Freudian Stages of Development Part 4 and 5

There are two more stages in Freud's development stages. They are smaller and so both will be included in today's blog.

The fourth stage is the time period of a child from ages 6 to puberty. In this stage the ego has no more access to the id because of the defenses that the child has built up in order to protect the id. The drive of the id are hidden from the ego or "suppressed". The child learns to derive pleasure from secondary resources such as friendships, schooling, family etc. In this stage neurosis (mental disorders involving distress, not classified in the DSM any longer) is derived from the child not overcoming the Oedipus complex or from not being able to derive pleasure in a socially acceptable manner.  

In the fifth stage the age range is from puberty until death. One of the biggest complaints about Freud's stages of development is that he does not describe any more changes after this stage. As we saw in other stages of development a lot of development still occurs. Anyways the fifth stage is the genital stage. This stage centers around the sexual desires of the person but with some differences than that of the phallic stage. One difference is that the ego is better established. Another difference is that the pleasure is no longer primary-drive gratification (instinct) but is now secondary-drive. In other words pleasure is derived in consensual nature with friendships, love relationships and family. Some of the worries in this stage is unsatisfactory relationships.

So that is all of the stages of development in Freud's eyes. There is much more to it than this of course and remember that through all of these stages there are the battles raging between the id, ego and super-ego. There are also the defense mechanisms that we have discussed that play a huge role in this as well.

Tomorrow I will start the parenting styles and how they relate to characterization.