This article throws light upon the five overlapping stages involved in the process of personality development of a child. The stages are: 1. The Oral Stage 2. Anal Stage 3. The Phallic Stage 4. Latency Period 5. The Genital Stage.
1. The Oral Stage:
The oral stage continues from birth up to the 2nd year. After birth the new born baby has to breathe, search for food and to keep his body temperature. So Rank (1929) says that after birth the child has a strong frustrating experience. Thus, the infant at birth is basically a physiological organism. He is mostly id, has no sense of time and place.
He has no idea of self, ego, conscience or super ego. For the satisfaction of his physical needs, he has to depend upon others. When his physical needs are not satisfied, he expresses a feeling of psychological dissatisfaction.
The oral stage mainly deals with the mouth, which is the primary organ giving pleasure at this stage. The oral stage which continues for the first couple of years is divided into oral sucking and oral biting stage.
(a) Oral Sucking Period:
It starts with birth and continues up to 8 months. Here the baby’s first relation with the mother comes through sucking. Sucking is regarded as the initial expression of sexual impulses, though it also serves the purpose of self preservation.
Observation indicates that there are many children who like to suck before sleep though they don’t feel hungry. Thus, at this stage the libido or the pleasure is located in the mouth or the oral zone. The tension of the child is relieved through sucking and swallowing.
The child at this stage wants oral satisfaction as his erotic drive is localized in the mouth, lips and tongue. That is why, the child’s instinctual life is said to be pre-ambivalent. He gets erode pleasure through tactual stimulation obtained by putting things in the mouth and sucking. Such sucking produces the first important experience of pleasure in the baby.
This tactual stimulation of the lips and oral cavity by contact with the incorporation of objects produce oral erotic pleasure. But the infant has no conscious knowledge of loving himself. Hence his libidinal satisfactions are called autoerotic, At this stage, the baby is fully passive and dependent. Towards the end of the oral sucking period the ego starts emerging.
(b) Oral Biting Period:
The oral biting period starts from the age of six months and continues up-to the 18th month. The chief area of pleasure at this stage is teeth and jaws. The primary period of sucking continues up to the stage till the teeth of the baby comes out. At this age, the baby is not usually allowed to suck his mother’s breast. He is given other foods where he has to take them by methods other than sucking.
This the child does not like as he has to take the help of some self directed activity, to take his food and satisfy his needs. So he experiences insurmountable frustration by having a feeling that he is being taken away from his loved object physically.
Previously, he was entirely dependent. Now he develops some ideas about his outside reality, some idea that he is an independent organism. The teeth of the child come out at this time and he gets oral aggressive pleasure by biting, devouring and destroying which is a sign of his dissatisfaction at the frustration of weaning.
In the oral biting period the libido is fixated on the physical self and erotic pleasure is primarily desired from the sucking and swallowing, biting devouring and destroying activities. The child shows autoerotic and narcisstic behaviour and oral sadistic attachment towards the mother develop.
According to Brown “The results of resolution of the conflict created by the frustration of the purely passive and sucking behaviour is the development of oral aggressiveness or the oral sadistic period.” Here there is a lot of repression of erotic urges. At this stage, when the child is under severe conflict, the roots of Oedipus complex start.
It is however to be remembered that oral sucking and oral biting stages overlap each other. Though the oral biting period starts usually at the age of 8 months, one should not take it for granted that the symptoms of the oral sucking stage completely disappear at the 8th month.
On the contrary, some of the behaviours of oral sucking period may continue at this stage and the behaviours present in the oral sucking and oral biting stage may be seen in many adult personalities.
In the oral biting stage the child shows symptom of love and aggression towards the mother which is a sign of ambivalent tendency. He loves his mother because she satisfies his needs. At the same time, he hates her for she is not able to satisfy all her desires, for she has neglected him by physical separation and for the fact he no more completely depends upon her.
At this stage the child starts having some idea about himself and not only that, a part of his libido is also directed to himself which is called self love or narcissism. Now the ego becomes more strong and differentiated from the id.
The child gradually learns that he has to keep touch with the external reality and he becomes more and more conscious of the reality principle of his external world. If the second child is born at this time, the child’s traumatic experience and frustration are doubled. Specially he develops a sense of jealousy when the second child sleeps with the mother and is relatively more attended.
