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Kelsea Vaillancourt
HDF 308 TR 9:30 AM
April 24, 2016
Short Paper #4
Freuds Psychosexual Theory and Troubling Concepts
When studying or discussing Sigmund Freud, it is never uncommon to hear people laugh
or even become uncomfortable. Although a harsh belief, many people believe that Freud was a
perverted sex-maniac that enjoyed thinking about children sexually due to his uncommon
theories about children. There are many implications of his work and many reasons that people
dont take him seriously as a scholar or researcher. Freud has been the most attacked
psychological theorist because of his beliefs and work, which is seen as scandalous by many
even today. On the other hand, many people also argue that he is just misunderstood, and those
that oppose him just dont fully understand his work.
Freud believed that psychological change is governed by inner forces. He believed that
maturation is accompanied by sexual and aggressive energies that the child must learn to repress.
Freud coined the term Oedipus Complex, to describe the intense rivalry that children develop
with the parent of the same sex for the affection of the parent of the opposite sex. His theory has
five stages: the oral stage (sucking for pleasure, biting), the anal stage (when a child realizes that
there is pleasure when the membranes of the anus are stimulated), the phallic stage (pleasure
comes from touching or showing the genitals, or seeing someone elses genitals), the latency
stage (overt sexual interest is repressed), and finally, the genital stage (interest focuses on sexual
activity). These ideas themselves have been largely challenged because most of the scientific
community believed that sexuality begins at puberty and not before. It is also challenged by

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many parents and average people because they believe that Freud is simply a pervert who thinks
about children sexually.
Freud has been criticized by many since he publicized his findings. He has been criticized
on a scientific standpoint as well as by psychologists, anthropologists, the common parent, and
many others. Some scientists criticize his work because although his theory was mainly about
children and stages that they go through at different young ages, his evidence and studies came
primarily from adults. To many skeptics of his work, it doesnt seem reasonable to base a theory
that is about children on the memories and fantasies of adults in treatment. Many have argued
that since the adults that were studied had repressed a lot of their feelings that Freud researched,
that they might not be entirely true. Since he did not study children directly for most of his
findings, there is a widespread belief that what he theorized about children is incorrect, and that
the adults that were studied could not even remember their childhood enough to give accurate
information.
These oppositions of Freuds theory can lead to a greater misunderstanding of it. To
Freud, sex included not just sexual intercourse but mostly anything that provides bodily
pleasure. Many people dont understand that his definition of the word sex was so broad, and
they believe that Freuds theory was about how children want to have sex at very young ages,
which isnt the case for most children. Also, believing that his findings are untrue because of the
fact that he primarily studied adults can be hindering to the comprehension of his theory as well.
He was very careful to allow the adults to uncover repressed memories and thoughts. It was very
difficult for many of the patients to discuss or uncover certain things, which is an implication that
they were not faked or untrue. For many Freudians, it can be argued that those who oppose

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Freuds work simply did not understand his thoughts and ideas in sufficient depth and did not
open their minds to the ideas that he presented.