Psychosexual Theory

Sigmund Freud is well known as a father of psychoanalysis. In the psychosexual theory the concept of the libido plays central role. Libido is usually explained a sexual drive of a person towards the person. Freud worked out psychosexual stages of personality development. Every stage is characterized by the cathexis of specific human organ or an erogenous zone. As the child is developing into an adult these stages change each other. The stages of psychosexual development are oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage (Westen, 1999).The oral stage is the first one in human physiological development. So, already the infants are developing in this particular stage as they know how to suck and drink without learning. Thus, the organ which corresponds to this stage is the mouth. Even though the baby does not understand anything, all the movements and drives are controlled on subconscious level. The next stage is the anal stage. The toddlers are developing in this particular stage, according to Freud. At this stage the children learn many different activities. Besides, the stage is marked by prominent manifestation of disobedience towards parents as a form of self-expression. The third stage of psychosexual development is phallic stage, which is considered to play the most important role in the model presented by Freud. When children’s sex organs are stimulated they feel pleased. Also, at this stage the children start to distinguish between male and female parent roles. Besides, a so-called Oedipus complex comes into play when daughters feel attracted to their fathers, and sons – to their mothers (to opposite sex). This stage is also responsible for gender roles and personality formation. According to Freud’s theory, a person must solve the Oedipus complex before becoming psychosexually developed in a normal way. Also, it should be stressed that this complex is also described as parental. A young male is attracted to his mother, while feels fiercely towards a father. The character of Oedipus is borrowed from the Greek literature. In one tragedy a son murders his father and later gets married with his mother. Freud’s theory does not reflect every detail of the Greek tragedy, but the idea is actually the same. There is no motivation, because these actions were done solely out of child’s ignorance and immaturity. Freud further explains that solving of the problem, of the Oedipus complex, is reached subconsciously and, thus, naturally (Phelan, 2005). The next stage is called the latency stage which coincides with the beginning of puberty. Libido is being in some non-active phase at this stage. Sexual drives are often combined with aggressive drives. The last stage is the genital stage. Logically this stage coincides with puberty. The libido or conscious sexuality awakes. The libido is striving for its cathexis in the genitals as a result of full and final stage of psychosexual development. Besides, such characteristic as emotional maturity is achieved. However, the remnants of the previous stages still can be felt. Even though Freud developed a psychosexual theory …