During the oedipal stage of growth and development, the child:

Clinical Significance

Each of the five stages of Freudian psychosexual development theory is associated with a corresponding age range, erogenous body part, and clinical consequence of fixation.

Stage I: 0-1 year, oral, mouth: Oral desire is the center of pleasure for the newborn baby. The earliest attachment of a baby is to the one that provides gratification to his oral needs, usually his mother. If the optimal amount of stimulation is not available, libidinal energy fixates on the oral mode of gratification, resulting in subsequent latent aggressive or passive tendencies. 

Stage II: 1-3 years old, anal, bowel, and bladder: Toilet training is an especially sensitive task during this period. The parents' desire for adequate performance shifts the libidinal energy from the oral to the anal area. The child faces increased chances to be reprimanded, to feel inadequate, and an increased ability to perceive a negative evaluation from a caretaker if he fails to perform appropriately. Fixation at this stage can manifest in anal retentiveness (incessant orderliness) or anal expulsiveness (whimsical disorganization).

Stage III: 3-6 years old, phallic, genitalia: This is perhaps the most controversial stage of Freud's psychosexual development. This is the stage in which the child begins to experience pleasure associated with their genitalia. In this period of primitive sexual development, the child can establish the roots of fixation with the opposite sex parent, the Oedipus complex. 

Stage IV: 6 - 12 years old, latency, dormant sexual feelings: During this time, the libido is relatively repressed or sublimated. Freud did not identify any erogenous zone for this stage. The child now begins to act on their impulses indirectly by focusing on activities such as school, sports, and building relationships. Dysfunction at this stage results in the child's inability to form healthy relationships as an adult.

Stage V: 13-18 years old, genital, mature sexual feelings: The child's ego becomes fully developed during this stage, and they are subsequently seeking their independence. Their ability to create meaningful and lasting relationships is concrete, and their sexual desires and activity are healthy and consensual. If a child or young adult experiences dysfunction during this period, they will be unable to develop meaningful healthy relationships.[2]

To explicate Freud's developmental theories form the basis for psychoanalysis and subsequent derivatives that make up contemporary psychotherapy.[7][8][9]

Children pass through two stages of Freud’s theory during early childhood: stage 2 (anal stage) and stage 3 (phallic stage).

The anal stage begins around 18 months of age and lasts until the child is three years old. During the anal stage, Freud believed that the libido source shifted from the mouth (in stage 1) to the anus. The child, then, receives pleasure from defecating. The child, at this point, understands that they have some amount of control over their lives, including control of when and where they defecate. This can lead to difficulties during potty training. What matters, in terms of Freud’s theory, is how the parent reacts to inevitable difficulties in potty training. Parental reactions during potty training may set-up their child to react in one of two ways: (1) parents who are harsh or who ridicule the child for mistakes may have children who stubbornly hold on to their feces in an effort to not have an accident – these children may become anal retentive or (2) parents who are too easy going may have a child who reacts by purposefully making a mess – these children may become anal expulsive. Adults who are anal retentive tend to be stubborn, very neat, rigid, and stingy. Adults who are anal expulsive tend to be messy, wasteful, and harsh.

Link to Learning: Toilet TRaining

To the relief of most parents, there is very little evidence to suggest that Freud was right about fixations caused during the anal stage, mainly because the theory itself would be very difficult to test. Nevertheless, parents worry about toilet training, and whether they will be able to guide their children through the process unscathed. Kidshealth.org has a good web page on to potty training that may help parents worried about toilet training.

The phallic stage of psychosexual development occurs from ages three to six. According to Freud, during the phallic stage, the child develops an attraction to the parent of a different sex than them, which is called the Oedipus Complex for boys and the Electra Complex for girls. When the child recognizes that the parent of another sex is unavailable, the child learns to model their own behavior after the same-sex parent. The child develops their own sense of masculinity or femininity from this resolution. According to Freud, a person who does not exhibit gender appropriate behavior, such as a woman who competes with men for jobs or a man who lacks self-assurance and dominance, has not successfully completed this stage of development. Consequently, such a person continues to struggle with their own gender identity.

Chodorow, a neo-Freudian, believed that mothering promotes gender stereotypic behavior. Mothers push their sons away too soon and direct their attention toward problem-solving and independence. As a result, sons grow up confident in their own abilities but uncomfortable with intimacy. Girls are kept dependent too long and are given unnecessary and even unwelcome assistance from their mothers. Girls learn to underestimate their abilities and lack assertiveness but feel comfortable with intimacy.

Both of these models assume that early childhood experiences result in lifelong gender self-concepts. However, gender socialization is a process that continues throughout life. Children, teens, and adults refine and can modify their sense of self, based on gender.

Another important part of Freud’s phallic stage is that during this time the child is learning right from wrong through the process of introjection. Remember that according to Kohlberg, the child during this time is developing a sense of morality. According to Freud, this is occurring through the process of introjection which occurs as children incorporate values from others into their value set. Freud theorized about parental introjection, where children learn that parents seem pleased by certain behaviors (and so want to do those behaviors more to get rewards and love) and displeased by other behaviors (and so want to do those behaviors less to avoid punishment and loss of love). Today, modern psychoanalytic theorists recognize the place of others and society in introjection. Societal introjection is becoming more and more important as more children go to daycare, as we are more surrounded by technology and advertising, and as we travel more.

Social Development: The Importance of Play

The development of play is an important milestone in early childhood. Play holds a crucial role in providing a safe, caring, protective, confidential, and containing space where children can recreate themselves and their experiences through an exploratory process (Winnicott, 1942; Erikson, 1963). During this stage, pretend play is a great way for children to express their thoughts, emotions, fears, and anxieties. Early childhood play can be understood by observing the elements of fantasy, organization, and comfort. Fantasy, the process of make-believe, is an essential behavior the child engages in during pretend play; organization helps the child to structure pretend play into a story and to utilize cause-and-effect thinking; and comfort is used to assess the ease and pleasure in the engagement in play.[1]

As children progress through the stage of early childhood, they also progress through several stages of non-social and social play. Stages of play is a theory and classification of participation in play developed by Mildred Parten Newhall in 1929. Parten observed American children at free play. She recognized six different types of play:

What happens during the Oedipal stage?

What is Oedipus complex in child development?

During what stage of development does the Oedipal complex occur?

What is the Oedipal period?