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In normal development, the pregenital phases tend to be primarily autoerotic, that is, the pri­mary gratification is derived from stimulation of the erotogenic zones so that the object, although it plays a significant role, nonetheless is secon­dary and instrumental. In the phallic phase, there is a fundamental shift in which cathexis and libidinal investment is directed primarily toward the object. The fundamental task at this phase is the finding of a love object. Establish­ing genital love relationships and investment of libido in the love object during this period thus lays down a pattern for subsequent and more mature object choices later in life. During this period the child’s budding sense of his own gender identity as decisively male or female is based on the discovery and realization of the significance of anatomical sexual differences. The "Oedipus complex" in this context refers to the intense love relationships formed during this period between the child and his parents along with the associated rivalries, hostilities, and emerging identifications along sexual lines.

In the pregenital periods, the child’s rela­tionships have been based primarily on one-to-one relationships with each of the parents, sep­arately and individually. In these separate relationships, the child has had the opportunity to develop important aspects of interpersonal relationships, particularly elements of trust, de­pendency, autonomy, and initiative. His rela­tionships to parental objects move to a new level of complexity in the oedipal situation, insofar as involvement with the parents is no longer one-to-one and separate, but now in­volves both of them simultaneously in a triadic relationship.

The move from a level of dyadic to a level of triadic involvement gives rise to other signifi­cant factors. It involves an increased capacity for differentiation between the internal and ex­ternal reality, an increased capacity to tolerate the anxiety and uncertainty of oedipal involve­ment, and an increased capacity for tolerating ambivalence and a new level of complexity of social interaction. The oedipal situation and the Oedipus complex represent the climax of infantile sexual development. The transition from a level of oral erotic development through anal erotic modifications to a phase of genitality and the associated changes in the develop­ment of object relations, from simple one-to-one dependency to a more complex triadic oedipal involvement, culminate in the oedipal strivings. The working through of these strivings and their associated conflicts can be replaced later in ado­lescence by a more mature and adult sexuality. The working through of these conflicts is thus an important prerequisite for further normal sexual development. By the same token, psychoneuroses reflect a continuing and unresolved unconscious fixation in the phallic phase and an unconscious clinging to oedipal attachments.

The Oedipus complex emerges during the phallic period, but there is some discrepancy between the sexes in the pattern of its develop­ment. In Freud’s view, this discrepancy was the result of genital differences, although contem­porary views would see the matter in terms of considerably more complex interactions with social and cultural parameters. Freud felt that the oedipal situation for boys was resolved by the castration complex, that is, because the little boy had to give up his libidinal attachment to his mother for fear of castration (castration anxiety). The situation for the little girl was somewhat different as Freud felt that in her case the Oedipus complex was the result of the castration complex. Thus, the little girl differs from the little boy in that she is already cas­trated. Consequently, she turns to the father, who has a penis, out of a sense of disappoint­ment in her own lack of a penis and her disil­lusionment with the mother who also lacks this vital organ. Consequently, the little girl is more threatened by a loss of love, particularly from the father, than by actual castration anxiety.

It should be noted that this classical analytic view has been modified considerably by ana­lytic thinkers since Freud’s early formulations, and in the current context represents one of the most vital and dynamic areas of psychoanalytic assessment and reformulation. It seems clear at this point that many of Freud’s conclusions about the implications of the oedipal period can no longer be sustained. Particularly in reference to female development, Freud’s implications regarding penis envy, feminine masochism, and the characteristic defects in feminine character development, like impediments in superego de­velopment, cannot be supported by the evolv­ing contexts of evidence (BlumSchafer). These matters still are disputed and will be for the foreseeable future.

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The next stage in the progression of psycho­sexual development is the phallic stage begin­ning some time during the third year of life and extending until approximately the end of the fifth year. The phallic phase is characterized by the focusing of sexual interest, sexual stimu­lation, and sexual arousal on the genital area. The penis in this stage becomes the organ of principal interest and concern to children of both sexes. In the classic theory, the lack of a penis in the female is thought to be the basis for feminine castration concerns and penis envy. The phallic phase is associated with an increase in genital masturbation in both sexes, usually more predominant in male children in view of the greater availability and utility of the penis, but occurring in females as well. Such genital activity is accompanied by predominantly un­conscious fantasies of sexual involvements with the opposite-sex parent. The threat of castra­tion and the related castration anxiety is con­nected to guilt over masturbation and to such oedipal wishes. It is during this phase that the oedipal involvements and the oedipal conflict are established and consolidated.

