Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

"A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world."
- Sigmund Freud

It is the most well known theorist and at the same time the most controversia that Freud could develop; it is diveded in 8 stages that are:









Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). It is focused on oral pleasures (sucking).The oral character who is frustrated at this stage. The overindulged oral character, whose nursing urges were always and often excessively satisfied, is optimistic, gullible, and is full of admiration for others around him. 

Anal Stage (18 months to three years). in tjis age a child focus of pleasure in this stage is on eliminating and retaining feces. This represents a classic conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and superego, which represent the practical and societal pressures to control the bodily functions. If the parents are too lenient and the child manages to derive pleasure and success from this expulsion, it will result in the formation of an anal expulsive character. If this tactic succeeds and the child is overindulged, he will develop into an anal retentive character. 

 Phallic Stage (ages three to six). Boy develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother.Also, ín girls is developed unconscious sexual attraction to their father. here is presented the Oedipus conflic in boys and  Electra complexin girls.  A fixation at this stage could result in sexual deviancies (both overindulging and avoidance) and weak or confused sexual identity according to psychoanalysts.

Latency Stage (age six to puberty). It’s during this stage that sexual urges remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers.

 Genital Stage (puberty on). In the genital stage, as the child's energy once again focuses on his genitals, interest turns to heterosexual relationships. The final stage of psychosexual development begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened. 

 In conclussion,  Freud believed that we develop through stages based upon a particular erogenous zone. During each stage, an unsuccessful completion means that a child becomes fixated on that particular erogenous zone and either over– or under-indulges once he or she becomes an adult.






Resources:
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/develop.html