Stage 1: The Oral Stage, Birth - 18 months (approx.)

Physical focus: mouth, lips tongue (sucking). Sucking is the primary source of pleasure for a newborn. Everything goes in the mouth. Sucking = food.

Psychological theme: dependency. A baby is very dependent and can do little for itself. If babies needs properly fulfilled can move onto the next stage. But if not fulfilled baby will be mistrustful or over-fulfilled baby will find it hard to cope with a world that doesn’t meet all of his/her demands.

Adult character: highly dependent/highly independent. If baby becomes fixated at this stage Freud felt that he or she would grow to be an oral character. Mostly these people are extremely dependent and passive people who want everything done for them. However Freud also suggests that another type of oral character is the person who is highly independent and that when under stress the orally fixated person may flip from one type to the other. This exemplifies Freud’s doctrine of opposites.

For more info on this topic visit http://psy101.MyUCCedu.com

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