Freud’s theory of
infantile sexuality must be seen as an integral part of a broader developmental
theory of human personality. This had its origins in, and was a generalization
of, Breuer’s earlier discovery that traumatic childhood events could have
devastating negative effects upon the adult individual, and took the form of
the general thesis that early childhood sexual experiences were the crucial
factors in the determination of the adult personality.
Oral Stage
From his account of the
instincts or drives it followed that from the moment of birth the infant is
driven in his actions by the desire for bodily/sexual pleasure, where this is
seen by Freud in almost mechanical terms as the desire to release mental
energy. Initially, infants gain such release, and derive such pleasure, from
the act of sucking. Freud accordingly terms this the “oral” stage of
development.
The oral phase of the infantile sexuality
corresponds to the period from birth to about one and a half years old. During
this period, the infant still cannot distinguish between itself and the
external world, having only been out of its mother’s womb for a short period.
The erotogenic zone, which is the term given to an area of bodily organ that is
susceptible to stimulation of sexual impulse, in this period, is the mouth. The
sexual activity is not yet separated from the ingestion of food so the pleasure
of sucking the milk from mother’s breast derives from the pleasure to satisfy
its hunger. At the same time, it satisfies its “libido” which is the term for
sexual desire. It is the time when an infant learns about its dependence on the
external world, about its need to be fed by something external and the
deprivation of satisfaction. The object of sexual satisfaction and
self-preservation (i.e. eating, drinking) is therefore the same.
It is also the time an infant learns to find
pleasure from its own body in order to achieve satisfaction independently.
Since the first erotogenic it finds is the mouth, it then starts an activity
such as thumb sucking. In fact, any object, its toe, another person’s
organ, can be the object of satisfaction. It will try to grab these objects to
the mouth for sucking. The pleasure obtained from the action leads to a sleep
or motor reaction, which is claimed by Freud to be the same as in the nature of
orgasm in the adults. Later in adult life, this stage of development can still
exist along with the more highly developed one and manifests in the act of
seeking the lips of another person in kissing. Even though eating and drinking
are still activities in which sexual impulses are generated but they are much
weaker. For many children, combining with the finding of pleasure from rubbing
sensitive organ, this is one of the possible first steps towards masturbation.
If regression occurred, the manifestation of this phase will be in the form of
addiction or a neurosis which appears as a psychomatic disturbance with
symptoms in the mouth or digestive system of the adults. This form of neurosis
caused by the conflict of the guilty feeling of performing an oral sex and the
desire for oral sexual impulses derived from the oral phase of infantile
sexuality.
Anal Stage
This is followed by a
stage in which the locus of pleasure or energy release is the anus,
particularly in the act of defecation, and this is accordingly termed the
‘anal’ stage.
The anal phase corresponds to the following period when an infant is one
and a half to three and a half years old. During this period, an infant becomes
more independent. It is the period when parents are the authority determining when
the infants should defecated as they try to discipline their infants. Having
found a new erotogenic zone, the anus, which gives a pleasurable sensation when
the faeces are let go, the child often disobeys and holds back the faeces when
put on the pot. The accumulation produces a violent muscular attraction with as
much pain as pleasure and this habit is usually found in a child. The
distinction into the masculine and the feminine is not yet developed but rather
as the active and the passive. The object of satisfaction here is not identical
for the active and the passive unlike the case of oral phase. The active wants
to have a control of its own and to be the authority whereas the passive has to
submit to the authority. The anal phase can manifest itself later in adults in
authoritarian and rebellious personality.
Also in this period, the infants will be preoccupied with anus and
faeces. Children often treat faeces as a gift and they also like to play with
them. Being told by their parents not to that, the children then play with
something similar like mud or clay. Adults who regress to the anal phase are
sometimes found to play with their faeces in confined cells or hospital. Money
is also a symbolic substitute of faeces, deriving from being a substitution of
gold, a substitution of faeces. So playing with money in the adults is an
acceptable substitution for the unconscious desire to play with faeces.
The sadomasochism is a form of sexual perversion characterised by the
enjoyment in inflicting pain or suffering on others and vice versa. It was
first thought of as resulting from a child having prematurely seen a sexual
intercourse between a male and a female with a sadistic impression. From the
infant’s point of view, the female has been mistreated with cruelty in the
sexual intercourse. Freud later asserts that the sadomasochism arises from the
regression to the anal phase of the infantile sexuality where both active (sadistic)
and passive (masochistic) form can be exhibited. The capacity of pity is not
yet developed during this period and hence the nature of sadomasochism
therefore can emerge in these adults. Again, the conflict between the sexual
desire and the pity feeling can lead to some forms of neuroses. Repression of
the impulses generated by the anal phase sexuality can cause a neurosis with
symptoms in the bowel region. Also, it is found in adults the trace of
regression to this stage in desire to have an anal intercourse, again, in
either active or passive form. Additionally, again using symbolic substitution,
Freud proposes that this phase is the first step where the female starts
developing the wish to have a baby. Here the faeces symbolise babies since the
concept of birth in the mind of an infant is just about letting things out of
the bowel. Faeces can also be a symbolic substitution of a penis and the anal
phase is the first step towards the aim of possessing a penis in a female. This
will reappear more notoriously later in the next phase, the genital phase.
