ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses both The Interpretation of Dreams and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In the first essay, Freud points out that what we call perversions are usual occurrences during different points of development, part of the human condition. In the second essay, he discusses both the new stages of development that he puts forth (autoerotism and object love) and describes the child’s interest in various bodily functions. In the third essay, he describes how males and females differentiate in terms of sexual interest and tendencies. Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual development does not parallel the more finished, unified, and yet somewhat simplified, version of his ideas that are popularly portrayed in beginning psychoanalytic text books. Chapter Seven in The Interpretation of Dreams is by now almost a legendary chapter in psychoanalysis. It is where Freud gives his most complete theoretical rendering of what he calls the “Psychology of the dream-process”.
