In this article we will discuss about the stages and applications of psychoanalytic theory of child development.
Stages of Psychoanalytic Theory:
i. Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Stages:
Freud believed our most basic drive is the sex drive. If you believe that biologically speaking the goal of our lives is to pass on our genes, then you might agree with Freud that the sex drive is central to everything else. He outlined five stages in child and adolescent development, which he called psychosexual stages.
At each of these stages, sexual energy is invested in a different part of the body, and gratification of the urges associated with those areas of the body is particularly pleasurable. He labelled these stages the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. He believed that the way in which gratification of urges is handled during each of these stages determines the nature of an adult’s personality and character.
Disturbances in any of the stages can result in psychological disturbance in adulthood. We will describe these stages and Freud’s ideas about the effects later in life if development daring these stages does not go well.
The oral stage lasts from birth to about 18 months of age. The zone of pleasure is the mouth. A baby for whom taking in food is not pleasurable might not survive. If you give a 6-month-old baby a toy, what is the first thing she is likely to do? Toy makers are aware that children are likely to put anything in their mouths and warn us against giving them toys with small parts that can cause choking.
Freud developed the idea that someone can get “stuck” or fixated in one of the first three psychosexual stages of early childhood. That person will then exhibit characteristics of that stage later in life. For example, an individual who is fixated in the oral stage may want to continue to try to satisfy his oral urges by overeating or smoking.
Many of us have some remnants of this stage as we chew on our fingers or pencils; however, a fixation is really only a concern when it interferes with adaptive functioning in some critical way.
The anal stage lasts from 18 months to 3 years. At this age the pleasure center moves to the anus, and issues of toilet training become central. Although many of us squirm to think of the anus as a pleasure center, we have only to listen to the “poopy talk” of young children to see the hilarity it brings about. The task of the child at this age is to learn to control his bodily urges to conform to society’s expectations.
A person who is fixated at this stage may become over controlled as an adult. Everything must be in its proper place to an extreme degree. Conversely, someone might become “anal explosive,” creating “messes” wherever he goes.
The phallic stage lasts from 3 to 6 years of age. At this stage Freud believed that the paths followed by boys and girls diverge in ways that have been extremely controversial. We will first look at the path for boys. A boy’s pleasure becomes focused on the penis. Many parents must patiently explain to their little boy that he cannot keep his hand in his pants while out in company.
Later during this stage the boy develops what Freud called the Oedipus complex, named after the character from Greek mythology that unknowingly killed his own father and married his mother. The boy focuses all his affections on his mother and becomes angry at his father, who stands in the way of the child’s sole possession of her.
However, in the normal course of events, the boy becomes uncomfortable with this anger at his father. Rather than experiencing the anger, he projects the feeling onto his father and fears that his father is angry at him. In this stage when he is focused on his own penis, the retribution he imagines from his father is that he will cut off the boy’s penis.
Consequently, the boy develops what Freud called castration anxiety. In order to avoid this fate, the boy gives up his dream of marrying his mother and decides to become like or identify with his father. A man who does not resolve the Oedipus complex may become fixated in this stage.
He may find rivalry or competition with other men overwhelming, as he doubts his ability to measure up to others. He may also find it difficult to have intimate relations with women, as they remind him of forbidden impulses toward his mother.
For girls, the picture is much more complicated and controversial, even for therapists who practice psychoanalysis. In the phallic stage, Freud believed that girls come to believe that they once had a penis and that it was cut off, leaving them with penis envy. Girls go through a similar complex, called the Electra complex, in which they want to marry their fathers and do away with their mothers.
Freud believed that girls must learn to identify with their mothers, whom they see as damaged in the same way that they themselves are. The only way in which they will achieve a sense of wholeness is when they produce a penis by having a baby boy. Freud believed that girls must accept their passive, receptive nature and those who do not adequately resolve the Electra complex might try to overcome their feelings of inferiority by being too assertive and masculine.
The critique of Freud’s view of female development has been fierce, even from the early days of the development of psychoanalytic theory. Female psychoanalysts have argued that this explanation of female development has more to do with a little boy’s view of girls than the girl’s view of herself.
They also have argued that boys and men are just as jealous of women’s ability to give birth as girls are of a boy’s penis. Feminist Gloria Steinem satirized Freud’s treatment of women by proposing a version of psychoanalytic theory developed by a fictional “Phyllis Freud,” based on womb and breast envy rather than penis envy.
The latency stage occurs between 6 and 12 years of age. Latent means inactive, and Freud believed that during this time the sex drive goes underground. Children move from their fantasies in the phallic period of marrying their parent to a new realization that they must take the long road toward learning to become a grown-up.
The sex drive provides energy for the learning that must take place but is not expressed overtly. Children transfer their interest from parents to peers. At this age children who had cross-sex friendships often relinquish them as boys and girls learn the meaning of “cooties” and each sex professes disgust for the other.
This separation of the sexes begins to change at age 12, when young adolescents enter the genital stage. At this point, sexual energy is focused on the genital area, and true sexual interest occurs between peers.
ii. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages:
Many of the people who initially studied and worked with Freud have gone on to change psychoanalytic theory in significant ways. Erik Homburger Erikson is one of the most influential. Erikson focused more on issues of the ego rather than the id. Ego means “I” or “self,” and Erikson’s major focus was on the development of identity.
He described a series of stages based on issues that arise during the process of psychosocial development. Erikson describes psychosocial stages because these issues are rooted in social experiences that are typical of each stage of development rather than in sexual urges. At each age he believed that there is a central conflict to be resolved and the way in which we resolve that conflict lays the groundwork for the next stages of our development.
For example, Erikson believed that infants have to establish trust in the world around them, while toddlers have to struggle with developing autonomy, or a level of independence from their parents.
The other important aspect of Erikson’s theory is that he believed that development does not stop in adolescence. He went beyond Freud’s stages to add three stages of adulthood. He was the first theorist to acknowledge that we continue to grow and develop throughout our lives.
Modern Applications of Psychoanalytic Theory:
Although psychoanalytic theory has been controversial, ideas that come from psychoanalytic theory are still very influential, particularly in relation to the study of the development of mental and emotional disorders, a field known as developmental psychopathology.
Many psychotherapists continue to use therapy that is designed to uncover inner conflicts from earlier life experiences, especially early trauma, as the basis for current psychological symptoms. A number of modern theories and therapeutic approaches also have their roots in concepts taken from psychoanalytic theory.
If you take advanced courses in psychology, you are likely to learn more about some of these approaches. Evidence from other types of research that follow the scientific method has yielded mixed results. Some ideas have been supported by research, and others have not.
Erikson’s ideas about the effect of social experiences on the development of personality throughout the life span have remained an important influence in the field of child development. A number of his ideas have influenced contemporary child care practices and our understanding of how development occurs as a series of interrelated experiences.
For instance, we urge new parents to be sensitive and responsive to their infants as a way to establish a sense of trust, as Erikson described. We better understand the challenge of adolescence when we see it as a struggle to establish a coherent sense of individual identity.
These concepts have also been used to help in the treatment of children with emotional disturbances by providing a framework for understanding the central issues to be dealt with at different ages.