Phallic Stage
The phallic phase corresponds to the period of three and a half to six
years old. In this period, the children become aware of the difference between
the sexes. The girl will notice what they do not have and the boys learn that
the girls do not possess what they have. However, initially in the mind of
children, the polarity is not yet distinguished as “male” and “female” but
rather as “possession of a penis” and “castrated condition”. Combining with the
threat of punishment from the parents when they are seen playing with their
genitals, the boys will seriously fear of castration, thinking that some
unworthy girls have been punished by being castrated. On the other hand, girls
become envy of the boys for what they have. This is termed by Freud, the “penis
envy” which leads the girls to blame their mothers for not giving them penises
and hence transfer the affection to their fathers instead. The term Oedipus
Complex is used by Freud to explain why children about this age feel more
passionate towards the parent of the opposite sex and tend to “hate” the parent
of the same sex. The feeling of the girl as mentioned shows that the Oedipus
Complex coincides with this period of development of sexuality. The wish to
possess a penis also leads a female to unconsciously develop a wish for a baby,
which is a symbolic substitution of a penis.
So, at some point, boy
perceives himself to be at risk. He fears that if he persists in pursuing the
sexual attraction for his mother, he may be harmed by the father; specifically,
he comes to fear that he may be castrated. This is termed “castration
anxiety.” Both the attraction for the mother and the hatred are usually
repressed, and the child usually resolves the conflict of the Oedipus complex
by coming to identify with the parent of the same sex. This happens at the age
of five, whereupon the child enters a “latency” period, in which sexual
motivations become much less pronounced. This lasts until puberty when mature
genital development begins, and the pleasure drive refocuses around the genital
area.
This, Freud believed, is
the sequence or progression implicit in normal human development, and it
is to be observed that at the infant level the instinctual attempts to satisfy
the pleasure drive are frequently checked by parental control and social
coercion. The developmental process, then, is for the child essentially a
movement through a series of conflicts, the successful resolution of
which is crucial to adult mental health. Many mental illnesses, particularly
hysteria, Freud held, can be traced back to unresolved conflicts experienced at
this stage, or to events which otherwise disrupt the normal pattern of
infantile development. For example, homosexuality is seen by some
Freudians as resulting from a failure to resolve the conflicts of the Oedipus
complex, particularly a failure to identify with the parent of the same sex;
the obsessive concern with washing and personal hygiene which characterizes the
behavior of some neurotics is seen as resulting from unresolved
conflicts/repressions occurring at the anal stage.
The unity of the erotic functions of all separate sexual activities for
the purpose of reproduction is required to take place at puberty if a normal
sexual life were to take place. If the genital zone can be a strong stimulant
and a leading factor, beginning in this phase of the infantile sexuality, this
combining process is possible. Otherwise, the other components of sexuality
will continue their activity as perversion. Adults who have gone through this
stage of development are found to treat their partners as equal and the
relationships are mutual and loving. This can be attributed to the function of
combining that the genital zone is responsible since one is then able to focus
all desires upon a single object, a single person.
Latency
Stage
The period of infantile sexuality as described is followed by the latency
period (6 to 12 years old) when children get educated according to the ways
laid down by the “civilised” society. The feeling of shame, disgust, morality
and pity are here developed into their
ego, or in another word, consciousness, to impede the sexual
instincts. Because they are relatively later constructed, the infantile
sexuality is then mostly in the form of perversion as Freud terms, polymorphously
pervert. With the pleasure principle dominating, infants seek to find pleasure
in whatever forms, in any symbolic substitution and in any direction, hence the
term polymorphously pervert. This is
coupled with another characteristic of the infantile sexuality, which is the
auto-erotism i.e. the infants find the pleasurable stimulation from their own
body, without external object. It then means that, they can stick to sexual
preferences they find from the stimulation from whichever part of the body,
whether it is the genital or not. In adults, the polymorphousness even extends to the object, which is external and
symbolic. Fetishism where a person’s sexual desire is attracted by a particular
object is one of the consequences of this polymorphousness in the childhood.
Since normal adult’s view of pregenital sexual pleasure is perverse, the
regression to the primary stages of infantile sexuality results in a pervert
adult who is merely a sexually disturbed person who fails to attain the sexual
aim and is condemned to seek the satisfaction in the pregenital sphere.
