Teoria psicosessuale dello sviluppo

Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory of development proposes that early childhood experiences play a crucial role in shaping personality and behavior as adults.

Freud viewed development as discontinuous, asserting that individuals must progress through five distinct psychosexual stages during childhood.

These stages are oral, from birth to 18 months of age; anal, 18 months to 3 years; phallic, 3 to 6 years; latency, 6 to 12 years or puberty; and genital, from age 12 or puberty onwards.

According to Freud, at each stage, children's pleasure-seeking focus shifts to a different area of the body called an erogenous zone.

He theorized that if children fail to resolve conflicts during a stage, they may develop a fixation, leaving them stuck with unresolved challenges from that stage.

For example, unresolved conflicts during the oral stage may result in fixation, which could manifest in adulthood as behaviors like smoking, overeating, nail-biting, or excessive drinking.