Psychosexual development: Background

Freud observed that, at somewhat predictable points during early development, children’s behavior often orients around certain body parts (the mouth during breast-feeding, the anus during potty-training, and later the genitals). Believing, due to his previous work with hysterical patients, that adult neurosis often has root in childhood sexuality, Freud proposed that these behaviors were childhood expressions of sexual fantasy and desire. He suggested that humans are born “polymorphous perverse”, meaning that infants can derive sexual pleasure from any part of the body.[2], and that it is only though socialization that libidinal drives are focused into adult heterosexuality.

Sigmund Freud: Biography

Sigmund Freud was born on sr 6 May 1856 to Galician Jewish[1] parents in Příbor (German: Freiberg in Mähren), Moravia, Austrian Empire, now Czech Republic. His father Jakob was 41, a wool merchant, and had two children by a previous marriage.