Introduction

One of the most fruitful insight of Freud's psychology is its view of the individual as a developing being : everything is in motion, slowly actualising its full potential. This developmental perspective - along with a psycho-biological and a phenomenological one - informs every Freudian concept.

It is crucial to stress that the Freudian model of development is cumulative : in the general motion towards adulthood, no previous stage of development is wiped out. What is new never destroys what is old, but merely dominates it. Indeed regression to less mature stages is both a normal fact - daily expressed in sleep or in joking - and a major pathological possibility. The Freudian road to adulthood is thus a bumpy and a two-way one.

Understanding one's psychology largely amounts to understanding one's specific history of development and its relation to the general model. After having presented the its four developmental lines, this paper proposes a chronological reconstruction of the Freudian model along five periods : the earliest childhood (birth to two), the famous 'Oedipal' period (two to five), the 'latency' period (six to twelve), adolescence and adulthood.

A four-dimensional model

· Structural development of the mental apparatus

Freud conceptualizes the human mental apparatus in terms of phenomenological (Ucs/Pcs/Cs, and It/I/Over-I) and psycho-biological structures (primary/secondary systems, and various ñ-systems). These structures are the cumulative product of the individual's development.

· Motivational development : transformation of drive organization

The energies that activate these structures are either systemic (such as vitality and wakefulness) or motivational. Human development was primarily studied by Freud through the changing forms of motivations. The latter boil down to a mix of libidinal and aggressive drives. A security drive is sometimes implicitly assumed by Freud in his analysis of anxiety.

Though fundamental and permanently active, these drives have no constant expression. Their impetus (quantity of excitation), their aim (specific activity that would satisfy them), their object (what is needed to pursue this activity) and their source (generally somatic) evolve over time. Thus, a specific drive organization characterizes each step of human development.

· The cognitive development

Freud did not study the child cognitive development as such, thus leaving a gap famously bridged by Jean Piaget. However, he did study the functioning of thought, that is the way humans link mental images. In his analysis of the 'dream work', Freud came up with a key distinction between primary and secondary thought processes.

Primary thought processes are present in the mental apparatus from the first and are intimately linked with the primary system. Just as the latter, they are dominated by the pleasure/unpleasure principle : connection of ideas is led by a search for satisfaction. They operate through pre-logical patterns such as condensation, displacement, compromises and sensory associations.

Secondary thought processes connect ideas logically and realistically (according to their meaning and their real connection in the outer world) rather than according to their sensory qualities. Just as the pleasure/unpleasure principle dominates primary thinking the reality principle dominates the secondary one. This mode of thinking is only possible insofar as the mental apparatus is able to inhibit associations of the primary kind, which connect ideas along the pleasure/unpleasure principle. This inhibiting capacity draws on the energy of the secondary system, the correct functioning of which is therefore required.

Thus according to Freud, our original thought processes are wishful rather than logical.

· Social development

Social development only starts once the motivational development overtakes the primal self-centred (narcissistic) state. Freud then distinguishes two basic modes to relate to people. Identification is the most primitive one. In its earliest form, it is close to introjection whereby the ego subjectively feels it is the other. In later forms it is an emotional situation whereby the ego wants to be the other person. In both cases, identification relies on a sense of being the other. On the other hand, object-choice (object-cathexis) is a situation whereby the ego wants to have the object.

On the basis of these concepts (narcissism, identification and object-choice) Freud's model analyses the social relationships humans are typically involved in, at each stage of their development.

We will now study these four lines of development simultaneously, so as to grasp how they relate to one another.

The earliest childhood : birth to two

· Structural development : innate pleasure/unpleasure polarity, Inner/Outer polarity, formation of the I

From the psycho-biological perspective, the primary system (neural sensitivity to somatic processes) is present from the first. The innate character of the pleasure/unpleasure polarity merely reflects this innate sensitivity. The secondary system only unfolds later.

From the phenomenological perspective, the primitive organism is an 'It' with no sense of 'I'. This original organization of experience does not distinguish what is external from what is internal. The differentiation process between the two is intimately connected to the creation of the subjective agency 'I', and unfolds during the first year of life.

Due to contact with the external world, a portion of the Id undergoes a specific organization, so as to become the Ego. More specifically, a tendency arises to separate from the ego everything that can become a source of unpleasure (projection) and to incorporate everything that provides pleasure (introjection). The primal ego is therefore a pure pleasure-ego as opposed to an 'evil external world'. Further experiences eventually teach that the outside world contains both pleasurable and unpleasurable objects : the infant progressively sets up a valid reality testing procedure which is key component of the secondary system.

