208 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
Play Age
Erikson’s third stage of development is the play age, a period covering the same
time as Freud’s phallic phase—roughly ages 3 to 5 years. Again, differences emerge
between the views of Freud and Erikson. Whereas Freud placed the Oedipus complex
at the core of the phallic stage, Erikson believed that the Oedipus complex is but
one of several important developments during the play age. Erikson (1968) contended
that, in addition to identifying with their parents, preschool-age children are develop-
ing locomotion, language skills, curiosity, imagination, and the ability to set goals.Genital-Locomotor Mode
The primary psychosexual mode during the play age is genital-locomotor. Erikson
(1982) saw the Oedipal situation as a prototype “of the lifelong power of human
playfulness” (p. 77). In other words, the Oedipus complex is a drama played out in
the child’s imagination and includes the budding understanding of such basic concepts
as reproduction, growth, future, and death. The Oedipus and castration complexes,
therefore, are not always to be taken literally. A child may play at being a mother, a
father, a wife, or a husband; but such play is an expression not only of the genital
mode but also of the child’s rapidly developing locomotor abilities. A little girl may
envy boys, not because boys possess a penis, but rather because society grants more
prerogatives to children with a penis. A little boy may have anxiety about losing
something, but this anxiety refers not only to the penis but also to other body parts.
The Oedipus complex, then, is both more than and less than what Freud believed,
and infantile sexuality is “a mere promise of things to come” (Erikson, 1963, p. 86).
Unless sexual interest is provoked by cultural sex play or by adult sexual abuse, the
Oedipus complex produces no harmful effects on later personality development.
The interest that play-age children have in genital activity is accompanied
by their increasing facility at locomotion. They can now move with ease, running,
jumping, and climbing with no conscious effort; and their play shows both initia-
tive and imagination. Their rudimentary will, developed during the preceding stage,
is now evolving into activity with a purpose. Children’s cognitive abilities enable
them to manufacture elaborate fantasies that include Oedipal fantasies but also
include imagining what it is like to be grown up, to be omnipotent, or to be a
ferocious animal. These fantasies, however, also produce guilt and thus contribute
to the psychosocial crisis of the play age, namely, initiative versus guilt.Initiative Versus Guilt
As children begin to move around more easily and vigorously and as their genital
interest awakens, they adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world.
Although they begin to adopt initiative in their selection and pursuit of goals, many
goals, such as marrying their mother or father or leaving home, must be either
repressed or delayed. The consequence of these taboo and inhibited goals is guilt.
The conflict between initiative and guilt becomes the dominant psychosocial crisis
of the play age.
Again, the ratio between these two should favor the syntonic quality—initiative.
Unbridled initiative, however, may lead to chaos and a lack of moral principles. On
the other hand, if guilt is the dominant element, children may become compulsively