According to the British School of Psychoanalysis such as M. Klein and E. Glover (1928) the Super ego is formed at this time.
Personality Traits Developed as a Result of Derivations of Oral Stage:
It is commonly observed that the behaviours present in the oral sucking and oral biting period are sometimes carried on to the adult personality of the individual concerned. Early oral eroticism is represented in adult life by eating habits and interest in food.
Excessive fixation at this stage is expressed in adult life by kissing, smoking and gum chewing. Lovers sometimes say ‘I love you so much that I would eat you’ or they express their oral intentions by calling each other sugar and honey.
Fixation in the oral stage may lead to acquisitiveness, tenacity, determination. Spitting out may represent rejection and contemptuousness and closing for refusal and negativism. But whether these traits will develop and become a part of one’s character or not depends upon the amount of frustration and anxiety experienced.
Oral aggressiveness expressed through biting is the prototype for many kinds of direct, displaced and disguised aggressions. The child who bites with his teeth may as an adult bite with verbal sarcasm, scorn and cynicism, or he may become a good lawyer, politician or editor.
The manifestations of various types of oral activity may be seen in interpersonal relations and attachments in one’s economic social, cultural and religious attitudes, in athletic and vocational interests and professions.
2. Anal Stage:
The anal stage is divided into two parts:
(a) Anal expulsive
(b) Anal retentive
(a) Anal Expulsive:
The anal expulsive stage continues from 8 months to 3 years and hence, overlaps with the oral biting period. In the anal expulsive stage the area of getting pleasure changes from the mouth to the anus. The libido is localized in the anus and buttocks and the child gets pleasure in passing stools and urine here and there.
Expulsion brings relief to the person by reducing tension. Thus, the child on other occasions repeats this mode of action to get rid of the tensions that arise in other parts of the body. It is viewed that expulsive elimination is the prototype of emotional outbursts; temper tantrums, rages and other primitive discharge reactions.
Autoeroticism of the oral period continues, but it is mostly anal in nature. Narcissism also continues. Usually during the second year of life through proper toilet training the involuntary expulsive reflexes are brought under self control. During the age 1—4 years the child is chiefly concerned with the satisfaction associated with toilet habits. Here also the child gets physiological pleasure.
Toilet training is usually the first crucial experience that the child has with discipline and external authority. Toilet training represents a conflict between the wish to defecate and an external barrier. If this conflict is not resolved, it definitely leaves its adverse effect upon the personality structure.
At this stage the pleasure principle is more or less adjusted with reality principle. The child therefore becomes conscious of himself as an independent individual and proceeds to direct his libido upon himself as a psychological entity.
Pleasure is derived both physically and psychologically respectively by stimulations of mucous membranes involved in the excretory functions and from parental rewards and attention during toilet training.
According to the British School of Psychoanalysis Super ego starts developing and the child is able to discriminate between two sexes. The main conflict at this stage is related to oedipus situation. Several other frustrations and conflicts are experienced during toilet training.
The technique of toilet training employed by the mother, her attitude towards defection, cleanliness etc. leave permanent impressions on the development of child’s personality.
If the toilet training is very rigid and the interference is very punitive, the child may rebel and react by intentionally soiling himself. Such a child in his adulthood may be messy, clumsy, irresponsible, disorderly, wasteful and extravagant.
Other frustrations during this stage lead to several traumatic experiences which have their repurcussion upon the later personality. He is more and more pressurized to face the consequences of the reality, the external world. He feels that he is an individual on his own and has certain responsibilities to perform. This also creates conflict, stress, tension and finally anxiety in him.
(b) Anal Retentive Period:
At this stage which starts from the 12th month, and continues up to the fourth year, the child gets pleasure by retaining and controlling feces and urine.
Like the anal expulsive stage here the chief area of pleasure is obtained by retaining stools. The child now does not pass stool and urine here and there, but learns and realizes the social value of retaining, possessing and controlling them. By social enforcement like praise and other verbal rewards proper toilet habit is developed in the child.
Personal cleanness is highly rewarded at this stage and so child learns to develop the habit of cleanliness. But about the fourth year, the child experiences the final frustration of the anal stage. When he is pressed to give up his anal pleasures, he experiences terrible conflict and this conflict leads to the resolution of the anal retentive period.
