WHAT IS PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT? - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The psychosexual development is the main component and backbone of psychoanalytic theory proposed by Sigmund Freud, for whom the personality development was equivalent to that of the development of sexual impulses.

This psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual development is based on the Greek tragedy written by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, known as the Oedipus Complex. Which is described by that name in men and as the Electra Complex in women.

The basic principle of this theory is that in the child's unconscious are the repressed thoughts referring to the desire to have sexual relations with their parents. And in turn, death wishes for the parent of the opposite sex.

These thoughts lodged in the unconscious, therefore inaccessible to the subject's consciousness, begin to be generated in childhood and during various stages of development, until they are finally eradicated by normal sexual development.

Thus, from the psychoanalytic perspective, parents play a fundamental role in managing sexual and aggressive impulses in the psychosexual development of their children, during the first years of their lives.

The concept of psychic energy or libido, will play a crucial role in the theory of psychosexual development, since it is in function of their destinies or fixations that the child will be able to go through the five stages of psychosexual development normally or not.

Introduction

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who, between the 19th and 20th centuries, developed the field of psychoanalysis. Today, after his research and more than 23 written works, he is known as the father of psychoanalysis.

In 1905 he proposed that psychosexual development takes place in the first years of the child's life, being crucial for the formation of the adult personality. This development consists of 5 stages or psychosexual stages, which represent the journey of the libido or sexual impulse through different areas of the body which he called erogenous zones; these being the source of pleasure or frustration for the child.

These five stages into which psychosexual development was divided correspond to the location of the libido in one of these areas.

These erogenous parts, being particularly sensitive to sexual and erotic stimulation, are the child's mouth, anus and genitalia. Throughout psychosexual development, only one part of the body is particularly sensitive to this stimulation.

The libido will travel through these various parts of the subject's body, as long as it has been able to resolve the characteristic conflicts at each stage of psychosexual development.

Each of them is associated with a specific conflict, which must be resolved before successfully advancing to the next one. That is, as long as the child cannot resolve any of these conflicts, the libido will not be able to move to the next erogenous zone, corresponding to the subsequent stage of psychosexual development.

If the child progressively and normally advances through the different stages, resolving each conflict, the libido moves smoothly through each stage of development. Now, if it becomes fixed, or stagnates, at a particular stage, then your adult life will be affected.

All this work requires an expenditure of sexual energy; the more energy is expended in a certain stage, the characteristics corresponding to it will be those that remain with the subject throughout her psychological maturation.

Stages of Psychosexual Development

The psychoanalytic theory of psychosexual development proposed by Freud and based on the development of the human personality, is divided into five stages. These are the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage.

It is through and through these stages that an individual's development takes place during early childhood. Configuring in this way, the behavior and the adult personality.

According to the teachings proposed by Sigmund Freud, it can be said that this theory also has its foundations in pleasure and displeasure, understood as two principles through which the psychic apparatus of each individual is governed.

Pleasure refers to the fulfillment of desire and the discharge of accumulated sexual energy. While displeasure refers to the accumulation or tension of libido and frustration.

Each stage of psychosexual development can be approached from three perspectives to take into account:

• Physical focus, the part of the body where libido or sexual energy is concentrated and through which pleasure is obtained.
• The psychological approach, which refers to the internal and external excitations to which the child is exposed.
• And the last one, which is related to the fixation of sexual energy in a specific stage of development, this determining the adult personality of the individual.

In other words, if the child does not manage to go through the five stages of childhood psychosexual development normally, in adulthood, this subject will have problems related to the stage of development where his libido has been fixed.

Oral Stage

It includes the first year and a half of the child's life, being the first stage of child psychosexual development, where the libido is centered in the child's mouth, this being his first erogenous zone.

It is from it that the child derives pleasure from taking the mother's breast, placing objects in his mouth, through sucking and biting.

The oral stage ends with weaning, which operates by itself as a conflict, since it deprives the child of the satisfaction or pleasure that his libido demands so much, centered on the erogenous zone of his mouth.

Those children who have had difficulties to resolve the conflicts typical of this stage, or have obtained frustrations due to the non-satisfaction of their desire, which operates as a demand, in the adult personality, when they are in stressful or tense situations, will present characteristics of the oral stage, such as thumb sucking, nail biting, smoking among others.

Anal Stage

It includes the period from one and a half years to three years. In this second stage, the libido is centered in the anus, this being the second erogenous zone of psychosexual development. It is through defecation that the child gets pleasure. It is at this stage where the child's obsession with said erogenous zone arises, and with the retention or expulsion of stool.

