Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development

According to Sigmund Freud, there are 5 stages of psychosexual development:

1. The Oral Stage (birth till 18 months)

2. The Anal Stage (18 months to three)

3. The Phallic Stage (three to six)

4. The Latency Stage (six to puberty)

5. The Genital Stage (puberty till rest of life)

I found it interesting that Freud's explanation for why adults behave a certain way roots back to these stages of their childhood. For example, someone who smokes or bites their nails is considered to have either overindulged in the oral stage, or not had enough of it, which is why they have a personality of Oral Fixation, and that's why they do so much stuff involving their mouth. Freud explains that these people tend to be more dependent and immature. Similarly, someone who has either overindulged in the anal stage or not experienced it enough (seeing as this stage is about learning to control) might grow up to have a personality with Anal Fixation. This means the person could grow up with an incessant need for control, cleanliness, and perfection, which is where the slang term "anal" comes from, when people are referring to someone's obsession with control: "why are you being so anal about this?"

During the phallic stage is when the first unconscious sexual feelings erupt, directed to the parent of the opposite sex (Oedipus/Electra complex). This is where things get interesting: Freud attributes issues in this stage (overindulgence or deprivation) to future sexual identity issues. Meaning that if anyone has a rare type of sexuality, it is because something went "wrong" in the phallic stage, and the result is a confused or weak sexual identity, instead of accepting that an unusual sexual identity might not be something "wrong". In the latency stage, Freud says that children accept that their other parent is going to win for the attention of the parent of the opposite sex for which the child has sexual feelings, and so they suppress their sexual feelings until puberty, when it comes out again. However, in the genital stage, Freud claims they have "learned" that they cannot get their parent, so they instead channel their sexual feelings into their peers. I find it really interesting that we can have completely different explanations for why we are a certain way, but Freud's explanation is so plain and simple: something went wrong in the psychosexual stages.

http://allpsych.com/psychology101/sexual_development.html