Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

Psychodynamic explanation of gender development

Freud's psychoanalytic theory

Pre-phallic children

• The phallic stage is when gender development occurs
• Prior to reaching the phallic stage, children have no concept of gender identity
• Freud described pre-phallic children as bisexual (neither male nor female)
• In the phallic stage, the focus of pleasure for the child switches to the genitals, and it is within this stage that children experience the oedipus/electra complex

Oedipus complex

• In the phallic stage, boys develop incestuous feelings towards their mother
• They harbour a jealous and murderous hatred for their father who stands in the way of the boy possessing his mother
• The boy also recognises that his father is more powerful than he is and he gets castration anxiety
• To resolve this conflict, the boy gives up his love for his mother and begins to identify with his father

Electra complex

• At the same age, girls experience penis envy, seeing themselves and their mother as being in competition for their father's love
• Girls develop a double-resentment towards their mother
• The mother is a love rival and the girls blame their mother for their lack of penis
• Freud was much less clear on the process in girls
• Girls come to accept that they will never have a penis and substitute penis envy for the desire to have children, identifying with their own mother as a result

Identification and internalisation

• Children of both sexes identify with the same-sex parent as a means of resolving their respective complexes
• Children take on board the gender identity of the same-sex parent…