Freud ii: Male and Female Sexuality

Abstract

Over a period of forty years, Freud’s model of sexuality changed considerably, and it is impossible in the brief space available to give a full account of these developments. One of the most important shifts is from the ‘drive model’ of sexuality towards a model that is concerned more with ‘sexual objects’, and particularly the triangular relationship between people in the Oedipus complex. It is this latter model that contains the seeds of the development of ‘object relations psychology’, which has become an important school of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. To demonstrate some of the shifts in Freud’s own thinking, I would like to compare an early and a late publication of Freud’s, and outline briefly some of the significant changes that have taken place.