Freud's Infantile Sexuality Theory- sane or insane?

      According to Freud, at ages of four to five, infants develop sexual instinct and learn how to physically pleasure themselves. For example, thumb sucking is considered as “a sample of sexual manifestations of childhood” (Freud 45), which is followed by act of defecation as ways of inducing highly pleasurable sensations. Yet, parents monitor their children to teach them how to repress their sexual desires by associating sexual desires with disgust, feelings of shame and moral condemnation. And after long duration of latency period, sexual instincts emerge with great intensity, which Freud denotes as puberty.

      Indeed, the majority, including myself, will be disturbed by Freud’s conviction that infants have sexual desires because it defeats our traditional perception of babies as naïve and innocent beings. Some could argue that thumb sucking is a subconscious action that is mere extension of the babies’ instinct to put everything in their mouth out of curiosity. On the other hand, however, it is not abnormal for babies to manifest sexuality because very adult was once a child. As Freud mentions in the second essay, despite of the infantile amnesia, “impressions that we have forgotten have none the less [leave] the deepest traces on our minds and have determining effect upon our later development” (Freud 41). Such premise is certainly reasonable and hence cannot be neglected.

      Furthermore, Freud argues that infantile sexuality is never ‘entirely’ natural but is shaped by parents, culture and society. When taking a good look at the contemporary society, one could easily observe that nearly all forms of media portray sexuality and provocative images. Regarding the fact that two-thirds of toddlers watch TV an average of 2 hours a day, it is undeniable that adult sexuality is becoming more accessible and explicit to infants. Though the infants do not have the capacity to process and judge everything they see, exposing adult sexuality to children may nevertheless hamper the sublimation of their inner desires. Until today, Frued’s theory of infantile sexuality remains controversial. However, his theories and observations have merits that trigger us to ponder the very fundamentals of our psychology.