This chapter will be quite difficult for an unprepared reader to perceive, but I still recommend you read it, because without knowledge of all the stages and nuances of the formation of human sexuality it is impossible to understand the true causes of the development of sexual disorders.

In human development, nothing happens “just like that.” The slightest adverse effect both in the prenatal period and after the birth of the baby has a negative effect on such a vulnerable sphere as the mental, causing various deviations from normal development. And sexuality is one aspect of mental activity.

In order for normal sexual intercourse to take place, many body systems must be “in order” to ensure normal sexual functioning. All these systems are interconnected and influence each other. It is worth breaking up or “falling out” to one “link”, and the entire system of sexual functioning is upset.

Negative effects on humans can be of varying degrees of severity, respectively, and violations can be different. There may be a combination of several unfavorable factors, and then sexual disorders will be more severe.

Attraction to sexual intimacy is a combination of instinctual drives, which at different age periods can act both together and in isolation.

Libido – means sex drive. The term “libido” was proposed by Freud, and is currently used everywhere.

Freud tried to create a unified concept of psychosexual development and human behavior, expanding the concept of libido, considering it to be the main factor determining the entire development of the human psyche, from birth to the next, throughout life, undergoing a very complex evolution. Freud’s theory states that it is sexual forces that shape an individual’s behavior. Culture also muffles and suppresses instinctive sexual energy and directs it to the formation of stereotypes of social behavior in a given person.

In the development of libido in a child, Freud identified 3 stages that complete their evolution by the age of 7 years.

The first stage is called the narcissistic stage (Narcissus is a young man in ancient Greek mythology who is in love with his own reflection, with himself). Here, all the emotional interests of the child are concentrated on their own body.

The second stage is the stage of the Oedipus complex. Here, the whole energy potential of the libido is focused on love for the mother and jealousy and hatred for the father. In this case, the child identifies himself with his mother and, as a result, reacts according to the female type (that is, homosexual tendencies are revealed here).

If a child succeeds in overcoming these two stages of libido development, a third stage arises – the stage of mature sexuality. The object of attraction is a woman; love for the father arises.

Freud wrote that a person has several erogenous zones, the irritation of which causes erotic sensations, and the significance of these zones changes with age. Based on this, Freud identifies several phases of the psychosexual development of man.

Depending on the organ (erogenous zone) on which the libido is concentrated, or by the action associated with this organ, in the first stage, Freud distinguishes the following phases.

The first phase is oral (from the Latin “oro” – mouth), associated with sucking. According to Freud, sucking is only initially associated with nutrition, and then becomes independent as the first erotic experience of the child.

Freud writes: “Sucking, which appears already in the baby and can last until adulthood or can be maintained for life, consists of a rhythmic repeated sucking touch with the mouth (lips), and the goal of eating is excluded … Sucking for the most part absorbs all attention and ends or sleep, or motor reactions like orgasm. I believe that the connection of phenomena that we have learned to understand through psychoanalytic research allows us to consider sucking to be a sexual manifestation and to study the essential features of infantile sexual actions on it. ”

The first phase is limited to a single kind of emotion, purely erotic. When a child has teeth, in the absence of delays in sexual development, the first phase, according to Freud’s theory, undergoes radical development, since the child has the ability to show aggression.

The second phase is the oral cannibalistic, or phase of devouring. The volume of emotional manifestations increases, emotions of hatred (rage) are included. The acquired sharpness of the teeth allows the child to eat solid foods violently. This is combined with an emotion of hatred directed at his parents, first of all, at his mother, whom he devours in his fantasies, which leads to the formation of feelings of guilt and fear of punishment. Mothers often complain that at this age the baby painfully bites her nipples, and she can bite her mother for other parts of the body. From the perspective of the psychoanalytic concept, this manifests itself as an “instinctive desire to devour breasts”.

The next two phases are the anal-sadistic phase of exile and the anal-sadistic phase of delay. The object of sexuality is the anus (anus). From a psychoanalytic perspective, this is explained by the desire to expel the parents eaten up (in fantasies) and thus free themselves from contact with them.

Freud writes about the phase of anal-sadistic delay: “Children who take advantage of the erogenous irritability of the anal zone, impersonate themselves by holding back the feces until these masses, having accumulated in large numbers, cause strong muscular contractions when passing through the back passage can cause severe irritation of the mucous membrane. At the same time, along with a sensation of pain, a voluptuous sensation also arises. ”

The next phase is the urethral (from the word “urethra” – the urethra). In this phase, according to the psychoanalytic concept, the child enjoys the passage of urine through the urethra. In this phase, libido fixation finally reaches the genitals (genitals).

The early (or phallic) genital phase is manifested in the fact that the child discovers the opportunity to receive sexual pleasure during manipulations on his own genitals (masturbation).

The final, genital phase occurs normally by 7 years. If it occurs in a timely manner, then, according to psychoanalysts, this gives reason to hope that in the future the child will be able to perform normal sexual intercourse.

Particular importance is attached to the latent sexual period of childhood between the early manifestations of sexuality and the puberty phase of sexual development (that is, associated with puberty). According to Freud, in this period psychological mechanisms are formed, which are crucial for the further development of personality.

Children’s impressions are subsequently squeezed out of the sphere of consciousness, and most people leave no traces in their memory.

According to Freud, sexual preferences in the period of maturity and the nature of a person are largely determined by the characteristics of the transition from one stage of sexual development to another. There may be a delay in a particular stage or phase and a return to any previous phase.

Freud writes that pathological “flukes”, that is, fixed at the stage of oral eroticism, “becoming adults, become lovers of kisses, have a tendency to perverse (that is, perverted – author’s comment) kisses, or, as men, acquire a strong motive for drinking and smoking. ”

It is the infantile forms of sexuality, which are displaced from the sphere of consciousness in the process of individual development, from the position of a psychoanalytic concept, that create the basis for pathology and are a source of neurosis.

If something impedes normal development, then a return (regression) to the already passed phases of psychosexual development takes place, and in this Freud sees the cause of deviant (deviant) forms of sexual behavior.