Psychosexual Stages and Their Fixations

Before I begin, I’d like to make a disclaimer for the LGBTQ community. Although, Freud did mention in his famous letter from 1935 “…It cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development,” referring to homosexuality. Freud’s psychosexual stages assume that each individual will take on their biological gender and participate in heterosexual relationships.

Freud released his theory of psychosexual stages in 1905. These stages include oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital that cover the progression of a child’s development from newborn into adulthood. These can be remembered by the anagram: Only Awesome People Like Grapes. Not everyone will progress through all the stages and may develop fixations, “persistent focus of the ID’s pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier stage of psychosexual development”. Freud offers the analogy of troops going into battle to illustrate how a child progresses through the various stages. If an army finds conflict in battle they may stay at their current stage of battle, but if they experience victory, they will naturally progress to the next battle stage. Freud also uses the term libido to define pleasure seeking nature and attitudes.

The first stage, oral, covers the first year of development. In this stage the ego develops and libido is centered in the mouth. This explains why babies always put everything in their mouth, the need for a pacifier or bottles, etc. If an individual does not progress past the oral stage, they may become smokers or drinkers, never drop thumb sucking, gum chewing, or chew their nails or fingers.

The second stage, anal, covers ages one through three and centers libido in the anus. This is typically the potty training stage of a child’s life and directly affects how well a child will pass through this stage. During this time, a child gets their pleasure from defecation and gaining a sense of independence through going to the bathroom by themselves. If the potty training regime is seen as harsh or too early, an anal-retentive personality may form as a fixation. People with this personality are often stubborn, tight with their money and possessions, or become obsessed with tidiness and orderliness. If a child experiences a liberal potty training, they may develop an anal-expulsive personality or fixation; people with this personality may be more willing to share (money, possessions, etc.), be rebellious, and messy or disorganized.

The third stage, phallic, covers ages three to six and centers libido in the penis or clitoris; this is Freud’s most controversial stage due to his theory of the Oedipus and Electra complexes. The superego develops in this stage and the genitalia become the new source of pleasure as children become aware of the anatomical sex differences. Conflicting feelings such as erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy, and fear may arise for the first time as well. In boys, the Oedipus complex forms as he forms erotic feelings for his mother and wishes to get rid of the father. Freud offers the case study of Little Hans in 1909 as proof of this notion. The penis is now what he loves most and he may form a castration anxiety, or fear of losing his penis. The only way to progress past this stage is for the young boy to take on masculine, dad-type behaviors and internalize this new identity. The female version of this is the Electra complex, which is viewed as less than satisfactory. In this stage the young girl desires the father, but realizes that she does not have a penis, forms penis envy, and blames the mother for this “castrated” state which causes tension with her mother. In order to resolve this stage, she replaces penis envy with “baby fever” and represses her feelings to remove the tension while taking on her appropriate female gender roles. Fixations from this stage include becoming vain, exhibitionistic, or sexually aggressive.

The fourth stage, latency, occurs from ages five to six into the puberty stage. During this time, the adolescent will have a dormant libido and have little to no sexual motivations; all of the usual libido energy will be redirected to focusing on school activities, hobbies, building friendships and skills. Fixations formed from this stage result in immaturity and not being able to form fulfilling heterosexual relationships into adulthood.

Finally, the child reaches the last stage, genital, which ranges from puberty to adulthood. At this point in a person’s life, libido is centered in the penis or vagina. Differing from the phallic stage, energy is now directed more towards heterosexual intercourse and sexual experimentation. Fixations in this stage result in sexual perversion.

However there is the therapeutic way to resolve fixations, this is done so through transference; this describes what occurs when “the feelings, desires, and expectations of one person are redirected and applied to another person.” Stay tuned next month for a more in-depth look into transference and how it is used in therapy settings and in regard to moving past fixations. To make sure you don’t miss it, or any of my other articles for that matter, feel free to follow me on my pages:

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