The next stage is the ==anal stage== and starts from 18 months to 3 years old and the main conflict in this stage is toilet training. The reason for this conflict is because toilet training is the first constraint put on one’s body and there is internal pleasure gratification.
There are two orientations of trait development. A child focuses on praise for successes in toilet training by going to the bathroom in the right time and place. The child adopts the message of producing things at the right time and place. If there is a harsher approach of punishment, ridicule, and shame, then the child could adopt a pattern of rebellion against the parents. ==Anal expulsion traits== that can be shown are messy, cruel, destructive, and overt hostility. ==Anal retentive traits== that can show are rigid, obsessive, stinginess, obstinacy, and orderliness.
The ==phallic stage== occurs from the 3rd year to the 5th year of one’s life. The erogenous zones shift to genitals. Masturbation occurs for the first time (typically becoming aware of being able to cause pleasure through rubbing.) The conflict that occurs in this stage are the Oedipal and Elektra complexes and a child’s libido shifts to the parent of the opposite sex. The ==Oedipal/Elektra complex== is the desire to possess the parent of libidinal desire, seeing the other parent as a rival, and desiring to replace that parent. For boys, those thoughts of rival and competition/replacement produce guilt as well as fear. The child shows a fear of retaliation; specifically fear of castration (also known as ==castration anxiety==.) Castration anxiety pushes libidinal desire for the mother onto the unconscious. Next, the boy identifies with his father. He develops a sense of safety, and he reduces the ambivalence towards his father which allows for a further development of the superego. For girls, they abandon their loving relationship with their mothers for their fathers. This shift occurs when she realizes that she does not have the main male reproductive organ… and blames their mother for being castrated. The girl desires a sharing of the phallus from the father. ==Penis envy== is the male counterpart to castration envy. Girl resolves this conflict through identifying with their mother. If men have a fixation in this stage, then they would demonstrate that they have not been castrated. They have a lot of intercourse and are successful in their career and/or life. They may fail at both of these things purposefully (unconsciously) because the guilt is too strong. If women have a fixation in this stage, they relate to men in seductive and flirty ways but without admitting that they are doing so. The repressed pattern with their fathers is now displayed socially.
The latency period happens with children ages 7-12 years old, and children’s sexual and aggressive drives are relatively calm. The ego and superego have emerged and developed fare more and the Id’s drive is kept at bay. The child’s experiences broaden, and their interests become intellectual and social. They start to identify with authority figures and social groups. The repressed drives emerge again at the end of his stage, also known as puberty, as well as unresolved conflicts from earlier stages. Due to social restrictions at this age…they seek release through other means.