child enters thelatency stage, which is characterized
by a lack of overt sexual activity and, indeed, by an
almost negative orientation toward anything sexual.
This stage may extend from about the age of 5 until
12 or so. Following the onset of adolescence, the
genital stagebegins. Ideally, this stage will culminate
in a mature expression of sexuality, assuming that
the sexual impulses have been handled successfully
by the ego.
When the child experiences difficulties at any
stage, these difficulties may be expressed in symp-
toms of maladjustment, especially when the trou-
bles are severe. Either excessive frustration or
overindulgence at any psychosexual stage will lead
to problems. The particular stage at which excessive
gratification or frustration is encountered will deter-
mine the specific nature of the symptoms. Thus,
obsessive-compulsive symptoms signify that the
individual failed to successfully negotiate the anal
stage, whereas excessive dependence needs in an
adult suggest the influence of the oral stage. Freud
believed that all people manifest a particular char-
acter formation, which may not always be particu-
larly neurotic but nonetheless does represent
perpetuations of original childish impulses, either
as sublimations of these impulses or as reaction for-
mations against them. Examples would include an
oral character’s food fads or purist speech patterns,
an anal character’s prudishness or dislike of dirt, and
a phallic character’s excessive modesty.
Anxiety. The circumstances that give rise to the
formation of the ego, and later the superego, pro-
duce the painful affective experienceanxiety. Exag-
gerated responses of the heart, the lungs, and other
internal organs are perceived and experienced as
anxiety. There are three general classes of anxiety.
The first isreality anxiety, which is based on a real
danger from the outside world. Neurotic anxiety
stems from a fear that one’s id impulses will be
expressed unchecked and thus lead to trouble
from the environment.Moral anxietyarises from a
fear that one will not conform to the standards of
the conscience. What identifies and defines these
anxieties is the source rather than the quality of
the anxiety experience. The essential function of
anxiety is to serve as a warning signal to the ego
that certain steps must be initiated to quell the dan-
ger and thus protect the organism.The Ego Defenses. We have already discussed
that the ego uses the secondary process of memory,
judgment, and learning to solve problems and stave
off environmental threats. But such measures are
less serviceable when threats arise from within the
person. When one fears the wrath of the superego
or the unleashed lusts of the id, where does one
turn? The answer lies in theego defensesor, as they
are sometimes called,defense mechanisms. Nowhere
was the insight of Freud more evident than in his
ability to abstract the defense mechanisms from the
often disconnected and illogical verbalizations of his
patients. These mechanisms are generally regarded
as pathological because they divert psychic energy
from more constructive activities and at the sameF I G U R E 12-2 Freud’s consulting room.© Bettman/Corbis348 CHAPTER 12