on determines when the shifts will take place.
At any stage, there may be fixation which is defined as an arrest in development and can occur if the child receives too little or too much gratification. For example, a baby who is weaned too early or is allowed to suck too much may become an excessively distrust or dependent adult due to having an oral stage fixation. Becoming emotionally fixated or stuck at any given stage may require therapeutic help before the problem can be overcome. The psychosexual stages of human development posited by psychodynamic theory can be delineated as follows:
This stage occurs from birth through 12-18 months. The baby's chief source of please consists of mouth-oriented activities such as sucking and eating.
The anal developmental stage occurs from the child's twelfth to eighteenth month through three years of age. At this stage the child derives sensual gratification from withholding and expelling feces. The zone of gratification is the anal region.
The phallic stage covers the child's third to sixth year. It is a time of the "family romance," in which children fall in love with their opposite sex parent, and experience a sense of rivalry with their same sex parent. Here the zone of gratification shifts to the genital region.
Occurring from ages six years to puberty, this is a period of relative calm between more turbulent stages. No major conflicts appear.
From puberty through adulthood, the genital stage marks the period of the mature sexual adult.
Application of Psychodynamic Theory To Counseling Practice
The DCT framework holds that the way to integrate theory with counseling practice is to avoid the notion that any one theory is best. Rather, theory should be used by counselors in association with client needs and desires at a particular time in the therapeutic process. Therefore, the question becomes: What are those occasions in which the psychodynamic stage...