The conflict of this stage can appear at the time of leaving the diapers where the child faces the demands of the parents and their own wishes. By then, the child will have to confront the parents, understood as the authority that says when and where to defecate, against their own wishes to do so when and where it pleases her as when she used diapers.

If the child manages to take pleasure in such learning, his adult personality will present characteristics of disorder, recklessness and carelessness. Now, the child can choose not to respond to the parents' demand, retaining the stool.

It is in this way that in adult life the subject can present conflicts with any authority figure, possess obsessive personality characteristics (being obsessively ordered, for example) in the adult personality. Or they may be tense and tenacious with their money and / or possessions.

Phallic stage

It covers the period of 3 to 6 years. Libido is concentrated in the child's genitals and it is through masturbation that pleasure is obtained, since her erogenous zone at this stage becomes her own genitals.

This period is where the most important sexual conflict of psychosexual development manifests itself.

It is, as the child begins to differentiate between the sexes anatomically, that he becomes increasingly interested in his own and other's genitalia. Psychologically, erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy, and fear come into play.

It is at this stage that Freud located the conflicts of the Oedipus Complex in boys and of the Electra Complex in girls, understood as the identification process through which the child adopts the characteristics of the parent of the same sex.

These complexes involve the unconscious desire of the child to possess the parent of the opposite sex and eliminate the parent of the same sex.

The conflict represented by the Oedipus Complex in the child is that sexual desires arise in him for his mother. That is why the father then appears as a rival to beat. But at the same time fear appears in the face of rivalry with the father, who can take what he loves most, his mother.

At this stage, the boy is attracted to his penis and differentiates it from the female sexual organ, which is why the fear of castration appears. Anxiety that is aggravated by the present threats and discipline incurred by being seen masturbating.

This castration anxiety overcomes the desire for his mother, so that desire is repressed.

The child begins to imitate the masculine behavior of the father in order to win the love of his mother. Adopting the identifications by the father, that is, their values, attitudes and behaviors, is how the child resolves the conflict of the Oedipus Complex, obtaining as a result, the assimilation of the role of the male gender.

In girls, the Electra Complex begins when they begin to feel sexual desires with the father, but also discover that they do not have a penis like boys. This fundamental characteristic of this complex lies in the development of penis envy and the desire to be a boy.

The girl blames her mother for her neutered status, that is, for her lack of a penis, putting her in the place of a rival. The resolution of this conflict comes into play when the girl manages to repress her desire for the father, replacing the desire for a penis with the desire for a baby.

Identifying with the mother to assume the role of the female gender. The unresolved conflicts at this stage bring about a fixation of the libido in the genital area, so that in the adult personality, the subject will present characteristics or personality traits such as recklessness, narcissism, self-confidence, vanity, among others.

And, in addition, it can present inconveniences to fall in love, and even a fixation of the libido at this stage could be the cause of homosexuality.

It is by resolving the conflict of incestuous desires that the child moves to the next period of infantile psychosexual development.

Latency Stage

The latency stage has its origin at approximately 6 years of age, until puberty. It coincides with the child's start at school. At this stage, psychosexual development stops, meaning that the libido is inactive.

Most of the child's energy is focused on asexual activities, such as developing new skills, acquiring new knowledge, and playing. By then there is no specific erogenous zone in the child since her libido is repressed, lodged in the unconscious and not in a part of the body.

At the beginning of puberty, the previously inactive libido, returns to focus on the genitals.

Genital stage

The last stage of psychosexual development begins at puberty and extends into adulthood.

At this stage, sexual urges or energy reappear by focusing on your genitals and taking pleasure in heterosexual relationships. In this period, the sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure rather than to self-pleasure as occurs in the phallic stage.

It coincides with the beginning of adolescence, so it is characterized by adolescent sexual experimentation, which can end successfully in a love relationship, if the conflicts of the previous stages of psychosexual development have been successfully resolved.

However, if there are unresolved conflicts in the previous stages, the fixation of libido and the unresolved conflict can turn into sexual perversions.

Final comments

Freudian theory of psychosexual development has had quite a few detractors. Among them a strong criticism has been that his theory is based excessively on human sexuality. Others referred to the Oedipus Complex and the Electra Complex and the incestuous desires of children.

However, the extensive work developed throughout his life has been a great inspiration for other psychoanalytic referents such as Donald Winnicott, Melanie Klein, Jacques Lacan and Anna Freud, among others, who have been inspired by his works.

References

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