PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENToral, anal, phallic, latency, & adolescence
INTRODUCE TOPIC
When teaching the psychosexual stages in general I begin by asking students for their observations of the babies and toddlers in their families. It can be surprisingly easy to get home-grown stories of toddlers feeling panicked or bereft as their waste products are flushed away, toddlers who masturbate, and young children who openly compete with their same sex parent. Last year, one of my students volunteered that he still teases his now college-aged brother for declaring, at four, that he was “going to marry mom.” Freud’s psychosexual stages make a lot more sense to college students (and Freud seems like far less of a pervert) when they are presented as explanations for the seemingly “unusual” observations that the students themselves have made.
Lisa Damour, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor of Psychology
John Carroll University
ldamour@jcu.edu
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I spend most of my time on infantile sexuality in three essays because they enjoy the imaginative activity of trying to think/feel as an infant might, and because the polymorphousness of that stage helps so much in understanding everything that happens.
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I use a paper I am preparing that describes drive wish as and integration of 1) a biological substrate at each psychosexual phase (i.e., sucking, sphincter control, and volitional control of vasodilatation of the corpora cavernosa), 2) perceptions and memories of that activity with the pleasure involved, perceptions of the people involved, and a variety of subordinate pleasure, and 3) remnants from previous phases.
Jerome S. Blackman, M.D.
Adjunct Professor of Psychology
Virginia Wesleyan College
Jsbmd1@cox.net
jblackmanmd@aol.com
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I spend a lot of time on this in Child Development. Emphasizing the tension build up and release over typical definitions of sex. We address the stage and the major life lessons of the stage.
Here are my notes for students: (for extended document click here)
FREUD'S STAGES:
ORAL - We learn about Consumption
ANAL - We learn about Power & Control, and about the Value of Non-Utilitarian Items
Subtypes: Anal Expulsive & Anal Retentive; The Odd Couple: Oscar Madison & Felix Unger; Graduate School Joke regarding pitching paper: Are you a folder or crumpler?
PHALLIC - We learn about Interpersonal Relationships, and about Intimate Relations (Flirtation, Winning a Love(r)); Oedipus Rex / Electra
Read the article: 'Encounters with Oedipus Rex';
Personality is fixed by Age 5. The basic structure of who we are, how we orient to the world & perceive the world: Materialism, Consumption, Power & Control, Interpersonal and Intimate Relationships, What makes us attractive, How to judge the attractiveness of others (potential mates & rivals) is all developed by age 5. Then we build on these foundations.
LATENCY - We learn about Work & Productive Meaningful Effort, Proper Sex Roles (through identification w/ Same Sex Parent).
GENITAL - We Apply all that we Learned. Basic Drive is to 'Find a Mate and Procreate'; Procreate means make & raise the next generation. (Mnemonic for the stages: Only Adults Play Love Games)
Matthew Westra
Psychology Coordinator
MCC-Longview
Matthew.westra@mcckc.edu
http://www.mcckc.edu/~westra/WESTRA.HTML
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For this one I ask students who've worked in daycares, done a lot of babysitting, or worked at summer camps to share their observations of how young children exhibit the elements of psychosexual development. There are increasing numbers of students whose parents have remarried so the students have step- or half-siblings 10-15 years younger, and these students can also attest to the elements of psychosexual development.
Rhonda Reinholtz, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist, Lecturer
University of Wisconsin-Madison
rreinholtz@wisc.edu
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I introduce the adult residuals of psychosexual development in sexual foreplay and perversions.
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