Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Freud: Psychoanalysis © The McGraw−Hill^47
Companies, 2009
masochism. However, either orientation, or any combination of the two, can develop
in both girls and boys.
Phallic Phase
At approximately 3 or 4 years of age, children begin a third stage of infantile devel-
opment—the phallic phase,a time when the genital area becomes the leading
erogenous zone. This stage is marked for the first time by a dichotomy between
male and female development, a distinction that Freud (1925/1961) believed to be
due to the anatomical differences between the sexes. Freud (1924/1961, p. 178) took
Napoleon’s remark that “History is destiny” and changed it to “Anatomy is destiny.”
This dictum underlies Freud’s belief that physical differences between males and fe-
males account for many important psychological differences.
Masturbation, which originated during the oral stage, now enters a second, more
crucial phase. During the phallic stage, masturbation is nearly universal, but because
parents generally suppress these activities, children usually repress their conscious
desire to masturbate by the time their phallic period comes to an end. Just as chil-
dren’s earlier experiences with weaning and toilet training helped shape the founda-
tion of their psychosexual development, so too does their experience with the sup-
pression of masturbation(Freud, 1933/1964). However, their experience with the
Oedipus complex plays an even more crucial role in their personality development.
Male Oedipus Complex Freud (1925/1961) believed that preceding the phallic
stage an infant boy forms an identificationwith his father; that is, he wants to be his
father. Later he develops a sexual desire for his mother; that is, he wants to havehis
mother. These two wishes do not appear mutually contradictory to the underdevel-
oped ego, so they are able to exist side by side for a time. When the boy finally rec-
ognizes their inconsistency, he gives up his identification with his father and retains
the stronger feeling—the desire to have his mother. The boy now sees his father as a
rival for the mother’s love. He desires to do away with his father and possess his
mother in a sexual relationship. This condition of rivalry toward the father and in-
cestuous feelings toward the mother is known as the simple male Oedipus complex.
The term is taken from the Greek tragedy by Sophocles in which Oedipus, King of
Thebes, is destined by fate to kill his father and marry his mother.
Freud (1923/1961a) believed that the bisexual nature of the child (of either
gender) complicates this picture. Before a young boy enters the Oedipus stage, he
develops some amount of a feminine disposition. During the Oedipal period, there-
fore, his feminine nature may lead him to display affection toward his fatherand ex-
press hostility toward his mother,while at the same time his masculine tendency dis-
poses him toward hostility for father and lust for mother. During this ambivalent
condition, known as the complete Oedipus complex,affection and hostility coexist
because one or both feelings may be unconscious. Freud believed that these feelings
of ambivalence in a boy play a role in the evolution of the castration complex,
which for boys takes the form of castration anxietyor the fear of losing the penis.
To Freud (1905/1953b, 1917/1963, 1923/1961b), the castration complex
begins after a young boy (who has assumed that all other people, including girls,
have genitals like his own) becomes aware of the absence of a penis on girls. This
Chapter 2 Freud: Psychoanalysis 41