During the anal retentive period, the conflicts and frustrations arising out of generality give another hard blow to the child in the form of severe trauma and anxiety. The same anal region which is considered at times beautiful and valuable at other times becomes repulsive and shameful.
Moreover, the child also realizes that he has certain responsibilities; he has to stand alone in the family. He also has somewhat confused feeling that he is no longer the centre of attention in the family. His parents love each other more than they love him.
This feeling acts as a hard blow to the child. At this stage the Oedipus complex and castration anxieties begin to emerge and the child is pressurized to give up infantile sexuality completely.
3. The Phallic Stage:
Between the age of 3 to 7 the sex energy or libido is localized in the genital organs which play the central part in adult sexual life. At this stage the children are interested in their own genital organs and get pleasure by stroking and manipulating it.
At the same lime, the child’s sexual longing is intensified. This initiates a number of crucial changes in his object catharsis. This is a significant period where many of the normal sexual behaviour of human personality develop.
Since the sex organs of male and female are structurally different it is necessary that the developments in the phallic stage for the two sexes should be discussed separately as the Male phallic stage and the Female phallic stage.
a. Male Phallic Stage:
Immediately after birth the infant’s first loved object is always his mother, as mother not only gratifies his need for preservation, but by giving close physical contact satisfies his psychological necessity for pleasure. The boy not only loves his mother, but also identifies with his father.
According to Freud (1923) these simultaneous experiences of object love and identification brings about modification in personality structure, even before the stage of primary identification has passed and before the mother has been given up as the only object of love. Before developing true identifications, the child first identifies with the mother by imitating what she does and then he turns to imitate his father.
According to Cameron (1969) the pre-oedipal child is trained by his normal and healthy parents to establish masculine identity. But if the parents are immature and pathological and have strict and rigid super ego, they become incapable of showing normal and healthy parental affection.
Before the development of Oedipus complex through the process of identification, the child internalizes the value system of his parents and integrates it with his own individual views to develop a preoedipal ego organization.
Thus, behind the arrival of Oedipus complex, there is a long history of dynamic interactions between the child and the parent. These interactions, along with the child’s infantile sexual maturation lead to the development of Oedipus complex.
When the sexual urge increases, the child’s love for his mother is more, oriented towards physical pleasure and so he becomes jealous of his father whom he considers as his rival. This jealousy arises out of the perception of the love of the parents towards each other. Thus, the craving of the boy for the exclusive sexual possession of the mother leads to the development of a complex known as the Oedipus complex.
b. Castration Anxiety:
Oedipus was a famous figure in the Greek mythology who killed his father and married his mother. The development of the oedipus complex leads to castration anxiety in the child. He apprehends that if he is sexually attached to his mother, his sexual organs will be castrated or removed.
The castration anxiety is multiplied especially when the child observes the sexual anatomy of the female child and accepts that the sexual organ of the girl has been castrated. He thinks, “If this could happen to her, it could very well happen to me.”
As a consequence of the castration anxiety, the boy represses his incestuous desire for his mother and his hostility for his father. Thus, the Oedipus complex is resolved because of the repression due to castration anxiety.
Besides castration anxiety, the other factors which weaken the Oedipus complex are:
(1) The impossibility of fulfilling the sexual wish for the mother
(2) Disappointment from the mother
(3) Maturation.
After the disappearance of the Oedipus complex, the boy may either identify with any one of the parents. This depends upon the relative strength of the masculine or feminine character of the boy. Freud holds that every person is constitutionally bisexual in nature.
If the feminine tendencies are relatively stronger, he will identify with the mother. But if the masculine tendencies are stronger, he will tend to identify with the father and thereby would share the father’s catharexis for the mother.
Typically, there is some identification with both the parents, though the degree of identification depends upon the degree of masculinity and feminine. By identifying with the mother, the boy gets partial satisfaction of his sexual longing for his father. The relative strength and success of the identifications determine his attachments, antagonisms and degree of masculine and feminine tendencies in later life.
These identifications also lead to the formation of the super ego. The super ego is said to be the heir to Oedipus complex since the superego is formed just when the Oedipus complex is passing away.
c. Female Phallic Stage:
Like the boy, the girl’s first love is her mother. But unlike the boy, there is no early identification with the father.
