Psychoanalysis

Freud believed human behavior and thought are ruled by numerous instincts that fall into two groups—those that further life and those that further death. We know little about the death instincts, but aggression and destructiveness come from them. Life instincts further survival and reproduction. Sexual instincts are the main life instincts and they are very important in the psychoanalytic theory of development. Freud believed we pass through five stages of psychosexual development: the oral, anal, phallic, latent, and genital.

In the oral stage infants find pleasure in using their mouths to eat and suck. In the anal stage, from about age two to four, pleasure is found in the tension reducing release of waste products. During the phallic stage children become preoccupied with their genitals, and they begin to develop an attraction to their opposite sex parent, which is called the oedipus complex. How the child and his or her parents deal with the oedipus complex can have a great impact on the individual's personality. During the latency period, roughly from ages five to 12, the sexual instincts are subdued until physiological changes in the reproductive system at puberty reawaken them. With puberty the genital stage begins, wherein the individual develops attraction to the opposite sex and becomes interested in forming a loving union with another. This is the longest of the stages, lasting from puberty until senility. It is characterized by socialization, vocational planning, and decisions about marriage and raising a family.