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Allea Cauilan
Professor Altman
English 115 #14334
5 November 2014
Freuds Psychosexual Development Theory
Sigmund Freud is well known in psychology for his psychoanalytic theory, but has gotten
opposition and negative responses to his psychosexual development theory. Like Piaget, Freud
tried to explain what happens as a baby develops through the stages of childhood. Freud defined
his own stages of development and claimed that sexual drive, called libido, was the force guiding
children through development. According to Nancy Piotrowskis book Salem Health :
Psychology & Mental Health ,Freuds theory suggests that humans behave as they do because
they are constantly seeking pleasure(1528). The stages are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and
genital stages. They are all named based on the body part where Freud claims the sexual energy
is focused on. During the oral stage, Freud claims that energy is focused on the mouth which is
why babys have a natural suckling instinct. Freud also claims that if babies fail to get over this
stage, as adults they will be more prone to drinking and smoking. During the anal stage, children
learn to go to the bathroom. The next stage of Freuds theory may be the one with the most
controversy. His next stage, the phallic stage, claims that children from ages 3-6 learn to
masturbate. Freud claims that boys will become attracted to their mothers and will have an
jealousy and hatred directed towards their fathers, called the Oedipus Complex. He also claims
that girls will have a jealousy towards males because males have a sexual organ that they dont
have, called penis envy. Freud claims that if this stage is not resolved, guilt and anxiety may be
carried over into adulthood and cause sexual problems, great difficulty relating to members of

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the opposite sex, or homosexuality (Wood 461). After the Phallic stage, the Latency and Genital
stages follow, in which sexual drive decreases and then increases again respectively.
Psychologists that oppose Freuds theories are called Neo-Freudians. Some of the most
important are Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney. Carl Jung did not consider sexual
instanct to be the main factor in personality, nor did he believe that the personality is almost
completely forced in early childhood (Wood 463). Jung thought that development happens
during middle age as well. Unlike Freuds sexual drive claims, Jung also argues that each of us
has qualities of the opposite sex within our unconsciousThe anima is Jungs term for the
inner feminine figure within the unconscious of every man, and the animus is the inner
masculine figure within the unconscious of every woman (Wood 463). Alfred Alder claimed
that inferiority drive our actions during childhood. He called this the inferiority complex where
we are always striving to equal or exceed the accomplishments of others who we believe are
superior to us (Wood 464). The psychologist who opposed Freud theory the most was Karen
Horney. She heavily opposed Freuds claim of Penis envy and the Oedipus/Electra complexes of
the Phallic stage. She acknowledged that girls can develop penis envy, but also believed the
males could be jealous of girls having breasts and the ability to bear children. She did not believe
that penis envy was the only thing causing women to feel inferior. Horney felt that girls are
often subtly and sometimes harshly made to feel inferior, and [is] due to the masculine nature of
the culture (Piotrowski 1376).
I think both Freud and the Neo-Freudians have problems with their claims. They are not
entirely wrong but because of recent discoveries in science and biology, their claims may be
outdated. In Freuds oral stage of development, he claims that babies suckle because of a sexual
drive located near the mouth. He also claims that if not resolved, children have smoking,

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drinking, and eating problems as adults. This claim has no statistical or scientific evidence. There
was never a sample of people surveyed as children and then as adults that could show a
correlation between oral stage failure and drinking problems. Carl Jungs claims of an anima
and animus are not completely wrong but is not fully explains. He believes they are personalities
from our unconscious but I think there is a more biological explanation to this.
I claim that unlike Freuds claim of sexual drive in the oral stage, biological hormones
and instinct come into play. When babies suckle on a mothers breast, oxytocin is released which
is a feel good hormone, making both the mother and baby feel good (Campbell 982). This is the
reason for the suckling instinct. There is no scientific evidence correlating oxytocin release when
adults eat, drink, and smoke. Other biological chemicals come into play when adults do these
activities, giving a different kind of good feeling. It may have similarities with suckling, but is
not exactly the same as what Freud is trying to claim. Carl Jungs claim of inner feminine and
masculine personalities in the unconscious could simply be explained by our biological
hormones. Male hormones consist of testosterone and female hormones are called estrogens, but
both males and females have small amounts of the opposite sexs hormones as well. Our
masculine and feminine personalities are regulated by the balance between these hormones.
Instead of being an unconscious personality, it is a biological property. I agree that penis envy
and cultural differences exist, I feel that any inferiority felt by females is mostly a hormonal
imbalance. In todays culture, women are slowly becoming more equal with men but women still
feel inferior. Biologically, women can do some things better than men, and vice versa. The
feeling of inferiority could simply be because men are biologically fit to do certain things.
Other scholars might claim that there might be some oxytocin release when eating and
drinking but does not have any correlation to oxytocin release during breast feeding. They might

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also state that although we do have both kinds of hormones, they do not directly cause our
feminine and masculine personalities. Cultural and environmental factors can still come into play
to affect our personalities. Karen Horney heavily focused on cultural influences to our
personalities. She would probably refute my biological explanation and claim that cultural
differences between genders, and differences in the way we were raised will also cause
differences between the genders. Social standards of what men and women should do can cause
women to feel inferior, but can also make men feel inferior.

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Works Cited
Piotrowski, Nancy A. Salem Health: Psychology & Mental Health. Pasadena, California: Salem
Press, 2010. EBSCOhost. Web. 4 November 2014.
Reece, Jane B, et al. Campbell Biology 9th Edition. Boston: Pearson Banjamin Cummings, 2011.
Print.
Wood, Samuel E., Ellen Green Wood and Denise Boyd. The World of Psychology. Boston:
Pearson, 2008. Print.