Once the sense of self is firmly established, the defence mechanism of projection turns into primal repression (anticathectis). This is the birth of the dynamic Unconscious.

· Motivational development : the primal forms of the libidinal drive

Just as Freud distinguished the psychical from the conscious, he famously separated the genital from the sexual, widening the meaning of the latter so as to encompass any pleasure-seeking behaviour. He stressed that from their earliest childhood, humans seek pleasure for its own sake from zones of the body : in that sense they have a sexual or libidinal life, which follows an ordered course of development.

The first organ to make a libidinal demand on the mind is the mouth. In Freud's terminology, the primal libidinal source is thus the mouth, the original aim is sucking and the original object is the mother's breast.

This oral phase is followed by the anal one, whereby the infant gives himself pleasure through defecation in an autonomous fashion, as he progressively controls his sphincter muscles. As we see the two pre-genital stages are auto-erotic, as they have no need for any external object : the infant gets pleasure from bodily functions.

· Motivational development : the primal form of the aggressive drive

The aggressive drives are primitively merged with libidinal ones, in pleasure-seeking activities which are therefore of a sadistic nature. During the oral phase, sadistic impulses occur sporadically along with the appearance of teeth and the tendency to bite. In the anal phase, their extent is much greater, as the child experience his first 'social power' to 'withhold the gift or making a big mess'.

As the child is taught to control his excretory functions, he learns to repress immediate impulses. This opens up the way for the reality principle to start developing. This latter principle is actually a later stage of development of the pleasure/unpleasure principle, once the ego has learned that it is sometimes necessary to renounce immediate satisfaction to obtain more pleasure in the long term.

· Motivational development : the primal forms of anxiety (the security drive)

Anxiety is a reaction to a danger situation that takes the form of a specific kind of unpleasure, accompanied by 'acts of discharge' bringing partial relief. The tendency to avoid danger can be referred to as a 'security drive', which is implicit in Freud's writings. Each period of the individual's life has its characteristic definition of danger.

The danger of psychical helplessness, in the face of a growing tension due to need against which the infant is helpless, is the most primitive form. This primal anxiety is automatic and involuntary, due to the direct confrontation with the danger situation.

Once the ego is more mature and able to face its own psychical tension in a more ordered fashion, the danger becomes the loss of a very specific object, the mother, as she satisfies all the infant's needs. This second form of anxiety is intentional, as it is used by the ego as a signal for the avoidance of a danger situation.

· Cognitive development : domination of the primary thought processes

We have seen that the earliest mental life is dominated by processes of projection and introjection. Once the innate Mnemic systems are activated, the mental apparatus of the infant is dominated by the primary thought processes that connect mental images according to the pleasure/unpleasure principle.

· Social development

The original state of affair of humans is characterized by a total objective dependency and subjective self-absorption. This "primary narcissism" parallels the lack of firm distinction between the outer and the inner, which in turns parallels the lack of any constituted ego : the primary narcissism therefore lacks a Narcissus.

The Oedipal period (two to five)

· Motivational development : the phallic stage and the shift from ego-libido to object-libido

After two years old, the baby enters the 'phallic stage', whereby he discovers the pleasure potential of his genitals, long before they acquire any reproductive significance. This discovery leads to auto-stimulation. It is important to stress that the 'phallus' refers to the external part of the genitals and therefore encompass the male penis and the female clitoris.

This phallic phase radically differs from the pre-genital phases, as it also pushes the child beyond mere auto-eroticism : his libido becomes for the first time directed towards other people. A sexual curiosity develops (childhood games) and crystallizes on the parents. The little boy develops a sensual attachment to his mother. The little girl, following the emergence of the 'penis envy' and its transformation into a 'child envy', changes her object-choice from her mother to her father. For Freud, there is no doubt about the sensual aim of this affection.

· The emergence of gender identities

Gendered identities progressively come into play under the form of internalised social roles and norms. So far, the world was merely divided into big and little people. The child learn to cathect activities and objects that are socially relevant to his gender and to repress those that are identified with the opposite gender. This learning process ends up in the fundamental identification of the child with the parent of his own gender.

