1. FREUDIAN PSYCHOLOGY An Introduction to the Major Components, Part 1:
The Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development

2. Freud’s Theory of Psycho-Sexual Development
Psychic energy  central concept in Freudian psychology, the fuel the mind runs on. 
A newborn baby overflows with psychic energy  lacks focus or direction. 
As with physical energy, psychic energy cannot be created or destroyed, so it needs a focus to ensure healthy psychic development.
Where does the infant’s, then the child’sthe adolescent'sand adult's energy get focused?  Freud believed that as development occurs, the baby begins to focus on first one physical process, then another.  As the infant’s focus shifts the style and type of gratification being sought changes.

3. The Stages of Psycho-Sexual Development
First Zone: The Oral Stage (0-18 months)
Second Zone: The Anal Stage (18 mo – 3.5 yrs.)
Third Zone: The Phallic Stage ( yrs.)
(The Oedipus Complex) (5-6)
Fourth Zone: The Latency Stage (6 – puberty)
Fifth Zone: The Genital Stage (puberty – adulthood)

4. First Zone: The Oral Stage
Mouth/lips
Dependency
Infants are born knowing how to suck, and it is a source of pleasure and consolation for them. Their entire world is mouth, and their first love object is breast (or bottle).
When this is withdrawn during weaning, the infant learns that he does not control the world.
If the child is weaned prematurely, an oral fixation, like smoking, could occur. The oral stage also has resonance in mythology and fairy tales (think of Persephone eating the pomegranate seeds, for example).
Adults who become fixated in this stage tend to be either too dependent (usually) or highly independent (although these types may become highly dependent when under stress*) *Freud’s theory of opposites
Persephone myth about leaving home, breaking from dependency, after all.

5. The Second Zone: The Anal Stage
Anus
Self-control, obedience
During this phase, the child learns how to control his bowels voluntarily, and this power becomes a source of pleasure.
However, excrement ≠ cleanliness, but disgust.
How we are encouraged or discouraged to perform this process can have long term effects on our creative processes and on our feelings about hygiene, as well as about order and organization).
If, for instance, a child is forced to potty train before he is ready, because the parent figure enforces the feeling that bowel movements are disgusting and dirty, the child may grow up with a neurosis, which could take the form of obsessive cleanliness---or living in a pigsty.
Freud believed sexual pleasure focused on anus at this period.
anally retentive (rigid, overly organised, subservient to authority) vs. anally expulsive (little self-control, disorganised, defiant, hostile).

6. The Third Zone: The Phallic Stage
Penis
Morality, sexuality identification
Discovery of the differences between the genders  anxiety and confusion between personal wants and social mores
Hostility to one or both parents may occur.
During this stage, Oedipus / Electra complexes take place.
promiscuous and amoral/ asexual and puritanical

7. The Oedipus/Electra Complex
Begins by the age of 5 or 6.
Desire of the mother (of a sexual nature).
Boys unconsciously view the father as a rival for the mother’s attention. They experience castration anxiety.
Girls unconsciously accept that they have already been castrated, and therefore suffer from penis envy.
Both genders must come to some understanding of their position vis-à-vis the mother; generally occurs initially through an act of repression.
(1)They fear the father, who is anatomically alike to them, as he may castrate his “rival,” and thereby destroy the son’s power.
(2) They need not fear the father, because they cannot rival him for the mother’s attention; but they can have hostility towards the mother for bringing them into the world in this form. They lack power, and thus experience penis envy.

8. The Fourth Zone: The Latency Stage
Calm
End of Phallic Stage – puberty  sex drive recedes.
Repression of the first 3 stages; all urges associated with them driven deeply into the unconscious. They remain as latent energies, which will affect the future development of an individual.
If a profound negative experience occurred during one of the initial 3 stages, Freud believed that a person could become fixated, i.e. his development is arrested at that stage. Later in life, that person may then experience regression back to that fixated level. Neurotics cannot move forward until the source of the fixation is resolved.
Freud believed that, unlike with animals, part of human sexuality is learned and is part of our exploration of the self. When we are allowed to learn and explore in an uninhibited manner, we become normal adults. But, when something prevents us from self-knowledge, we can become neurotic.
For example, a person with an anal fixation could become a miser, anal-compulsive, or unable to complete tasks.
Another example: A person with an oral fixation could become a chronic gum chewer, or a nail biter.

9. The Fifth Zone: The Genital Stage
Creation (artistic, intellectual, and procreative), maturity
Interest in sexual relationships.
Healthy, psychologically well-adjusted, balance between love and work.
Dependent upon successfully passing through the first 4 stages. No fixation in this stage.
If a child remains fixated in an earlier stage, particularly in the phallic stage, his development will be troubled as he struggles with repression and defenses. The less energy the child has left invested in unresolved psychosexual developments, the greater his capacity will be to develop normal relationships with the opposite sex.

10. Freud and Sex – A Clarification
Freud believed that most conflicts in the psyche derived from sexual urges.
However, Freud did not view the basic sex drive as a physical one, but rather an instinctual energy that all humans are born possessing.