The Anal Character

I like Freud. Even though i don't profess to know all about him, from whatever i know, i really enjoy reading about his awfully quirky ideas and extreme views. I'm beginning to admire extremists.

Freud sees childhood development very important for understanding the adult. According to him, the newborn goes through a few stages, namely the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic and genital stage. Every stage is characterised by a unique set of conflicts and when not resolved properly, will result in a troubled adult.

Of interest, as my entry title suggests, is the anal character. In fact, i was just wondering whether the 'u r so anal' originated from the Freud idea.

The Anal Character:

Stage in childhood: when the child attains bowel control. This is the time when toilet training begins. According to Freud, when a child is inhibited from defacating, as in the case of a parent who gets very upset when he accidentally loses control and is generally very rigid, will result in an adult who is compulsively clean and orderly, or stubborn and obstinate. in modern words, anal.

Seems crazy to you? well, a lot of his theories (to me) make sense. While i agree that they are sometimes groundless and often lacking in scientific evidence, i find them very creative. And very encompassing. and very extreme. ha.

The Oral character:

the Oral stage happens directly before the Anal one, taking place from birth to before attainment of bowel control. Pleasure is obtained through the mouth (thus the name), as in feeding. When it comes to the time for the child to move to the next stage, but the child refuses to give up the previous, some lingering attachments remain. A manifestation is thumb-sucking.

A resulting (conflicting) adult is one who has mouth-related problems, including smoking and bingeing. The character of the person is one who is often dependant on others, having a 'please feed/love me' kinda mentality.




do u fall in any of these? ha. don't worry. they are really not scientific. just interesting stuff only. in any case, if u buy Freud's ideas, it's really quite a pessimistic view. Cos then there's nothing u can do about someone who had a difficult childhood. Which i don't believe la. To a certain extent at least. =)