Introductory Lectures on Neuropsychoanalysis: Lecture Four Part 4 " How the Mind Develops" Phallic Stage

THE PHALLIC STAGE...................The third psychosexual stage (age three to seven) is the Phallic Stage or the First Genital Stage. Freud referred to it as the phallic stage because he believed it had to do with feelings and thoughts, for both sexes, about the penis (the third erogenous zone.) Today we understand this stage as focusing on the penis in males and the vagina/clitoris in females--thus we refer to it as the first genital stage. ( The second genital stage does not come until puberty.) Freud also referred to the dynamics of this time in life as the Oedipal Complex. The oedipal boy sexually fantasizes union with his Mother and wants to get rid of his Father. The oedipal girl fantasizes union with her Father and wishes to get rid of her Mother. This fantasizing also goes for the boy toward his Father and the girl toward her Mother. This is known as the complete Oedipal Situation. For Freud, these genital pleasures and unpleasures could not sufficiently be met by the preschooler's maturing ego, and therefore led to faulty compromise formations which resulted in symptoms. ........But here again, more is going on in the preschooler at this time than genital pleasures and unpleasures and their resultant unpleasant feelings (symptoms.) Neuropsychoanalysis adds to Oedipal dynamics how the PANIC/GRIEF (attachment) need often conflicts with the RAGE need during this time, resulting in the secondary emotion of guilt. And how the RAGE need of this stage further conflicts with the FEAR need, resulting in fearing the parent's anger. Neuropsychoanalysis further points out how the LUST need ( Freud's sexual drive) conflicts with PANIC/GRIEF (attachment.) These feelings coinside with Freud's belief that the greatest fears of this stage were genital injury and fear of the superego ( guilt.) These triadic ( verses earlier diadic) sexual and competitive conflicts of the Oedipal Stage are often impossible for the preschooler to resolve. as a result Freud believed the psychopathologies that could result from either fixation in or regression to this stage were the higher level neurotic level illnesses, such as hysteria and mild depression. Melanie Klein referred to this stage as the depressive position. She saw the ego's coming to grips with the realities of life's limitations as causing depressive affect. Freud understood this type of thinking and experiencing as the Secondary Process. Freud further referred to the ego at this stage as the Reality Ego. It is the more mature reality ego that is able to maintain what Freud called object love, and Anna Freud and Margaret Mahler called object and self constancy. This is the ego's ability to see persons as whole objects rather than splitting them into part objects. The preschooler/first grade child thus experiences ambivalence, which is the capacity to tolerate such mixed feelings toward others and its self.......Mark Solms and neuropsychoanalysis add that the most demanding basic emotional need of this stage is PLAY. PLAY is equally pleasureable as sexual fantasies and attachment. The PLAY need in neuropsychoanalysis is much more than playfulness and having fun. Solms says it includes social development and the ability to function in groups. PLAY consists of competing, testing limits and boundaries, and discovering what all is possible in life, i.e. what you can and cannot have. PLAY mediates the Oedipal Situation. In PLAY territories are claimed and defended. Social heirarchies are formed, and ingroup outgroup boundaries are laid down. Again, all seven basic emotional needs must be met at this time to prevent pathology, but the primary need to be met by the ego at this stage is PLAY. The same process of creating a prediction to try and get the PLAY need met, applies here as it did in the first two stages. If the repressed prediction does not meet the preschooler/first grader's need, then he/she will develop unpleasant feelings as a result. Depending on how realistic is the repressed prediction, the child will utilze various defenses. Since predictions at this stage are often more realistic than those of earlier stages, the preschooler/firstgrader may use the more mature defenses of reaction formation, isolation of affect, etc. The defenses chosen determine the organization of the personality........ Beyond the Oedipal Stage comes the Latency Stage where neuropsychoanalysis believes the PLAY need most continues it's demand to be met. This stage is followed by the Adolescence Stage ( The Second Genital Stage) where neuropsychoanalysis believes the LUST ( Sex) need most demands to be met. Later as couples bring their first child into existence, neuropsychoanalysis believes the CARE need most demands to be met. .......So, these are my thoughts about childhood developmental psychopathology as I have been influenced by Freud, the other psychoanalytic authors listed who have written about developmental psychopathology, and especially Mark Solms and neuropsychoanalysis.