Psychology

Freuds theory of psychosexual stages has been influential at the same time controversial to many scientists. But these pave way to more studies on developmental psychology. According to Freud, there are pleasure-seeking energies within a person that focus on the erogenous areas of the body. These pleasure-seeking energies, also called the libido affect behavior and thus form personality. Freud believes that our personality is formed in the early stages of our life, without us even being conscious of it. This theory explains why some people have bad eating habits, smoking or drinking habits, some behave inappropriately with the opposite sex, some are intolerant with disorders and some are just normal, well-rounded persons.

There are five psychosexual stages the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency period and the genital stage. A person goes through these stages and develops different behavioral patterns that form personality. These stages have to be completed successfully so that the person will acquire a healthy personality. In case when there are problems incurred in the stages or some conflicts left unresolved, fixation then occurs. When the child is stuck on a specific psychosexual stage and is unable to move on to the next stage, he may develop some problems in personality or other maladaptive behaviors that may persist until adulthood.

The first stage in the psychosexual development is the oral stage. This stage occurs between zero-age to two. In the oral stage, the focus of the libido energy is the mouth. When a person wakes up into the world, his first interaction is with his mother through the mouth. His sucking and tasting are the first means of deriving pleasure. The child also makes a connection with the one feeding him, whether the mother or the caregiver. He develops trust and relates comfort with feeding.

When the comfort and satisfaction of feeding from the mother is taken away, as in the weaning process, this may resort to fixation. The child may experience problems that will affect his future personality. Freud describes various personalities that could be developed with the fixation on the oral stage. If the childs needs are not met, he may become pessimistic, envious, suspicious or sarcastic. Overindulging may likewise develop positive personality such as optimism and be full of admiration for others, but the child could also become gullible.

Another stage that has aroused many controversies is the phallic stage, occurring approximately between age four to five. Phallic, another term for penis, is a stage in the development of a child when the libido energy is focused on the genitals. This is the stage when children discover the difference between males and females. Freud explains the phallic stage as when a boy develops feelings of wanting to possess his mother. He calls this Oedipus complex, when the boy develops sexual desire for the mother. According to Freud, the childs wanting is accompanied with fear of being punished by the father. He uses the concept, castration anxiety, which is the childs fear of having his own genitals removed by the father as punishment. That is why the child eventually suppresses the feeling and realizes that he could still possess his mother if he identifies with his father.

The counterpart feeling for the girl is identified as Electra complex where the girl develops a wanting of the father because she realizes that she lacks the penis that her father and other men have. She develops envy of the father and also wants herself to have a penis. She blames the mother because she feels she was castrated that is why she has no penis. Freud calls the conflict, penis envy. Like with the boy who eventually resolves his conflict by identifying with the father, the girl also resolves her conflict and realizes that she can have her father if she identifies with the mother.

Issues unresolved from either over-indulging or avoidance in the phallic stage may resort to fixation. These may cause problems in sexual identities or even sexual deviances. The child may develop positive personalities such as being self-assured. But he may also develop odd personalities such as being narcissistic, reckless or excessively vain. Some may become incapable of maintaining intimate relationships. Freud also assumed that this could also be the cause of homosexuality. One stuck in the Oedipus complex or the Electra complex may sustain the feeling until they become adult. The child would actually feel incestuous towards the parent.

Freuds theories that relate all behaviors and causes of behaviors to sex and the libido invite many criticisms. Critics claim that his theory focused more on the male development and had little explanations on the female development. Researchers also claim that concepts such as libido are very difficult, almost impossible to measure and therefore discredit Freuds means of making his generalizations. Freuds analyses are not clear especially considering the length of time in a lifespan between the child and adult, the resulting personality cannot be credited to be the cause of the childs experience. Current scientific researches on Freuds psychosexual theories confirm that although traces of the oral, anal, phallic and genital stages can be observed, the traits developed cannot be confirmed that they result from childhood experiences.
 
Freud broke into the territory of feminist groups. They claimed that his theories were sexist. His theories often referred to his own self-analysis and not to be applied to all especially that they very much instill intrinsically male perspective. They are especially angered by his bias against women. He only focused on the male aspect could not explain the female aspect of his theory. He was also criticized that despite his lack of understanding of the female sexuality, he dared cover this up with generalizations in psychology. Feminists refer to Freuds theory on penis envy by females to their fathers or other males during their phallic stage of development. They corrected him that instead of being penis envy, they could develop power envy towards the male. At an early age, females could be exposed to difference in the treatment of society towards the female gender so that young females may have a need to take away power from other males. They also referred to Freuds concept of womb envy in males which is perceived as the jealousy of men of women because of their ability to bear children. More modern analysis of this concept would consider the envy to be more on the right of women to nurturing.

Cultural difference is also another point considered in criticizing Freuds theory on psychosexual development. Scientists claim that Freuds Oedipus complex theory is not universal because in other cultures, they have different practices of rearing children. Specifically, research was done in a village in Trobriand Islands that challenged western views of Freuds theory. In that island, boys are disciplined by their mothers brother, or the boys uncle instead of their actual biological fathers. Their study found that boys have fears of their uncle, not their fathers. Therefore there is no sexual competition instead, the competition is in the power (Psychosexual Development, 2008).

Many of Freuds works, especially his theory on psychosexual development may have earned many criticisms because they have various points of weaknesses in generalizability. They may have been based from his personal experience or based on some specific cases. Some of his ideas are not even capable of being tested. But Freud has established strong relevance for his theories and principles that continue to benefit scientists and researchers until today.