Influence of childhood experiences Flashcards
What is a libido?
Sexual or psychic energy
What are the Psychosexual stages?
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital
(Old Age Pensioners Love Guinness)
The Oral Stage
(0-18 months)
Libido - mouth due to breastfeeding
Healthy development: able to trust others and enjoy food & drink
Fixation due to frustration: Aggressive, pessimistic, suspicious
Fixated due to overindulgence: gullible, dependent, too trusting.
Can cause ED’s, smoking, etc.
The Anal Stage
(18 months-3 years)
Libido - Anus due to toilet training.
Healthy development: deal with authority, maintain a balance between clean & messy.
Fixation due to frustration: stubborn, possessive, too tidy
Fixation due to overindulgence: Messy, disorganised, reckless.
The Phallic stage
Libido - genitals
Healthy development: identifying with same-sex parents
Fixated - vain, sexually aggressive, narcissistic, exhibitionist. Can also cause fear of love.
Oedipus complex
- Boy starts to desire his mother
- Sees father as a rival - wants to kill him
- Fears father will castrate him
- Identifies with his father to solve inner conflict.
- Develops superego. Substitutes desire for mother into other women.
Electra Complex
- Girl develops penis envy. Blames mother for removing her penis.
- Begins to desire father who has a penis.
- Girl sees mother as rival.
- To resolve this, girl identifies with her mother.
- Superego develops, as does gender identity and she replaces penis envy with desire to have a baby.
The Latency Stage
(5 years-puberty)
Not particularly important.
Libido is dormant and child focuses on making same-sex friendships.
The Genital Stage
(Puberty-onwards)
Libido - genitals of opposite sex.
Healthy development: Mature, capable of love and healthy sexual relationships, Well adjusted.
Don’t become fixated as you stay in this stage until you die.
