Zodawn Footprints: Sigmund Freud Theory: Phallic Stage Analysis

Introduction: Freudian theory of psychosexual development is one of the best known, but also one of the most controversial. Freud believed that personality develops through a series of childhood stages during which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior. If these psychosexual stages are completed successfully, the result is a healthy personality. If certain issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, fixation can occur. A fixation is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until this conflict is resolved, the individual will remain "stuck" in this stage. For example, a person who is fixated at the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may seek oral stimulation through smoking, drinking, or eating. The phallic stage is the third of five Freudian psychosexual development stages: (i) the Oral, (ii) the Anal, (iii) the Phallic, (iv) the Latent, and (v) the Genital.

In Freudian psychology, the phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual development, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein the infant’s libido (desire) centres upon his or her genitalia as the erogenous zone. When children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents, they gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, the centre of the phallic stage, in course of which they learn the physical differences between “male” and “female”, and the gender differences between “boy” and “girl”, experiences which alter the psychological dynamics of the parent and child relationship.

Complexes: Oedipus and Electra

In the Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy’s decisive experience is the Oedipus complex describing his son–father competition for sexual possession of mother. This psychological complex indirectly derives from the Greek mythological character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his mother. Initially, Dr. Freud applied the Oedipus complex to the development of boys and girls alike; he then developed the female aspect of phallic-stage psychosexual development as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the negative Oedipus complex; but his student–collaborator Carl Jung proposed the “Electra complex”, derived from Greek mythological character Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge against her mother for the murder of her father, to describe a girl’s psychosexual competition with her mother for possession of her father.

Oedipus - despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child’s desires, the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity “boy”, “girl” that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile libidinal energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon mother, and focuses jealousy and emotional rivalry against father because it is he who sleeps with mother. To facilitate uniting him with mother, the boy’s id wants to kill father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon the reality principle, knows that father is the stronger of the two males competing to psychosexually possess the one female. Nonetheless, the fearful boy remains ambivalent about father’s place in the family, which is manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile Id.

Electra - In developing a discrete psychosexual identity, boys develop castration anxiety and girls develop penis envy towards all males. The girl’s envy is rooted in the biologic fact that, without a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id demands, resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father. She thus psychosexually progresses to heterosexual femininity (which culminates in bearing a child) derived from earlier, infantile desires; her child replaces the absent penis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl’s psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl’s oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a woman of submissive, less confident personality.

In both sexes, defence mechanisms provide transitory resolutions of the conflict between the drives of the Id and the drives of the Ego. The first defence mechanism is repression, the blocking of memories, emotional impulses, and ideas from the conscious mind; yet it does not resolve the Id–Ego conflict. The second defence mechanism is identification, by which the child incorporates, to his or her ego, the personality characteristics of the same-sex parent; in so adapting, the boy diminishes his castration anxiety, because likeness to father protects him from father’s wrath as a rival for mother; by so adapting, the girl facilitates identifying with mother, who understands that, in being females, neither of them possesses a penis, and thus are not antagonists.

Unresolved sexual competition for the opposite-sex parent might lead to a phallic-stage fixation conducive to a girl becoming a woman who continually strives to dominate men (viz. penis envy), either as an unusually seductive woman (high self-esteem) or as an unusually submissive woman (low self-esteem). In a boy, a phallic-stage fixation might be conducive to becoming a vain, over-ambitious man. Therefore, the satisfactory parental handling and resolution of the Oedipus complex and the Electra complex are most important in developing the infantile super-ego, because, by identifying with a parent, the child internalizes Morality, thereby, he or she chooses to comply with societal rules, rather than having to comply reflexively, from fear of punishment.

Feminist point of view

Regarding the phallic-stage psychosexual development of girls, as a psychologist, Sigmund Freud believed it developmentally natural for a girl to centre her libido (desire) upon her pudendum, especially the clitoris as her primary erogenous zone. He further proposed that upon reaching adulthood (sexual maturity), the vagina then became a woman’s primary erogenous zone. Nonetheless, Freud’s successors criticise the phallic stage theoretical constructs, because their logic presents women who are vaginally - and clitoral orgasmic, as psychosexually immature.

Contemporaneously, Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual development theory is criticized as sexist, because it was informed with his introspection (self-analysis). To integrate the female libido (sexual desire) to psychosexual development, he proposed that girls develop “penis envy”. In response, the German Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst Karen Horney counter-proposed that girls instead develop “Power envy”, rather than penis envy. She further proposed the concept of “womb and vagina envy”, the male’s envy of the female ability to bear children; yet, contemporary formulations further develop said envy from the biologic (child-bearing) to the psychological (nurturance), envy of women’s perceived right to be the kind parent.

Criticisms of and Changes in Freudian Psychoanalysis

Orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis was challenged in the 1920s by Otto Rank, Sandor Ferenczi, and Wilhelm Reich; later, in the 1930s, by Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan. These critics of Freud stressed the interpersonal aspect of the analyst-patient relationship (transference), and placed more emphasis on the processes of the ego. Despite a number of detractors and a lack of controlled research, Freudian psychoanalysis remained the most widely used method of psychotherapy until at least the 1950s.

Today, Freud's method is only one among many types of psychotherapy used in psychiatry. Many objections have been leveled against traditional psychoanalysis, both for its methodological rigidity and for its lack of theoretical rigor. A number of modern psychologists have pointed out that traditional psychoanalysis relies too much on ambiguities for its data, such as dreams and free associations. Without empirical evidence, Freudian theories often seem weak, and ultimately fail to initiate standards for treatment.

Genital/Phallic (masturbation), pre-occupation with one's own body and craving for the parent of the opposite sex. Highly self-centrict, insecure in their sex role identity. This may lead to either homosexuality or an excessive show of masculinity / femininity. Sexuality is exaggerated, but in a shallow way. Phallic regressive exploit others and avoid deep inter-personal relationships.

Conclusion

Freudian Psycho-analysts seem to be in a Win: Win situation. That is, heads they win, tails you loose. Either way, their clients pay. Delving into the past can go on forever and forever - and still get nowhere. The present is overshadowed by the past and the future is bleak. Where are the positive results from decades of treatment?

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