Anal Stage

Definition

According to psychoanalytic theory, the developing child passes through a series of psychosexual stages in which one part of the body becomes the focus of primary sensual or erotic concern. The “anal stage,” corresponding roughly to the toddler years, is the second of these. The anal stage follows directly from the “oral stage,” during which the infant’s focus of concern is the mouth, and is followed by the “phallic stage” in which the child’s focus becomes the genitals. Thus, the anal and oral stages are sometimes referred to as the pregenital psychosexual stages.

Introduction

In Freud’s original discussion of the anal stage in his 1905 work “Three essays on the theory of sexuality,” children become intensely interested in excretion and in retaining and expelling feces. In one respect, this interest has a mastery component as children gradually develop voluntary control over their sphincters, usually under some degree of parental pressure during toilet training. This...