During the phallic stage, one of the most significant psychosexual developments takes place, namely, the integration of pregenital in­stinctual derivatives under the primacy of the genital area. In this way, erotic interest be­comes focused on the genitals and their func­tioning. This lays the foundation for a more specific sense of gender identity and serves to integrate the residues of previous psychosexual stages into a predominantly genital sexual orien­tation. The establishing of the oedipal situation and its conflicts is essential to the organization and integration of these functions and to laying the basis for subsequent identifications, which not only will consolidate sexual identity but also will serve as the basis for extremely impor­tant and enduring dimensions of character organization and functioning.

When the oedipal conflicts fail to be ade­quately generated and formed or to be ade­quately resolved, either because of excessive contamination from pregenital determinants or because of failures in the dynamics of the oedipal situation itself, pathological character traits can arise. The derivation of such patho­logical traits from the failures of phallic-oedipal involvement is extremely complex and is sub­ject to such a wide variety of modifications and influences that it covers the entire range of neu­rotic and normal development. Neurotic per­sonality development, in fact, is defined in terms of the genesis and resolution of phallic oedipal conflicts. The primary issues are those of castration in males and penis envy in females. The influence of castration anxiety and penis envy, the defenses against both of these, and the patterns of identifications emerging from the phallic phase become the primary determi­nants of the development of human character.

The phallic phase is also the stage in which the residues of previous psychosexual stages are integrated so that any fixations or conflicts that may be left over from these previous stages can play a continuing role in the modification and resolution of the oedipal situation. The persistance of preoedipal conflict can contaminate the child’s experience of the oedipal situation and thus contribute to the manner in which the child’s pattern of sexual identification and in­tegration takes place. The male child, for ex­ample, who remains excessively close and dependent on the preoedipal mother, cannot sufficiently take her as a love object and cannot adequately separate from her in order to begin to identify with the father as an appropriate object of masculine identification. The pull in the masculine direction, that is in the direction of separation from the mother, assertiveness, and masculine aggressiveness, will prove to be too conflicting and too threatening and drive the child back to a more defensive position of dependent clinging to the preoedipal mother.

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A third stage which was not discussed by Freud but has been suggested as part of the psychosexual progression is that of the urethral stage. Some analysts have envisioned this phase of psychosexual development as a transitional stage between the anal and phallic stages. As such, it shares some of the characteristics of the earlier anal phase and by way of anticipation some from the subsequent phallic phase. More often than not, the characteristics of this ure­thral phase tend to be subsumed under the phallic phase. Urethral erotism can be taken to refer to pleasure in urination and the pleasure in urethral retention similar to the anal erotic pleasure of retention or expulsion of feces. The issues here are issues of performance and con­trol. The classic image of urethral expression is the pride of the little boy in seeing how far he can project his urinary stream. Such urethral functioning can also be contaminated with sadistic impulses, often reflecting the persistence of residual anal-sadistic urges. Similar to the loss of bowel control, loss of urethral control (enuresis) can often have a regressive significance that reactivates and assimilates itself into underlying anal conflicts.

The pathological traits deriving from this period are those of competitiveness on the one hand and ambition on the other, probably con­nected with the need for compensating an un­derlying sense of shame due to the loss of urethral control. The conflicts over this issue may be the beginnings of the development of penis envy in connection with a feminine sense of shame and inadequacy in being unable to match the male urethral performance. Success­ful resolution of the urethral phase builds healthy personality traits, which are somewhat analogous to those derived from the anal period. Urethral competence offers a sense of pride and a feeling of self-competence derived from suc­cessful urethral functioning. The area of urethral functioning is one in which the small boy can begin to imitate his father’s more adult performance. In this sense then the resolution of urethral conflicts begins to set the stage for and make significant contributions to the shap­ing of gender identity and the subsequent gen­der-related identifications.