In the phallic stage when the girl comes to know that she does not possess the external genitals of the males, she feels that she is already castrated. She blames her mother for this condition. In addition to this, the girl feels that the mother is not giving her enough love and attention and she has to share the mother’s love with other brothers and sisters.
She also sometimes notices that the mother is giving special attention to his brothers (as found in Indian families also) and is partial towards her. Thus, the cathexis for the mother weakens and the girl begins to prefer father.
d. Penis Envy:
The girl’s love for her father is however mixed with envy because the father possesses something that she does not possess. This is popularly known as penis envy. The castration anxiety in case of the boy is the castration complex in case of the girl, because while the boy apprehends the castration of his penis, the girl feels that she has already been castrated.
While in case of the boy the castration anxiety is the primary cause of the disappearances of Oedipus complex in case of the girl, the castration complex and penis envy is responsible for the formation of Oedipus complex. Because of the castration complex, she loves her father and is jealous of her mother.
The girl’s love for her father is however mixed with envy because the father possesses something that she does not possess. This is popularly known as Penis envy. The castration anxiety in case of the boy is the castration complex in case of the girl, because while the boy apprehends the castration of his penis, the girl feels that she has already been castrated.
While in case of the boy the castration anxiety is the primary cause of the disappearance of Oedipus complex, in case of the girl, the castration complex and the penis envy is responsible for the formation of Oedipus complex.
Due to the castration complex, she loves her father and is jealous of her mother. Unlike the male Oedipus complex the Electra complex or the feminine Oedipus complex does not disappear so quickly. Of course maturation and the impossibility to possess the father do weaken the Electra complex and gradually it is resolved.
Similar to the boy, the girl is also bisexual and the degree of her identification with the father or the mother is related to the relative strength- of her masculine and feminine characteristics. However, normally there is some degree of identification and cathexis with each parent.
If the girl identifies with the mother and loves and respects her, she is drawn closer to the father, compensation for the missing genitals take place and the preservation of the cathexis for the mother is maintained.
Again the strength and success of these identifications influence the nature of her attachments, hostilities and. the degree of masculinity and femininy in later life. The phallic stage lasts up to the age of six or seven. At this stage boys and girls are found playing in separate groups as they become conscious of their sexual differences and develop a segregating attitude.
4. Latency Period:
When the infantile sexuality is repressed for the fear of castration, at the age of about 6-7 years, the period of latency onsets and it continues up to the onset of puberty i.e., 12th, 13th year. During this gap of 5 to 6 years, the sexual energy of the child remains in a subdued state. This is called the latency period.
During this period the individual is not consciously concerned with the sexual matters. Infantile sexuality is repressed and reaction formation strengthens this repression. The libidinal urges are sublimated in the process of education. During this period most rapid formal learning takes place. Most children undergo all the schooling they are to receive at this time. The super ego is established during this period.
Eroticism and narcissism decrease in the latency period, but like child’s attachments towards parents, teachers and friends continue although there is little overt libidinal striving towards them.
Girls are generally more affectionate during this period than are boys because girls accept their castration whereas the boys still fear of being castrated. There are however some who still continue to think about sexuality during the latency period.
Studies of social anthropologist also suggest that the latency period is not inherent in the biological nature, but is rather an arte fact of our particular patriarchal civilization. Studies also indicate that in some culture there is no latency period.
5. The Genital Stage:
The three stages of psycho-sexual development, i.e., the oral, anal and the phallic stages are called the pre genital period. As already discussed the sexual instinct during the pre genital period is not directed towards reproduction.
Following the interruption by the latency period, the sexual instinct starts to develop with the aim of reproduction. The adolescents begin to be attractive to the members of the opposite sex. This attraction eventually culminates in sexual union. This is known as the genital stage which starts with the onset of puberty.
There is gradual revival of oral, anal and phallic interests with more and more maturity. But gradually the phallic interest turns into genital interest which is less infantile than those of the phallic stage. At this stage the society allows the real outlets of the sexual urge.
Interest in dirty jokes becomes a part of the process of adolescence. The first love affairs remain phallic rather than truly genital in nature. It is more of love than of sex.
The genital stage is greatly characterized by object choices rather than by narcissism. It is a period of socialization, group activities, marriage, establishing a home and raising a family, developing interests in vocational advancement and other adult responsibilities. It is the longest of the 4 stages lasting from 12 to 20 years.