BLOG PODS #25 - SIGMUND FREUD: The Psychosexual Stages of Development
INTRODUCTION
Sigmund Freud, a pioneering figure in psychology, introduced his theory of psychosexual development to explain how personality evolves through early childhood.
He proposed that human behaviour is driven by unconscious desires and conflicts that are in play during different stages of childhood. Although some aspects of his theory are controversial today, Freud remains very influential in understanding the foundations of human development and influencing the language that surrounds it.
For example, commonly cited ideas like ‘defence mechanisms,’ ‘projection,’ ‘transference’ and ‘counter-transference,’ all originate with Freud.
Overview of Freud's Psychosexual Stages
Freud believed that childhood development occurs in a series of fixed stages, each characterised by the focus on a different erogenous zone of the body - which in turn constitutes specific behaviours and functions.
For each stage, we’ll summarise the erogenous zone (i.e. the site of pleasure or excitement), key activities (which link to needs) and the psychological theme in play for the developing child.
As always, this list is very much a distillation and is nowhere near exhaustive…
In summary, the stages are:
1. Oral Stage (0-1 year)
* Erogenous Zone: Mouth
* Key Activities: Sucking, biting, chewing
* Psychological Theme: Dependency and trust
* Description: During this stage, an infant’s pleasure is centred around the mouth. Things like sucking and biting are crucial as they are the primary functions in their subjective world. If needs are not adequately met, individuals might develop oral fixations in adulthood - things like smoking/vaping, nail-biting or pica, reflecting (in Freud’s view) unresolved dependency issues.
2. Anal Stage (1-3 years)
* Erogenous Zone: Anus
* Key Activities: Toilet training
* Psychological Theme: Control and autonomy
* Description: At stage 2 the focus shifts from the mouth to bowel and bladder control. Successful completion of this stage is marked by a sense of accomplishment and independence. Overly strict or overly lenient toilet training can lead to two possible personality outcomes: an anal-retentive personality, characterised by a strong (some might say obsessive) focus on cleanliness and order, or an anal-expulsive personality, marked by messiness and disorganisation.
3. Phallic Stage (3-6 years)
* Erogenous Zone: Genitals
* Key Activities: Identification with same-sex parent
* Psychological Theme: Gender identity and sexuality
* Description: Children become aware of their bodies and recognise differences between males and females. This stage is marked by the Oedipus complex in boys and the Electra complex in girls, where children feel a sense of competition with the parent who is the same sex as them for the attention of the opposite-sex parent. So, boys ‘compete’ with Dad for Mum’s attention and affection, and girls compete with Mum for Dad’s attention and affection. Resolution of these complexes leads to the development of a healthy gender identity.
* N.B. There are obvious shortcomings and limitations here and a clear need to think more broadly about how heteronormative sexuality assumptions and gender attitudes might be impacting the child’s development. Freud, like the rest of us, was a product of his time, so we need to keep this in mind for practice in the modern world, where not only sexuality is more open and fluid, but also sexual identity itself.
4. Latency Stage (6 years-puberty)
* Erogenous Zone: Dormant sexual feelings
* Key Activities: Socialisation, learning and hobbies
* Psychological Theme: Developing social skills and self-confidence
* Description: During this period, sexual impulses are repressed and controlled, and children focus on developing friendships, acquiring knowledge, engaging in hobbies and developing interests. This stage is crucial for building self-confidence and social skills, for children developing a sense of validity and confidence in their own preferences, ideas and interests.
5. Genital Stage (Puberty-adulthood)
* Erogenous Zone: Genitals (again! 🙄)
* Key Activities: Establishing intimate relationships
* Psychological Theme: Maturity, balance between work and love
* Description: This final stage is characterised by a (hopefully!) slow and gradual emergence of previously controlled sexual interests in balance with other priorities and obligations. Successful navigation of earlier stages allows individuals to develop healthy, mature relationships, learn safe and appropriate expression of sexual desires and establish a balance between this and the various other areas of life.
Implications for Child Development and Care
Like other theories covered in this series, a staged and sequenced unfolding of development is implicit in Freud. Even if we choose to reject much of his thinking as anachronistic or conjectural (I know I do!), there is merit in the sequencing, at least.
Understanding these stages can help caregivers and professionals recognise the importance of meeting children’s needs appropriately at each stage of growth and development. Again, this is common with the other theoretical frameworks we’ve looked at.
Here are some practical takeaways from Freud’s ideas at each stage, ,along with my take on the ‘core’ idea for each one:
Oral Stage: (0-1 year)
Core idea: Providing consistent care, feeding and nurturing are essential to foster a sense of safety, trust and security.