· The complete Oedipus complex and the Family complex

As he identifies with his father, the little boy develops a true sexual object-cathect towards his mother. The two currents subsist side by side for a time without any mutual interference. In consequence of the "irresistible advance towards a unification of mental life", they eventually start conflicting with one another and the "normal" Oedipus complex originates. The little boy feels that his father stands in his way. His identification with him takes on a hostile colouring and "becomes identical with the wish to replace his father in regard to his mother". The emotional situation of the little girls is the exact anti-symmetric : she identifies with her mother and sexually cathectes her father (thanks to the 'child envy'). These emotional elements form what Freud calls the positive (hetero-erotic) Oedipus complex.

The issue is further complicated by the innate bisexuality of humans. Indeed, boys also sexually cathexe their father, and girls their mother. By the same token, they also identify with the parent of the opposite gender. This is what Freud calls the negative (homo-erotic) Oedipus complex. Together, the two Oedipus complexes form the Complete Oedipus Complex which reflects humans' bisexuality.

When other children appear on the scene the Oedipus complex is enlarged into a Family complex. New brothers or sisters are received with repugnance and getting rid of them becomes a central wish. This infantile kind of wish is often the basis of permanent conflicts. Thus, the position of a child in the family order is of an extreme importance.

· The end of the Oedipus complex and its developmental consequences

Through the notion of 'castration complex', Freud proposes an experiential explanation of the exit of boys from the Oedipus complex. Having seen the female genitals, the little boy develops a new form of anxiety : the fear of loss of the genitals, which have a high libidinal value to him. The child consequently violently represses his aggressiveness towards his father, by internalising the latter's authority through a new phenomenological agency : the super-ego. Both the child's aggressiveness and love towards the father are taken up by the super-ego. Its aggressive side is thereafter experienced as guilt, its loving side as self-esteem. The dynamics Unconscious incorporates the repressed wishes. As we can see, the castration complex triggers both motivational (modification of the object of the aggressive drive : father -> ego) and structural (creation of the super-ego) developments.

Girls slowly overcome the Oedipus complex thanks to the permanent frustration they experience from their father. The key factor here is sheer weariness and not a powerful fear as in the case of boys. The female mode of repression has therefore not the cataclysmic stature of the male one ; the female super-ego is consequently thought of by Freud as structurally and significantly weaker than the male one.

Until the exit form the Oedipus complex, repression of drives had always resulted form the fear of loss of love from the external authority, that is of its aggression. With the setting up of the super-ego the authority becomes internal.

The 'latency' period an the beginning of puberty : six to twelve

· A puzzling name

This period marks a halt in the -so far- very rapid sexual development of the child. Moreover, the majority of experiences and impulses before the start of the latency period "fall victim to infantile amnesia". This forgetting is in fact the outcome of a repression process that follows the exit from the Oedipal complex and nourishes the dynamic Unconscious.

Still, this period has a very misleading name, as it suggests that development is frozen. If sexual development undergoes a slowdown, still two very important steps are taken : the development of partial aim inhibition with respect to sensual feelings and sublimation.

· Partial aim inhibition and subsequent social development

The resolution of the Oedipus complex has split up the libido into two distinct streams. The sensual feelings have been deflected, as far as conscious life is concerned, from family members. This sensual current has also undergone a stringent partial aim inhibition experienced as warmth or closeness. These affectionate feelings partly remain attached to family members and soon become directed towards same sex people outside the family.

This is the time of formation of close friendships in peer-groups (as opposed to individual friendships in adolescence). These friendships are thus based on a latent homosexuality, which is never fully satisfied. This is actually what make them last. These groups also provide the context for new forms of identification as group leaders strongly influence the ego-ideals of members.

The latency period is also a period of strengthening of the 'incest taboo', which reinforces the split of the libido and prepares itself to resist the fresh wave of sensual libido that comes about at the time of puberty.

· Sublimation of aggressive drives

During the latency period the child learns to direct its aggressive energy into socially approved activities. Work becomes the main area of sublimation of these needs, in the forms of competition, achievement and self-discipline.

· Development of moral and social signal anxieties

In the aftermath of the Oedipal period, anxiety takes the form of a fear of one's super-ego. Not breaking the rules is a way to feel internally secure : this is moral anxiety. As the child moves into the peer group, closer to adolescence, social anxiety comes about, namely the fear of being isolated, of not belonging. These anxieties are signal-anxieties as they aim at avoiding danger situations.

· Cognitive development

The crucial point is the maturation of the secondary thought processes, that involves logical and realistic thinking. This boils down to the progressive strengthening of the capacity to draw on the energy of the secondary system so as to inhibit mental connections merely led by the pleasure/unpleasure principle (primary thought processes).

