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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 1–4Cite as

Phallic Stage

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Definition

The phallic stage is the third stage or phase in Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, the first two being the oral and anal ones.

Introduction

Freud’s idea is that the development of the child/human being has to be understood from the perspective of the libidinal organization under the primacy of erotogenic zones, the sources of sexual excitation. The oral stage is tied to the region of the mouth and pharynx, the anal to the anal region. The specific erotogenic zone corresponding to the phallic stage is the genitalia, and this stage spans from approximately 3 to 6 years of age. This is a crucial step in the development of the sexual identity and sexual orientation according to Freud. Nevertheless, his ideas concerning the phallic stage are controversial, in that he, among other things, postulates that the only existing genital is the phallus; in other words, everyone is supposedly a male at this stage: “…for both sexes, only one genital, namely the male one,...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Gunnar Karlsson

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  1. Gunnar Karlsson
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Correspondence to Gunnar Karlsson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. MacQuarie University, North Ryde, Australia

    Simon Boag

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Karlsson, G. (2016). Phallic Stage. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1410-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1410-1

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