ABSTRACT
The contribution of psychoanalysis to human understanding is its explanation of neurotic mental disorders in terms of fixation or regression of the libido. The development of human beings goes through different stages, which Sigmund Freud called the oral, anal, and genital phases. Since the development of this theory, conflicts in adults can usually be reconstructed through their experience in childhood and how they developed from birth until puberty. The history of theories on psychic development shows that different analysts put particular aspects at the centre of their understanding and neglected other aspects. Psychic development starts during pregnancy, synchronised with the development of the sensory nervous system. From the very beginning of his psychic development, the child has always been part of triadic configurations. Anna Freud had ample opportunities to observe children’s development in daily life and recorded her experience in writing, transforming her observations into theory in The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence.
