Changes

Each [[libidinal ]] [[stage]], or [[developmental ]] [[phase ]] of [[childhood]], is characterized by a specific organization of the [[libido ]] linked to a dominant, organizing [[erotogenic ]] zone where [[excitation ]] is centered and around which [[fantasies ]] are constructed. The [[notion ]] of [[stages ]] does not imply any strictly [[chronological ]] sequence: these are "phases" or "levels of organization" that may well overlap or coincide.

[[Freud]]'s earliest theorizations of the [[idea ]] of stages already implied that each stage represented a specific organizational mode. From the outset, when he was influenced by Wilhelm [[Fliess]]'s [[theory ]] of periodicity, Freud had correlated [[mental ]] organization and the "[[choice ]] of [[neurosis]]" with a succession of phases or periods in the [[child]]'s [[development]]. Later, he linked these different developmental phases to the dominance or the abandonment of one or [[other ]] of the [[erotogenic zones ]] (mouth, anus, [[penis]], clitoris). He also saw the [[process ]] of [[repression ]] as closely associated with the relinquishment of one such zone in favor of [[another]].

The first edition of the [[Three ]] Essays on the Theory of [[Sexuality ]] (1905d) made mention only of the [[oral ]] and [[anal ]] erotogenic zones, as contrasted with the sexuality of [[puberty ]] and [[adulthood]], which was dominated by the [[genital]]. Subsequently Freud would flesh out the theory of the stages of the libido when, between 1913 and 1923, he introduced the oral, anal, and [[phallic ]] [[pregenital ]] stages which preceded the establishment of the [[genital stage]].

In seeking to define the organizational modes of pregenital sexuality, Freud viewed matters from two standpoints. The first of these considered the successive phases of [[psychic ]] organization in [[terms ]] of the prevailing erotogenic zone: The one, in each [[case]], upon which excitation focused and around which fantasies were constructed (Perron-Borelli, 1997). The second perspective stressed the libidinally-cathected [[object ]] and the [[temporal ]] sequence in accordance with which the [[subject ]] passed in turn through the various phases of [[autoerotism]], [[narcissism]], and [[homosexual ]] or heterosexual object-choice. Each libidinal stage was characterized by a [[particular ]] type of object-[[relationship]], so that [[incorporation ]] typified the [[oral stage ]] while retention-[[expulsion ]] was specific to anal [[eroticism ]] ([[Abraham]], 1924). This approach showed how the object, just as much as the erotogenic zone, played an organizing [[role]].

The idea of libidinal stages (the terms phase and level of organization are more widely used today) has on occasion encouraged simplistic [[interpretations ]] that over-emphasize the supposed dates of onset and precise [[order ]] of the stages. It is [[impossible ]] to overstate the fact that for [[psychoanalysis ]] no strict sequencing is required: "The temporal ordering of these stages certainly implies a hypothesized priority of one phase with respect to the next, but the hypothesis in question is inferred from the [[analysis ]] of [[adults]]. . . . In other [[words]], all the stages survive as strata embedded in [[instinctual ]] impulses and [[unconscious ]] fantasies" (Perron and Perron-Borelli, 1994).

Freud himself wrote that the different phases of libidinal development could "overlap one another [or] be [[present ]] alongside one another" (1940a, p. 155). In fact, the chief benefit of the theory of stages is that it helps us to [[construct ]] a temporal framework in which to locate those effects of [[anticipation ]] and deferred [[action]], which in turn allow us to [[understand ]] the [[mechanism ]] of repression.

[[Bibliography]]