discussion #8

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

Freud suggested that personality develops through five psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital. At each stage the child experiences a conflict between instinct gratification of the libido (sexual drive or instinct) and social boundaries in his/her environment. In the oral stage (birth to 1), libidinal satisfaction is attempted through the mouth, mainly through breast feeding. In the anal stage (1 to 3), libidinal pleasure is obtained through defecation as the anus is now the pleasure zone. In the phallic stage (3 to 6) the genitals become the organ of focus as the child attempts to satisfy libidinal energy through manipulation of the genitals through masturbation. Attempts to discharge libido energy through body organs ceases during the latency stage. The child represses the urge by the defense mechanism called sublimation, the discharge of energy into constructive activities not sexual in nature. Finally, in the genital stage (puberty to adult), the individual actually begins to experiment with sex and libidinal energy is discharged in sexual intercourse.

The Oedipal Complex

Freud felt that the Oedipal Complex was a natural part of personality development in males, and that it occurs during the phallic stage of male development. His natural love object becomes his mother, and he secretly desires to possess her sexually. Fearing the wrath of his father, and specifically castration by the father, he resolves the Oedipal Complex by identifying with the father and moving away (at least symbolically) from the mother. The young males adopts his father’s values and characteristics, hence the statement…”like father, like son.”

Freud even attempted to apply the Oedipal Complex to Religion.

“Freud argued that the key elements in all religions included the veneration of a father figure and a concern for proper rituals. He traces the origins of religion to the Oedipus complex. At some point in the history of the human race, Freud argues (without substantiation), the father figure had exclusive sexual rights over females in his tribe. The sons, unhappy at this state of affairs, overthrew the father figure and

killed him. Thereafter, they are haunted by the secret of parricide, and its associated sense of guilt. Religion, according to Freud, has its origins in this prehistorical parricidal event, and for this reason has guilt as a major motivating factor. This guilt requires purging or expiation, for which various rituals were devised. The emphasis within Christianity upon the death of Christ and the veneration of the risen Christ seemed to Freud to be a superb illustration of this general principle” (p. 180, McGarth, 2010).

Accordingly, “Christianity, having arisen out of a father -religion, became a son -religion. It has not escaped the fate of having to get rid of the father” (Freud, 1964, p. 136, as noted in McGrath, 2010, p. 180).

The Electra Complex

Like the male, the young female child also goes through the Electra complex during her phallic stage of personality development. This complex occurs when the female discovers that she has already been castrated, as evidenced in her young mind by the fact that she doesn’t possess a penis. The girl, however, blames her mother for the castration rather than the father. Freud (as interpreted by Hothersall, 2004, p. p. 290) believed that the Electra Complex (he preferred the term castration complex) is resolved in one of three ways:

1. A revulsion toward sex

2. The desire to become a man and the belief that she will one day obtain a penis. Freud believed that the castration complex resolved in this manner could lead to a choice of homosexuality (Strachey, 196, pp. 229-243, as noted in Hothersall, 2004, p. 290).

3. Taking the father as a love object (unconscious that is) which leads to a feminine sexual orientation.

References:

Hothersall, D. (2004). History of Psychology (4th Ed.). New York: McGraw Hill

McGrath, A.E. (2010). Science and Religion (2nd Ed.). MA Blackwell Publishers