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

If your theories on the functioning of the unconscious have influenced many areas of the humanities and art, it is no less true that a good part of your 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 it has received much attention.

Sexuality according to Freud

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

The vital energy that is expressed through sexuality, according to Freud, is present already 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 repercussions of this are not simply about locating the beginning of our sexual development at one point or another in our life calendar. It has profound implications on the way in which Freud related our personality to our intimate , affective and impulse-based side.

The development of the unconscious

One of the essential ideas behind Freud’s theory of psychosexual development is that the way in which he manages libido satisfaction during childhood leaves traces in our unconscious that will be noticed during adult life.

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

Other followers of the psychodynamic current ended up rejecting Freud’s deterministic vision, according to which the unconscious part of ourselves 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

From the different ways in which the growth stage of minors conditions the appearance of one or another type of fixation, Sigmund Freud formulated the theory that would unite sexuality with the development of the Freudian unconscious .

It 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 these stages will influence the way in which the unconscious conditions the person once he or she has reached adulthood. In other words, each one of the stages of psychosexual development would mark the tempos that delimit what type of actions are necessary to express the libido in a satisfactory manner and which can end up creating conflicts that remain unconsciously embedded in us.

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 of consciousness, on the other, is shaped.

Thus, the way a person behaves will depend on how he or she has dealt 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 moves people , these challenges and conflicts of each phase of maturation will have a more or less veiled link with his way of experiencing sexuality (understood in a very broad sense in which all types of symbolism participate).

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 , and in it appear the first attempts to satisfy the demands promoted by the libido. In this stage, the mouth is the main area where pleasure is sought. The mouth is also one of the main areas of the body when exploring the environment and its elements, and this would explain the propensity of the youngest to try to “bite” everything.

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

2. Anal stage

This stage would occur from the end of the oral stage until the age of 3 . It is the phase in which sphincter control in defecation begins. 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 thrift and discipline in the first case, and 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 , and its associated erogenous zone is that of the genitals. Thus, the main pleasant 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 evident 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 are attracted to the person playing the role of mother and feel jealousy and fear of the person playing the role of father. As for girls going through this stage of psychosexual development, Freud “slightly adapted the idea with Oedipus Complex to encompass them, even though the concept had been developed to make sense mainly in boys. It was later that Carl Jung proposed the Electra complex as a female counterpart to Oedipus.

4. Latency stage

This phase starts around the age of 7 and lasts until the beginning 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 experimentation in sexuality by children, partly because of all the punishments and warnings received. That is why Freud described this phase as one in which sexuality is more camouflaged than in previous ones.

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

5. Genital stage

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

The erogenous zone related to this vital moment is 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 nature that have to do with consensus and attachment to other people. It is the birth of adult sexuality , as opposed to another one linked only to simple instantaneous gratifications and obtained through stereotypical activities.

Freudian theory, in context

The theory of psychosexual development can lead to a certain alarmism if one thinks that poor management of children’s education 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 taken into account that this theory was formulated and developed at a point where psychology had just been born .

When Sigmund Freud developed his theories, he was based on concrete cases of patients he knew, that is, his way of research was based on a mixture of case studies and interpretation of the symbolic contents of people’s behaviour. He barely established hypotheses that could be contrasted with reality, and when he did, he limited himself to observing, not to carrying out experiments. 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 analysis, because the formulation of these ideas was based on the interpretation made about the acts of the patients and their past.

Partly because of this and partly because Freudian psychoanalysis does not adhere to the epistemology used in current science, there is no reason to think that this theory serves to explain and predict the problems linked to people’s sexuality and socialization. That 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.

Bibliographic references:

  • Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought. London: 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. New York: Routledge.
  • Mannoni, O. (2015). Freud: The Theory of the Unconscious. London: Verso.
  • Scott, J. (2005). Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
  • Sigmund, F. (2012). Three essays on sexual theory. Buenos Aires: Alianza Editorial.