Baseline routines and the imperative to ‘meet the need’ are solid foundations for a good development. Pre-verbal, pre-cognitive children are very much at the whim of what’s going on around them, so meeting needs within a framework of consistent routines and attentive care provides vital support for this.
This should not be mechanistic, though, as if merely feeding, changing and keeping a child warm will do the trick. The human warmth, affection and proactively nurturing nature of the care is vital, too.
Anal Stage: (1-3 years)
Core idea: Positive reinforcement and patience during toilet training can help children develop a sense of autonomy without anxiety or shame.
For me, accepting that there’s more going here is important - children are learning to feel, understand and operate their bodies in line with social expectations; and they are negotiating complex, subconscious processes like interoception and sensory integration - it’s certainly not all about wee-ing and poo-ing, so patience is key here!
Rather than reacting to what’s going on, exploring with brings the child into a dialogue about their own functioning. This stage is when speech and cognition are accelerating rapidly, so bringing them into our thoughts about what’s going on with their bodies and emotions will help stabilise and inform their own understanding.
Phallic Stage: (3-6 years)
Core idea: Encouraging healthy expressions of what Freud might call ‘gender identity’ and providing clear moral guidance are key.
As mentioned just now, these ideas have progressed since the stages were first published in 1905, so we can allow ourselves some latitude here. For me, it’s less about gender identity - which is laden with sexually deterministic ideas, not to mention socially constructed ‘norms’ about what males and females are and should do - and is much more about recognising that children are emerging increasingly as distinct personalities of their own.
A supportive and non-judgmental environment helps children navigate their feelings around this and develop without anxiety or the need to conform to externally imposed, perhaps even rigid ideas about who and what they should or shouldn’t be.
Latency Stage: (6 years-puberty)
Core idea: Encouraging play and facilitating opportunities for learning, social interaction
and skill development supports healthy self-esteem and confidence.
Now that the personality is emerging, we want to release it to roam, learn, wonder, experiment, play and develop in safety, joy and freedom.
Modern parenting, as well as professional childcare, can easily become centred on risks, concerns and safeguarding - all important, of course - but wherever possible kids need the chance to just be. Providing safety with minimum restriction is the sweet spot here. Children need to have edges to what they can and cannot do, in order to keep them safe. But making the field of freedom as wide as possible before they run up against a fence, means they can follow their instincts, preferences and inquisitorial impulses as much as possible.
Genital Stage: (Puberty-adulthood)
Core idea: Guidance in forming healthy relationships and navigating the complexities of adolescence is crucial for balanced emotional and social development.
Adolescence is a crucial stage of development, as we know. It represents the emergence of the adult from the foundations of childhood. The brain is fast re-wiring itself and beginning to become its adult self increasingly.
Kids can wobble hugely at this stage, without the scaffolding of trusted, safe adults around who can provide the attentive input when it’s needed. But we also need to facilitate increasing freedoms within which the child can explore who they are and who they want to be. This will include romantic and sexual relationships, as well as fashion, financial, educational, relational, professional and a myriad other choices which present themselves during this period. Ongoing stability, scaffolded care and a safety net in times of particular struggle are all still very much needed here.
Criticisms and Modern Perspectives
Freud’s theory has faced significant criticism over the years. In a nutshell these include:
* Overemphasis on Sexuality: Critics argue that Freud placed too much emphasis on sexual development, neglecting other crucial aspects like emotional and cognitive growth.
* Lack of Empirical Support: Freud’s theory is based on clinical observations and lacks empirical evidence, at least in comparison with other theories. Modern psychology favours theories supported by research.
* Gender Bias: The theory reflects the gender norms of Freud's time, particularly the Oedipus and Electra complexes at the Phallic stage, which are considered outdated today.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While Freud’s psychosexual stages of development may not be entirely accepted in contemporary psychology, they provide a foundational understanding of early personality development and how thinking about this has evolved over time.
His language and the labels he provided for certain constructs have entered our vocabulary, many of which are now common parlance.
For me, the twin attributes of Freud (and this is a reduction, I know!) are:
* The underlining yet again of the staged and sequenced nature of human growth and development.
* A useful focus on the role of unconscious or subconscious processes along the way.
Making these explicit so that professionals can hold them in mind when helping children and families in crisis is positive, in my view.
Remember, as Freud himself once said, ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar!’ 😆
See you in the next one.
More information:
* WEB ARTICLE: Simply Psychology article on the 5 stages (link)
* WEB ARTICLE: Read about Sigmund’s legacy in the history and work of the Anna Freud Centre (link)
* NOTE: The sharp-eyed will have noticed that I haven’t covered Freud’s 3 psychic structures - id, ego and superego - in this post as it seemed too cumbersome. Read more on that here - (link)
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