Sometimes conflicts arise from education and the regressed sexuality, causing
neuroses later in the puberty period (from 11 years old on). The function of
the psychoanalysis is then to reduce this conflict in order to cure.
The auto-erotism characteristic of the infantile sexuality also shows how
the sexual instinct inherited in living things tend to restore the earlier
state. Here, the infants want to repeat the same pleasurable sensual experience
they have discovered and so continue doing it for itself. All development
follows are therefore attributed to external disturbances, otherwise, an
organic life will just be in the same state without any wish to change.
Therefore, the process of development in the infantile sexuality as discussed
move dynamically forward or backward because of the external disturbances such
as deprivation, being forbidden or finding new form of pleasure. Also as a
consequence, there is an inclusion of the external objects towards which one
can sexually aim, resulting in Fetishism.
Genital
Stage
Adolescents 12 to 18+ become interested in opposite sex and often begin
to experiment sexually. Traditionally, this period has always been the time
when cultures have recognized the appearance of overt sexuality in youth. Freud
theory was a shock to those who had not considered that sexual, libidinal,
hedonistic desire (not located in genitals) was part of the pre-adolescent
years.
Critics
Freud’s theory of the infantile sexuality receives criticisms obviously from
those who feel that the theory corrodes the perception of infants and
consequently will destroy the foundation of the society. However, Freud
indicates clearly that his theory is derived from the clinical researches and
laborious collection of data and information. He is open to academic and
constructive criticisms and suggests the stop of self-denial.
The “penis envy” and the explanations which somewhat indicate
disadvantages and inferiority in female also cause the rage and criticism from
woman activists. Freud is accused of writing his theory in the male-constructed
world. In fact, quite the opposite of what he is accused for, he suggests that
female, both in childhood or puberty, explore and experience more instead of
totally repressed until puberty. The female tend to repress more than the male
and that is one of the reasons evidently stated by Freud that make women more
prone to hysteria. His view is that during the pregenital infantile sexuality,
there is no difference between the male and the female. Only in the genital
phase that the difference becomes apparent and not until puberty that the clear
distinction is completed. In fact, to Freud, the clitoris in the female is
equally competent as the penis in male in terms of its erotic functioning.
However, an acceptance of the difference and dependency, seeing the other sex
as the complementary opposite, is the way to achieve the feeling of regaining
the wholeness one normally feels lost shortly after birth. By uniting with the
complementary opposite, the symbolic feeling of love and wholeness will be
present. Freud later wrote about this as the “life
instinct” as opposing to the “death
instinct” which is characterised by the denial of dependency and
incompleteness. It leads to an attempt to undo the difference, violence in
order to eliminate the other and the quest for power as evident in the
phenomenon such as sexism where men try to suppress women.
Another criticism is that Freud’s theory is based on data collection from
the samples of only a particular group of people in Vienna. Many then argue
that the infantile sexuality should differ from one society and culture to
another. For example, in eastern society where the family is not a nuclear one,
unlike most western families, the Oedipus Complex should not be as Freud
suggests since their are more objects to
direct the love and hate to. This is indeed true but again, even if Freud’s
work is just a representation of the western, it still gives a lot of credible
explanations of what does really happen in the western society in terms of
neuroses, behaviours and psychology.
On homosexuality, criticisms also arise in that Freud’s work leads people
to see homosexuality as pathological. In fact, Freud’s intention is only to
test his psychoanalysis method of finding and to make observations with no bias
in order to find the truth and cure for neuroses, which cause people’s distress
in life. Freud even asserts that each person is potentially capable of having
sexual relations with a person of either sex, although there could be
exceptions at either end. There is a relationship between the degree of
bisexuality and the socialisation experiences the child undergoes in family
circumstances. There is therefore actually nothing natural in heterosexuality
from his point of view.
Historical Development
Freud’s seduction theory can be considered as the predecessor for the Infantile
Sexuality theory. Seduction theory was a hypothesis posited in the mid-1890s by
Sigmund Freud that he believed provided the solution to the problem of the
origins of hysteria and obsessive neurosis.
According to the theory, a repressed memory of an early childhood sexual
abuse or molestation experience was the essential precondition for hysterical
or symptoms of obsession, with the addition of an active sexual experience up
to the age of eight for the latter.
In the traditional account of development of seduction theory, Freud
initially thought that his patients were relating more or less factual stories
of sexual mistreatment, and that the sexual abuse was responsible for many of
his patients' neuroses and other mental health problems. Within a few years
Freud abandoned his theory, concluding that the memories of sexual abuse were
in fact imaginary fantasies. The collapse of the seduction theory led in 1897
to the emergence of Freud's new theory of infantile sexuality. The impulses,
fantasies and conflicts that Freud claimed to have uncovered beneath the
neurotic symptoms of his patients derived not from external contamination, he
now believed, but from the mind of the child itself.
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