ABSTRACT
In his theory of infantile sexuality, Sigmund Freud identified a succession of stages in which specific zones of the body provide gratification by being successively endowed with libido, a pleasure-seeking energy. In normative development, the sequences are invariant. as one stage is incorporated into the succeeding one that then assumes a dominant role, so that all stages coexist when the individual attains the end-point: mature adult genitality. Arrest or regression to pre-genital levels accounts for neurotic behavior. Progress is marked by gradual transfer of libido to other body żones.
