Psychology is an important field of science that helps in understanding human beings and why they act in the way they do. Scientists such as Sigmund Freud made notable contributions towards this field. He was an Austrian neurologist best known for creating psychoanalysis. This term refers to the process of addressing mental disorders through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. More importantly, Freud is known for his contribution in explaining psychosexual development. According to his work, psychosexual development begins at a very young age and continues until we are adults. These stages help psychologists today as they treat psychosexual disorders and also help patients understand the root of their problems. Essential Freud’s psychosexual development has provided a blueprint for understanding human behaviour. This means that by understanding this theory as explained in this assignment, we are able to identify each psychosexual stage and explain a child’s behaviour into adulthood.
Psychosexual Development
Freud suggested that human beings from childhood have to develop sexual energy or instinctual libido. Each stage of development is characterized by an erogenous zone which forms the name of the stages which are the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent and the genitals. This scientist explains that any frustration during sexual development may lead to anxiety that leads to a functional mental disorder. Freud came up with this theory when he noted that during notable child development stages, the child’s behaviour was focused on specific parts of their body such as the mouth during breastfeeding and the anus during toilet training. His work further explains that most adult challenges can be traced back to childhood sexual fantasy and desire. For the purpose of this, Freud suggested libido development as a chart that explains psychosexual development and includes the following stages:
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Oral Stage
This is the initial stage that begins from birth to when a child is one year old. At this point, the infant gains libidinal satisfaction from breastfeeding or putting objects in their mouth which can also be referred to as oral exploration of their environment. In this stage, the infant satisfaction is based on the pleasure principle and thus the id is leading since the ego and the super-ego are yet to develop. Notably, the infantile ego is developing as the baby develops a body image, as the child discovers pain and thus identifies physical boundaries and the understanding that delayed gratification leads to the realization that some behaviours lead to gratification such as crying to get food ( Jones, 2018) . Weaning is important at the oral stage because it increases infant awareness that he or she does not control the environment around them. This delayed gratification leads to the formation of independence, and trust.
The oral stage helps in understanding some deficiencies in human behaviour. Unfortunately, it is relatively easy for a child to develop a fixation at this stage. The term ‘oral fixation’ refers to the need for constant oral stimulation through unhealthy habits ( Berger, 2014) . In adulthood oral fixation develops in unhealthy habits such as drinking, nail-biting, over-eating and smoking. These are signs of an individual that has aggression and anxiety because they never learnt how not to be over-dependent. Similar to any other deficiency it takes time to correct through self-understanding and analysis. Usually, psychologists help their patients through this process and are able to create self-understanding for all their patients in a way that helps them overcome their unhealthy habits founded in deprived childhood situations ( Berger, 2014). Also, Freud’s information helps parents remain aware of different ways they could damage their children which ensure that they take on healthier practices that will not inhibit their development.
The anal stage
This is the second stage of Freud's psychosexual development. This stage starts from eighteen months to three years. The erogenous zone changes from the upper digestive tract which is the mouth, to the lower digestive tract which is the anus. At this juncture, toilet training is the child's most significant step which takes place at around 2years of age ( Silverman, 2017) . The ego development continues as the children must deny themselves instant gratification and adhere to secondary gratification which is the ego and not the id. Ideally, good parenting allows this development to take a gradual course as the child learns to manipulate the excrement and cope with parental demands. However, is some cases the experience may be abrupt and traumatic. At the anal stage, there is an id to ego conflict as the child works to meet modern parental demands of cleanliness which result in a self-controlled adult.
This stage helps us understand the mind of compulsive adults and individual who are super neat. Their behaviour is often as a result of parents who over-emphasized cleanliness and did not allow a smooth transition during the anal stage. If the child obeys the id and does not get proper toilet training from the parents, they grow up as individuals with a self-indulgent personality and minimal concern for their environment or whatever is happening around them. Furthermore, if the parents are too strict, the individual develops a poor sense of self because their ego did not develop because the simply did as they were told. Ultimately, Freud theory of psychosexual development crucially emphasizes the role of the parent throughout the development process. Their approach clearly uplifts or damages the child. The impact is lasting into adulthood and thus they must approach every stage with the sensitivity it requires.
The phallic stage
This stage is typically between three to six years. The erogenous zones are now the genitalia. Children become aware of their bodies, their friends' bodies and their parents' bodies ( Ilias, & Esa, 2017) . They experiment by taking off their clothes and examining each other’s body parts. The phallic stage is where children become aware of the difference between boys and girls. The Oedipus complex is common in boys at this age. They develop the son-father competition for their mother’s attention. Similarly, girls develop the Electra complex which the daughter-mother competition for the father’s possession. These terms are both coined from mythological stories. The narrative of Oedipus a son killed his father and owned his mother while in the story of Electra a young woman went to great lengths to get the attention of her step-father. This explains the change in the child-parent dynamic during the phallic stage.
