

Other followers of the psychodynamic current ended up rejecting Freud's deterministic view, according to which the unconscious part of ourselves constantly manipulates us. constantly manipulates us without us being able to do much about it. However, this way of thinking led Freud to create the theory of psychosexual development, one of the most remembered in the history of psychology.

The stages of development and their fixations

Based on the different ways in which the stage of growth of children conditions the appearance of one or another type of fixation, Sigmund Freud formulated the theory that would unite the developmental stages and their fixations. formulated the theory that would link sexuality with the development of the Freudian unconscious.. 

In it, he proposes that in the first years of our lives we go through different stages of development linked to sexuality and different fixations, and that what happens during them will influence the way in which the unconscious conditions the person once he or she has reached adulthood. That is to say, that each of the stages of psychosexual development would mark the tempos that delimit what kind of actions are necessary to expressing libido The most important ones are the phases of psychosexual development, which can create conflicts that remain unconsciously engrained in us.

The pulsional phases of psychosexual development

From the psychosexual theory of personality development it is understood that the past history of each person determines the way in which the power relationship between the unconscious structures of the individual, on the one hand, and the structures that struggle not to express these elements that belong outside the consciousness, on the other hand, is modeled.

Thus, the way a person behaves will depend on how he or she has coped with the different stages of psychosexual development and the challenges characteristic of each phase.

As for the father of psychoanalysis the libido is assumed to be the main type of energy that drives peopleThese challenges and conflicts of each phase of maturation will have a more or less veiled link with their way of experiencing sexuality (understood in a very broad sense in which all kinds of symbolisms are involved).

According to Freudian theory, the stages of psychosexual development and their characteristics are as follows..

1. Oral stage

The oral stage occupies approximately the first 18 months of life.It is here that the first attempts to satisfy the demands promoted by the libido appear. In this stage, the mouth is the main area in which pleasure is sought. The mouth is also one of the main areas of the body when it comes to exploring the environment and its elements, and this would explain the propensity of the youngest children to try to "bite" everything.

If babies are strictly prevented from using their mouths to satisfy themselves, this could produce a blockage that would cause certain problems to remain fixed in the unconscious (according to Freud).

2. Anal stage

This stage would take place from the end of the oral stage and up to 3 years of age.. It is the phase in which the sphincter begins to control the sphincter in defecation. For Freud, this activity is linked to pleasure and sexuality.

The fixations related to this phase of psychosexual development have to do with accumulation and expenditure, linked to the thrifty spirit and discipline in the first case, and to disorganization and waste of resources in the second. However, according to the father of psychoanalysis, these dynamics of spending and saving would not be expressed only or mainly through money management.

3. Phallic stage

This pulsional phase would last between 3 and 6 years of age.and its associated erogenous zone is that of the genitals. Thus, the main pleasurable sensation would be that of urinating, but it would also originate in this phase the beginning of curiosity about the differences between men and women, boys and girls, starting with the obvious dissimilarities in the shape of the genitals and ending with interests, ways of being and dressing, etc.

In addition, Freud related this phase to the appearance of the "Oedipus complex", in which male children feel attraction towards the person who exercises the role of mother and feel jealousy and fear towards the person who exercises the role of father. As for the girls who go through this stage of psychosexual development Freud "slightly adapted the idea with Oedipus Complex to encompass them, although the concept had been developed to make sense mainly in boys. It was later that Carl Jung proposed the Electra complex as the feminine counterpart to Oedipus.

4. Latency stage

This phase begins around the age of 7 and lasts until the onset of puberty.. The latency stage is characterized by not having a specific erogenous zone associated with it and, in general, by representing a freezing of sexual experimentation on the part of children, partly because of all the punishments and admonishments received. That is why Freud described this phase as one in which sexuality is more camouflaged than in the previous ones.

The latency stage has been associated with the appearance of modesty and shame related to sexuality.

5. Genital stage

The genital stage appears with puberty and continues thereafter.. It is related to the physical changes that accompany adolescence. Moreover, in this phase of psychosexual development, the desire related to sexuality becomes so intense that it cannot be repressed as effectively as in previous stages.

The erogenous zone related to this vital moment is once again that of the genitals, but unlike what happens in the phallic phase, here the necessary skills have already been developed to express sexuality through bonds of union of a more abstract and symbolic character that have to do with consensus and attachment with other people. This is the birth of adult sexualityThis is the birth of adult sexuality, as opposed to another linked only to simple instant gratifications obtained through stereotypical activities.

Freudian theory, in context

The theory of psychosexual development can lead to some alarmism if one thinks that a mismanagement of the education of minors during these phases can leave them with traumas and all kinds of disorders if Freud's ideas are not well understood. However, it must be kept in mind that this theory during was formulated and developed at a point when psychology was just being born..

When Sigmund Freud developed his theories, he relied on concrete cases of patients he knew, i.e., his way of investigating was based on a mixture of case studies and interpretation of the symbolic contents. symbolic contents of people's behavior. He hardly established hypotheses that could be contrasted with reality, and when he did so, he limited himself to observation, not experimentation. The theory of psychosexual development was no exception to this rule.

Nor does it make much sense to investigate the usefulness of the theory of psychosexual development using statistical analyses, because the formulation of these ideas was based on the interpretation of the patients' actions and their past.

Partly because of this and partly because Freudian psychoanalysis does not adhere to the epistemology used in science today, there is no reason to think that this theory serves to explain and predict the problems linked to sexuality and the socialization of people. This means that psychosexual theory cannot serve to detect warning signs about whether children or adolescents are developing correctly or not, nor can it serve to ensure that mental disorders are due to these kinds of mechanisms.

Bibliographical references:

• Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. Londres: Harper Collins.
• Grunbaum, A. (1985). The foundations of Psychoanalysis: a philosophical critique. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Quidonoz, J.M. (2005). Reading Freud. A Chronological Exploration of Freud's Writings. Nueva York: Routledge.
• Mannoni, O. (2015). Freud: The Theory of the Unconscious. Londres: Verso.
• Scott, J. (2005). Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
• Sigmund, F. (2012). Tres ensayos sobre teoría sexual. Buenos Aires: Alianza Editorial.