44 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
These anxieties are generally accompanied by feelings of ambiva-
lence toward their love object (mother), and by the increased abil-
ity of their budding ego to defend itself against the environment
and against anxiety (Freud, 1933/1964).
Infants' defense against the environment is greatly aided by
the emergence of teeth. At this point, they pass into a second oral
phase, which Freud (1933/1964) called the oral-sadistic period.
During this phase, infants respond to others through biting, cooing,
closing their mouth, smiling, and crying. Their first autoerotic
experience is thumb sucking, a defense against anxiety that satis-
fies their sexual but not their nutritional needs.
As children grow older, the mouth continues to be an erog-
enous zone, and by the time they become adults, they are capable
of gratifying their oral needs in a variety o~ ays, including suck-
ing candy, chewing gum, biting pencils, overeating, smoking
cigarettes, pipes and cigars, and making biting, sarcastic remarks.Anal Phase
The aggressive drive, which during the first year of life takes the
Infants satisfy oral needs one way or another.
form of oral sadism, readies funler development during the second
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year when the anu emerges as a sexually pleasurable zone. Because
this period is characterized by satisfaction gained through aggressive behavior and
through the excretory function, Freutl (1933/1964) called it the sadistic-anal phase
or, more briefly, the anal P.hase of development. This phase is divided into two
subphases, the early anal and t e late anal.
During the early a al period, children receive satisfaction by destroying or
losing objects. At this time, the destructive nature of the sadistic drive is stronger
than the erotic one, and children often behave aggressively toward their parents
for frustrating them with toilet training.
Then, when children enter the late anal period, they sometimes take a friendly
interest toward their feces, an interest that stems from the erotic pleasure of defecat-
ing. requently, children will present their feces to the parents as a valued prize
(Freu , 1933/1964). If their behavior is accepted and praised by their parents, then
children are likely to grow into generous and magnanimous adults. However, if their
"gift" is rejected in a punitive fashion, children may adopt another method of obtain-
ing anal pleasure-withholding the feces until the pressure becomes both painful
and erotically stimulating. This mode of narcissistic and masochistic pleasure lays
the foundation for the anal character-people who continue to receive erotic sat-
isfaction by keeping and possessing objects and by arranging them in an excessively
neat and orderly fashion. Freud (1933/1964) hypothesized that people who grow
into anal characters were, as children, overly resistant to toilet training, often hold-
ing back their feces and prolonging the time of training beyond that usually required.
This anal eroticism becomes transformed into the anal triad of orderliness, stingi-
ness, and obstinacy that typifies the adult anal character.
Freud (1933/1964) believed that, for girls, anal eroticism is carried over into
penis envy during the phallic stage and can eventually be expressed by giving birth