Freud notes that the secondary thought processes "unfold during the course of life" (Interpretation of Dreams, 640) but he does not give a precise account of their chronological development. It is Piaget's analysis of the child's cognitive development that helps us to roughly locate their emergence around the age of five onwards (with the apparition of concrete logical operation and logical thinking), that is during the latency period. However, we have seen that some crucial elements of the secondary thought processes, such as reality testing and the reality principle emerge before the latency period.

Adolescence

· A new wave of libido re-cathectis infantile wishes

At puberty, the maturation of the sexual instinct launches new waves of libido. Drives become firmly organized under the primacy of the genitals. The old familiar incestuous objects are unconsciously taken up again and freshly cathected with libido, thus triggering an unconscious struggle between infantile wishes and the sense of self which internalised the Incest Taboo during the latency period.

· The challenge of libido reunification

The emotional challenge faced by adolescents and young adults is the reunification of the two streams of libido, namely the sensual and the affectionate currents. Deep emotional friendships provide an occasion to merge these currents by sharing the intimate experiences. Love of course as well. Freud distinguishes two kinds. The anaclitic love (typically male) displays a 'sexual over-estimation' whereby the ego transfers all its libido to the love-object. The narcissistic love (typically female) is primarily a desire to be loved rather than to love.

· Emotional freeing

The emotional freeing from the dependent attachment to the parents is usually expressed through a period of rebellion.

Adulthood

Adulthood, in all its components, is a cumulative product that carries alive every stage of the individual's development.

· Structural features

The adult ego is the cumulative product of its past identifications. As Freud puts it : " the character of the ego is a precipitate of abandoned object-cathectis and contains the history of those object-choices" (The Ego and the Id, 24). The adult super-ego is the heir of the post-Oedipal internalisation of the parental authority, later modified by a more mature understanding of moral norms and autonomous choices of personal models and ideals. The adult dynamic Unconscious is the cumulative product of early pre-symbolized memories and repressed infantile wishes and traumata.

· Parenthood

In Freud's view, the attitude of fond parents towards their children has to be understood as a "revival of their own, long since abandoned, narcissism". Thus, libidinaly speaking parenthood operates a synthesis of narcissistic love and object-love which is made possible by the identification of the parents with the children, as a kind of extension of their selves.

· Final cognitive maturation

"It may even be that the complete domination [of the secondary thoughts processes] is not attained until the prime of life" (Interpretation of Dreams, 642). On the cognitive side, adulthood is therefore defined for Freud by a clear domination of secondary thinking.

· On regression

Adult life involves many normal forms of regression to earlier stages of development. Sleep and dreams for instance show features of structural, cognitive and motivational regression : blurring of the boundary between the ego and the external world, primacy of primary thought processes, and regression to infantile wishes. Jokes often involve cognitive regression and the release of psychical tension from the secondary system, discharged by laughing. Love or religious feelings can involve structural regression through of weakening of the sense of self.

Many pathological mental phenomena can be understood as regressions due to a libido fixation on earlier stages. For instance perverse sexuality is "nothing else than a magnified infantile sexuality" (Introductory, 385) The study of pathological regressions implies a study of the drives' economics, that is of their quantitative relations.

Conclusion

It is hardly possible to overemphasize the developmental perspective in Freud's work. This model of development provides us with a rich view of human beings as carrying in themselves there many past selves, which are never wiped out but at most drowsy.

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Synthesis of the major transformations humans undergo from childhood to adulthood

1) Structural development of the mental apparatus

- Simultaneous differentiations Ego/Id and Inner/Outer

- Differentiation of the Super-Ego from the Ego

- Cumulative constitution of the dynamics Unconscious as a set of repressed infantile wishes and traumatic experiences

2) Motivational development

-LIBIDO: from lack of drive organization to the primacy of the genitals,

from ego-libido to object-libido i.e. from bodily and narcissistic libidinal

satisfactions to love interests in others

-AGGRESSIVENESS: from sadistic to masochist forms, from outwards

to inwards aggressiveness (as crystallized in the super-ego or sublimated

in work)

-ANXIETY: from object-loss to moral and social anxieties

3) Cognitive development

- From primary to secondary thinking processes

4) Social development

-From primal narcissism to identification

-From identification to object-choice

-Socialization in peer groups

-Deep emotional adolescent friendships

-Male anaclitic love / female narcissistic love

-Fusion of identification and object-choice in parenthood: emphatic helpers

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