For the male child, his infantile libido towards his mother and is jealous of the father who sleeps with his focus. There is a clear change of the child-parent dynamic as the child no longer sees the mother as a gratifier of needs but as a sexual being. The child’s Id wants to fight the father, but the more realistic ego knows that he is stronger and thus the child develops a fear of castration by the stronger party. On the contrary, the girl develops penis envy because she is not able to possess her mother sexually. Consequently, she turns her feelings towards the only person who has what she cannot have, her father. Furthermore, the girl transfers her feelings from the clitoris to the vagina. Due to these changes, Freud emphasizes that the phallic stage is more intensive on girls than boys.
Notably, both sexes develop defence mechanisms that help them through the process and in the fight between id and ego. The initial approach is repression where one blocks memories, impulses and ideas from the conscious mind. However, this approach is not effective in the battle between id and ego. The second approach is identification. The boy realizes that he is similar to his father and thus overcomes the fear of castration by accepting the factors that make him like his mother. The girl overcomes penis envy by accepting her similarities to her mother and realizing that she is not the antagonist because she will never have a penis. This stage helps individuals understand mental disorders such as phallic-stage fixation where she is constantly competing with men by being extra-seductive or submissive. On the other hand, phallic fixation may lead a man to be overly aggressive and vain. This school of thought emphasizes self-acceptance and internalizing morality where we can comply with societal rules.
Latency Stage
The latency stage starts from the age of six to puberty. Here the child consolidates the traits learnt in the three previous stages. This stage occurs regardless of the child being able to overcome their Oedipus complex ( Freud, 2018) . Their defence mechanisms repress the phallic stages and thus the instinctual id drivers are unable to access the ego. Since pleasures cannot be derived from the internal, the child then seeks gratification from external factors such as hobbies, friendships and schooling. Any mental disorders formed at the latent stage are often as a result of no resolution to the already existing Oedipus complex. Parents are thus encouraged to promote self-awareness in their children such that they accept themselves, the social norms in a way that allows them to resolve the conflict between id and ego. This allows them to develop healthy sexual practices.
The latency stage is where people adopt external interest to protect themselves from the conflict between id and ego. Thus, by understanding this age we can sympathize with the emotional challenges that are often associated with puberty. It is clearly a time when young people are discovering themselves. Additionally, the latency stage challenges parents to allow their children to discover who they are by creating an external life of friends, hobbies and other activities. The grownups must respect the emotional journey that most of these young individuals are going through instead of criticizing them and making them feel terrible about a situation that they cannot control. Furthermore, the latency stage helps understand mental disorders among individuals that did not have external distractions in their young ages and puberty. Usually, they end up making up for the lack of these outlets at an older age. As such, parents are encouraged to let their children go through the process.
The genital stage
This is the final stage that describes most of the adult life of a person. It is characterized by psychological detachment from the parents and a new level of independence. The genital stage marks the point where the person develops self-sufficiency away from their primary caregivers. As a result, an individual can confront his or her remaining psychosocial conflicts. The erogenous zone at this point remains genitalia. However, while previously it was solitary and infantile, it is now consensual and adult. The ego is definitely founded in the latter. This means that the person’s focus shifts from primary gratification to secondary thinking where one seeks to gratify desire symbolically, as well as intellectually, through friendships, love, relationship, family and adult responsibilities. This being the final stage, it may take as people become aware of the psychological issues that inhibit them from having a healthy sex life.
The genital stage is evident when people begin to demand more from their sexual relationships. At the adult stage especially, more men and women are able to openly admit to the search for a stable partner and the desire to create families of their own. Essentially, more and more people seek professional help for the purpose of correcting their childhood directivities in their quest for a fulfilling sexual experience. Even if they do not seek assistance, most people become aware of their psychological issues at this juncture and can clearly see how their actions are as a result of the psychosexual journey from childhood to adulthood. With the conversation on sexual behaviours being more open, it is easier for people to get help on this matter and share their journey to inspire others as well. This is a significant change from the previous generations that were more secretive about their sexual journeys.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual theory serve a purpose in helping us understand ourselves better. The knowledge he provides is an opportunity for more people to confront the psychological disorders in a healthy way instead of covering them up with unhealthy behaviours. As expected, Freud faced criticism from his colleagues who accused him of manipulating data to further his research. Also, feminist view his analysis as a sexist approach based on self-analysis. However, it is evident that Dr Freud’s work has facilitated the correcting of a variety of mental disorders by allowing psychologists to understand their patients and the necessary steps towards a healthy sexual life. Without such dedicated research, it is not easy to appreciate the role of a parent in developing a healthy psychological life for their children. Also, it urges people to embrace the discovery process that goes into discovering our sexual selves.
References
Berger, K. S. (2014). The developing person through the life span ( 9th edition). New York: Worth publishers.
Freud, S. (2018). The transformations of puberty In Adolescence and Psychoanalysis : Routledge.
Ilias, M. R., & Esa, A. (2017). Children's Psychology Development.
Jones, E. (2018). The early development of female sexuality In Female Sexuality (pp. 133-145): Routledge.
Silverman, D. K. (2017). Psychosexual Stages of Development (Freud); Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences .