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The transition to the anal stage is marked by the maturation of neuromuscular control over the functioning of sphincters, particularly the anal sphincters, which thus permits a higher degree of voluntary control over the retention or expulsion of feces. This period extends roughly from about the first to the third year of life and is characterized by a recognizable intensifica­tion of aggressive drives mixed with the libidi­nal compounds in anal-sadistic impulses. The acquisition of sphincter control is also connected with an increased shift from a posture of pas­sivity to one of increasing activity and assertiveness. The classical contexts in which these issues are joined are the struggle with the parent over the retaining or expelling of feces in toilet train­ing. The ultimate issue is one of control: who has the final say as to when and how things will be done. These conflicts over anal control and the struggles with the parent over the re­taining or expelling of feces increase the degree of ambivalence. The parent in this period be­comes the object of both intensely loving and hating impulses, since the child wishes both to comply with the parent’s wishes and thus con­tinue to receive love and affection from the parent as well as to rebel against the parent and withhold the precious fecal gift.

This is also the period of separation and indi­viduation, in which the questions of the extent to which the child can function on his own without continual reliance and support from the nurturing parent are joined. Here again the anal drives are characterized as erotic, refer­ring to the sexual pleasure in anal functioning, both in retaining the precious feces and in pre­senting them as a precious gift to the parent, and as sadistic, referring to the increased ex­pression of aggressive impulses connected with the discharging of feces as though these were powerful and destructive weapons. These wishes may often be displayed in children’s drawings or in play activity in the form of fantasies of bombing and explosion.

The major issue in the anal period is that it is essentially a period of striving for indepen­dence and for the child’s separation from the continuing support of the parents and from his dependence on them. The issue of control is particularly important here, since in one di­rection the excess of parental control deprives the child of the opportunity to separate ade­quately and to gain some foothold for his own stirring autonomy, while the opposite extreme, a failure of parental control, would leave the infant too much at risk of failure and too threatened by the anxieties of separation and the intensification of his still powerful depen­dency wishes. In this arena, then, the objectives of sphincter control without an excessive degree of overcontrol (fecal retention) or the loss of control (messing) can be matched with the child’s attempts to establish and achieve au­tonomy and independence without an excessive degree of shame or self-doubt arising from the loss of control. Erikson has characterized this developmental crisis as the tension of autonomy versus shame and doubt.

Certain maladaptive character traits, which often seem inconsistent, arise from the failure to resolve these basic developmental issues and reflect the tensions over anal erotism and sad­ism and the defenses against it. Thus, one often sees such characteristics as orderliness, obsti­nacy, stubbornness, willfulness, frugality, and parsimony as characteristics of anal personali­ties. These characteristics derive from the fixa­tion on anal functions and often assume a highly rigid and controlling quality. When the de­fenses against anal traits are less effective, either because they have been weakened or have undergone some degree of regression, the anal character then often reveals traits of heightened ambivalence, messiness, defiance, rage, and severe degrees of sadomasochistic be­havior. Such anal characteristics and their cor­relative defenses may often be seen most typically in the obsessive compulsive neuroses and obsessive compulsive character structures.

But the conflict and struggle over anal is­sues and the difficulties of separation and in­dividuation may also have their successful out­come. The successful resolution of the anal phase and its difficulties is a basis for the de­velopment of an increasing sense of personal au­tonomy, the capacity for independence, and for the exercise of personal initiatives without an abiding sense of guilt. There can result a ca­pacity for self-determination without a sense of shame or self-doubt. In such personalities a healthy degree of independence and the exer­cise of personal initiative and self-determination can be accomplished without any significant degree of ambivalence. Such individuals, hav­ing a firmly established and reasonable degree of personal autonomy, can engage in various levels of willing cooperation with others and even submission of themselves in willing ways to the objectives and purposes of others with­out a sense of excessive willfulness or rebel­liousness on the one hand, and without a sense of self-diminution,defeat, or humiliation on the other.

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The earliest of the psychosexual stages Freud described was the oral stage. At this earliest phase of infantile development, the infant’s needs, perceptions and behaviors are centered primarily on the mouth, lips, tongue, and other organs related to the oral zone. Pleasurable ex­citations and affects arise from stimulation of the mucosal surface of these organs. The pri­mary model of oral stimulation and satisfaction is breast feeding, in which hunger pangs give rise to oral sucking movements which are then satisfied by active sucking on the mother’s nip­ple and the consequent feeding.

The oral zone maintains its dominance in the libidinal organization for approximately the first eighteen months of life. Oral sensations would include thirst, hunger, sensations related to swallowing, satiation of hunger, and the pleasurable tactile stimulation evoked by suck­ing on the nipple or nipple substitute. Libidinal satisfaction at this stage of development, how-

ever, may not be restricted solely to the oral zone but may also arise in connection with the multiple forms of tactile stimulation that are connected with mother-child contact, not only in the feeding situation but in the multiple contexts of infant mothering. There is some evi­dence, particularly from animal studies, that such maternal contact and tactile stimulation has an important influence on the infant’s af­fective development.

The oral drives are generally regarded as con­sisting of separate components, the libidinal oral drives and the aggressive oral drives. States of oral deprivation or tension tend to stimulate a seeking for oral gratification which is typified by the state of satiation the infant reaches at the end of a nursing period. Lewin has suggested that there is an oral triad which con­sists of the wish to eat, the wish to sleep, and the wish to attain that quiescence and relaxa­tion which occurs at the end of sucking just before the onset of sleep. It is generally thought that the libidinal needs of oral erotism predomi­nate in the early phases of the oral stage, but that they become compounded with more ag­gressive components later on in the stage of oral sadism. The development of oral sadism can express itself in biting, chewing, spitting, or crying. For many analysts, particularly those of the Kleinian persuasion, such oral aggression is associated with primitive wishes and fantasies of biting, devouring, and destroying. Such fan­tasies, for example, may be directed against the mother’s breast as an expression of primitive incorporative wishes. Although such fantasies can often be recovered in primitive regressive states (in psychotic or border line patients) and may even be elicited in the more regres­sive associations of even healthier patients, there is no good evidence to substantiate the opera­tion of such fantasies at early infantile stages of development.

In developmental terms, the objectives to be attained in the oral period are among the most important for establishing a well functioning personality and for establishing the rudiments of a significant capacity for an accepted relationship with objects. If the oral period can be carried through successfully, the child should be able to establish a trusting dependence on the nursing and sustaining object and to estab­lish a comfortable expression of oral libidinal needs and to find their gratification without sig­nificant conflict or ambivalence from the oral-sadistic wishes to attack, devour, or destroy the object.

The failure to achieve these objectives in one degree or another can lay the foundation for the development of pathological traits. Ex­cessive oral gratification or deprivation can re­sult in significant libidinal fixations. The traits deriving from such infantile fixations can in­clude excessive optimism, narcissism, pessimism, and demandingness. Oral characters are often excessively dependent and require others to give to them and to look after them. Such persons want to be fed and supported and nurtured, and may be selfishly demanding in their at­tempts to have these wishes gratified; but they may be also exceptionally giving to others as a way of eliciting a return of being given to in kind. Oral characters are thus often extremely dependent on their objects and on a return of support and narcissistic supplies in order to maintain a fragile and often faltering self-esteem. Characteristics of envy and jealousy may often be associated as pathological mani­festations of such basically oral traits. Such oral traits are often associated with fairly primi­tive degrees of narcissism, but these dimensions should be considered separately.

Nonetheless, the oral phase may find a suc­cessful resolution and thus provide the basis for character traits positively contributing to personality functioning. Such individuals may develop capacities for giving, for giving to and supporting others, and for receiving from others without a sense of excessive dependence or envy. They may develop a capacity to rely on and trust others and to be capable of relying on themselves and of trusting themselves in their complex dealings with others and in fac­ing the difficulties and challenges of life. The continuing capacity for trust and reliance, either as an enduring possession of one’s own inner life or in one’s relationship with the significant others in his environment, rests ultimately on the development of the basic sense of trust dur­ing this earliest oral phase of psychosexual de­velopment.

Erikson has characterized these com­plex aspects of character development deriv­ing from pregenital phases of psychosexual development as phases of psychosocial devel­opment. He envisions the phases of psychosocial development arising out of the psychosexual phases as being characterized by certain defini­tive crises in the development of the individual personality, leading finally to a phase of identity formation. The specific psychosocial crisis asso­ciated with the oral phase is the resolution of basic trust versus basic mistrust. The capacity for enduring trust in oneself or in others rep­resents a successful resolution of the early ob­ject related crisis in the oral phase, while the failure to resolve that crisis results in a basic and perduring mistrust which provides the basis for a lasting impairment in the capacity to re­late to others and to rely on one’s own inner resources.

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After undressing his wife, the husband takes her by hand into the bathroom and helps her into a hot bath and bathes her (slowly and lovingly) with a sponge. He then helps her out and dries her (again, slowly and lovingly), then leads her to the bed. She lies face down, and he begins the massage.

