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In Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis, the phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual development, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein the infant's libido (desire) centers upon their genitalia as the erogenous zone. When children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents, they gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, the center of the phallic stage, in the course of which they learn the Human anatomy differences between the male and female sexes and their associated social roles, experiences which alter the psychologic dynamics of the parent and child relationship."Sigmund Freud 1856–1939" entry (2000) Encyclopaedia of German Literature Routledge: London. Retrieved 2 September 2009: http://www.credoreference.com.library.capella.edu/entry/routgermanlit/sigmund_freud_1856_1939 The phallic stage is the third of five Freudian psychosexual development stages: (i) the Oral stage, (ii) the Anal stage, (iii) the phallic, (iv) the Latency stage, and (v) the Genital stage.
Despite the mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child's desires, the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity – "boy", "girl" – that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile Libido energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father – because it is he who sleeps with the mother. To facilitate uniting him with the mother, the boy's id wants to kill his father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon the reality principle, knows that his father is the stronger of the two males competing to psychosexually possess the one female. Nonetheless, the fearful boy remains ambivalent about his father's place in the family, which is manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile id.Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins: London pp. 607, 705
In developing a discrete psychosexual identity, boys develop castration anxiety and girls develop penis envy towards all males. The girl's envy is rooted in the biologic fact that, without a penis, she cannot sexually possess her mother as the infantile id demands. Resultantly, the girl redirects her libido for sexual union to her father. She thus psychosexually progresses to heterosexual femininity (which culminates in bearing a child) derived from earlier, infantile desires; her child replaces the absent Human penis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl's psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl's Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a woman of a submissive, less confident personality.Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins:London pp. 259, 705
An unresolved fixation in the phallic stage could lead to egoism, low self-esteem, flirtatious and promiscuous females, shyness, worthlessness, and men who treat women with contempt.
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