FREUD'S IDEA OF THE ANAL STAGE OF EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ESSAY: FREUD’S IDEA OF THE ‘ANAL’ STAGE OF EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The theme of the individual as being at the centre of a confrontation between nature and culture lies at the heart of Freud’s theories. He suggested that different patterns of care of young children, and infantile trauma contribute to the formation of different sorts of adult personality structure, through ‘fixation’ at a particular stage of childhood psychophysical development. These fixed stages, oral, anal and phallic, are characterised by the predominance of particular sorts of feelings or desires, and corresponding psychic defenses against the anxieties associated with such desires (Mann, 1994). The transition from one stage to the next has a formative impact on the mental apparatus. The major institutions of the mental organisation, like the ego and the superego are formed at this time, as well as the prototypical experiences of love, anxiety, frustration and authority (Gabriel, 1983). The wealt...