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Players: Depressed husband and depressed wife. Activists: Both husband and wife, by turns. Setting: Home.

Aim: To relax body and mind, assuage depression, and release sexual and creative energy.

Game Plan: Husband and wife begin by playing poker, which quickly becomes strip poker: Each time one of them loses, he or she has to take off an article of clothing. The game ends when one of them is completely naked. The winner then has a choice of either giving or receiving a thorough massage.

The person who is to give the massage takes charge from that point on. Let’s say it is the man, and that he then says, "You are about to have the most extraordinary massage you’ve ever had in your life. It will be an erotic, soulful massage, and you are to enjoy it to the fullest, and to try not to think about anything else but the massage. If you do think of something else, then always return to the massage and think about it again. If you want to think about how glum your life is, then go ahead and think about how glum life is, but then return to the massage again and think about that. If you want to think about how meaningless your existence is, then think about how meaningless your existence is, but then return to the massage again and think about that. Always return to the mas­sage. Do you understand?" The giver of the massage should repeat this message until the receiver obviously does under­stand.

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"Yes, dear, it’s very stupid—but here I’ve come to rescue you. Would you please just let me rescue you? Please, just this once? I promise I won’t hurt you. I know it’s stupid and silly, but please let me be your fairy godfather and see what hap­pens. What’s up? Nothing’s up. I’m just trying something— okay? Just lie back. That’s right. Fairy goddaddy’s going to make it all better. Sure he is. Lie back and relax."

As in the previous game, depending on the nature of her depression and on whether or not she has been prepped for his routine, he will take one of three approaches: (1) The understanding approach: "Now, dear, talk to me. I’m here to listen to you as you’ve never been listened to before!" (2) The playful approach: "Ha, ha, ha—does that tickle? Well, how about that? Now, here’s a riddle for you: Why did the chicken stop halfway across the road? Give up? Because she wanted to lay it on the line. Get it? Ha, ha, ha!" He tickles her again. (3) The sexual approach: "How do you like your fairy goddaddy, my dear?" He wiggles and winks at her, touching his private parts. "Do you like his magic wand? Would you like his magic wand inside of you?" If all goes well, she will accept this offer.

The husband should use his imagination, embellishing the game with his own customized jokes, maneuvers, and the like. The game may be played more than one time. Just as a play gets better as it is rehearsed more, this kind of game improves with repeated performance, as inhibitions resolve. The first go-round may seem silly, and due to this may well be subse­quently performed stiffly. But if both partners get into it and imbue it with their own particular rescue fantasies, the game will take wing and lead to better sex and better communica­tion.

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Players: Depressed wife and fairy godfather (nondepressed husband).

Activist: Nondepressed husband. Setting: Home.

Aim: Draw wife out of her depression by appealing to her rescue fantasy.

"What are you doing?" his wife may ask in a sarcastic tone. "Stop being stupid."

If she is in on the game, she will play along of her own accord. If the game is a surprise, she may continue to try to negate it. (All such negation should be firmly countered.)

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If he demurs and does not launch into a recitation of his woes from childhood on, then she might try the playful approach:

"So, here I am!" She tickles him in a place she knows he’s vulnerable. "What do you think? Do you want to play with me? Listen, I have a riddle for you. What’s a zebra?" She sticks out her breasts. "Give up? A zebra is twenty-five times bigger than an A-bra!"

If he doesn’t start laughing and cheering up (he may, for example, become grouchier), the sexy approach may work:

"Hi there, handsome. What can I do for you?" She slides her hand up his leg. "I’m here to relieve you of all your world­ly and sexual tension, and I’m ready to fulfill your innermost fantasies. Your wish is my compulsion!"

If the husband is in on this game, he will now find some way to play along. If the game is a surprise, the fairy god­mother must keep trying until she finds the key to unlocking his resistance. That key usually turns on an understanding of his particular rescue fantasy (all of us have one). Once it has been found, the husband can be lured out of his depressive posture and into an enjoyable sexual experience—which may also lead to an unburdening of himself in a way he has not experienced before. And this could in turn lead to increased intimacy.

As with other games, this one must be played with con­viction and zest. If there is any hesitancy, self-consciousness, or inhibition, that will sabotage the proceedings. Therefore, the active partner must be ready to truly throw herself into her role and enjoy it. This will have a therapeutic benefit on her too, channeling into a constructive groove her resentment about her husband’s depression.

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