Sigmund Freud

Freud’s theory is controversial in that it asserts that much of one’s personality is shaped by sexual motivation and that childhood experiences or traumas largely shape one’s adult behavior. Freud theorized that everyone progresses through five stages of psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital – starting in infancy and progressing through puberty. Deficient development during a particular stage could lead to fixation in that stage and carry its way into other traits and characteristics later in life. Several psychodynamic theorists like Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney agreed that personality is characterized by internal conflict but felt that Freud overemphasized the role of sexuality on behavior.
The oral stage began at birth and end at about the 18th month where the infant found its greatest pleasure in sucking, especially at the breast. In the anal stage, which lasts from 18 months to about four years old, focuses on pleasure of the anus such as potty training. From around four to seven years old, the child experiences the phallic stage where the child may have discovered the pleasure of touching or rubbing against his or her genitalia. The fourth stage began around seven to twelve, called the latent stage. This stage is where the child enters repression since the child is busy with school. The last stage, genital, began at puberty as it represents the resurgence of the sex drive in adolescence, and the more specific focusing of pleasure in sexual intercourse (Boerre).
According to Freud, a critical event that a child will experience during the first five years of life is the Oedipus and Electra conflicts. This is where a child develops sexual attraction to the opposite sex parent and jealousy towards their same sex parent. Afterwards, the boy will then repress his feelings for his mother onto girls and later women. Also, the girl will repress her feelings of her father onto boys and later men. The child will also... [continues]

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