Sigmund Freud’s theory of
psychosexual development
By: Christina, Amanda, Melissa,
and Sam
Biography
Family:
-He is the oldest of eight children.
-His father was a wool merchant.
-When he was four years old his family
moved to Vienna.
-His father had a good sense of humor.
-His mother was twenty one when she had
him.
Biography
Education:
-He graduated from medical school of the
university of Vienna in 1881.
-He studied under Jean Martin Charcot in
Paris.
-He decided to specialize in neurology.
-He was always ahead of his class.
Biography
Work:
-He worked with hysterical patients in Vienna.
-He made ideas for treatment of mental Illness.
-His most important writing’s were: The
Interpretation of dreams, three essays on the
theory of sexuality, Totem and Taboo,
Introductory lectures on psychoanalysis, The
Ego and the Id, and civilization and its
Discontents.
Biography
Notable Facts:
-He was born May 6th, 1856.
-He was born in Freiberg in Moravia.
-He discovered that he had cancer of the mouth in
1923.
-He was Jewish.
-During the war he escaped to England with his
wife and children.
-He passed away from cancer in 1939.
Theory
• Freud advanced a theory of personality
development that centered on the effects of the
sexual pleasure drive on the individual psyche.
• At particular points in the developmental process,
he claimed a single body part is particularly
sensitive to sexual, erotic stimulation.
• There are five stages to his theory which include:
-The oral stage
-The anal stage
-The phallic stage
-The latency period
-The genital stage
The Oral Stage
The oral stage
• Starts from birth until 18 months
• The focus of pleasure is the mouth. i.e.: Sucking
and teething
• When the child is being nursed it gives him the
psychological pleasure of being cared for,
mothered and held.
• Later they are likely to retain a life long desire to
bite things, such as: chewing on the ends of
pencils or pens, gum and biting nails.
The Anal Stage
The anal stage
• Begins at 18 months
• The child’s natural focus of pleasure is the
anus and bodily functions.
• When the child begins to toilet training.
• This stage lasts between one and two
years of age.
The Phallic Stage
The Phallic Stage
• This stage lasts from three and seven
years of age.
• The focus of pleasure is the genitalia,
masturbation is also common during this
period.
The Latency Stage
The Latency Stage
• This stage lasts between five and seven
years old until around puberty.
• During this stage their earlier focus is
repressed.
• School, athletics, and same sex
friendships is the main focus.
The Genital Stage
The genital Stage
• This stage begins at puberty and
continues through their adolescence.
• Their energy is once again back to being
focused on the genitals
• mainly the focus of pleasure is in sexual
intercourse.
The Critics
• There were a lot of feminist groups that didn’t
approve on his views, but there was one in
particular named Karen Horney.
• Karen Horney thought that he had difficulty
incorporating female desire into his theories.
• He thought that girls had “male envy” , however
Karen Horney thought that girls had “power
envy” during the psychosexual development.
• The most controversial stage is the Phallic
stage. People didn’t agree with his theory on
how the children connect with their parents.
What did we think?
We agree with Sigmund Freud’s theory of the
psychosexual development. Each stage is a
good representation of the child’s age and his or
her reaction to their development. The oral
stage for example, makes sense because that is
the age when an infants teeth begin to come in.
Sigmund Freud had a lot of different opinions
about the development in people, but all of his
theories makes perfect sense. Doing this project
gave us a different perspective on the human
development.
Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOoYX
45G_0
References
• http://www.saidaonline.com/en/newsgfx/teenagers-saidaonline.gif
• http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html
• http://www.psychotherapy.ro/resources/constructs/psych
osexual-development-criticism-of-freuds-theory-ofpsychosexual-development/
• http://www.victorianweb.org/science/freud/develop.html