PSYCHIATRY:
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION (SGD) # 2
CASE 3
A 30-year-old man has consistent trouble forming meaningful romantic relationships and
has difficulty seeing women as equals. He frequently compares his partners to his
mother and expects them to fulfill all his emotional needs. When he was 5 years old, he
was very attached to his mother and showed some jealousy towards his father. He used
to brag about how strong he was and talked about marrying his mother when he grew
up.
1. What psychosexual stage according to Freud can be linked to his behavior?
2. What “event” is associated with this stage that can explain this behavior? Discuss this
and the resolution of this “event” and how it will impact the patient.
Between Oedipus and Electra:
From Childhood to Adult Fantasies
The psychosexual development of Sigmund Freud suggests that human
personality is molded through a series of stages and each has corresponding
erogenous zones namely oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Each stage is
associated with a conflict that individuals must successfully go through so that they can
advance to the next stage (McLeod, 2024). Freud emphasized that an individual with
unresolved conflicts could lead to fixations which can influence their personality and
behavior in the future. In this paper, the third stage, the phallic stage, will be discussed
particularly the notable Oedipus Complex, which is described when a child
experiences unconscious desires for the opposite-sex parent (in this case, the mother)
and rivalry with the same-sex parent (the father). However, he also fears that he will be
punished by his father for his feelings which was termed by Freud as castration
anxiety (Cherry, 2025). According to Blass (2018), failure to resolve the Oedipus
Complex can lead to fixations manifested in difficulties forming healthy and romantic
relationships, challenges with authority figures during adulthood especially towards
women, and unresolved dependency.
The 30-year-old man’s behavior is linked to the Phallic Stage which typically
occurs between the ages of 3 to 5 years old, its erogenous zone is the genitals. At this
stage, children shift their focus on their genitals and navigate their feelings of rivalry and
emotional feelings towards their parents. His primary source of pleasure at this stage is
his genitals which are marked by libido or desire. Additionally, at this stage, his
understanding of anatomical differences forms a mixture of emotions such as sexual
attraction, jealousy, and resentment. He identifies with his father and internalized social
norms which he developed the superego, which governs moral and social behavior. In
the paper of Friedman and Downey, “Biology and the Oedipus Complex”, they explored
the possibility that the complex is an evolutionary-based play behavior that results in
competition. In this case, the patient struggled with emotional dependence and idealized
his female partners, with his mother as the role model. In addition to this, he had
difficulties establishing equal and healthy relationships due to his unrealistic standards,
leading to dissatisfaction and distress. Since the patient has been fixated at this point,
he will become extremely anxious about his sexual performance, he needs constant
reassurance and validation, and high tendency to become aggressive and assertive.
In conclusion to this case, the 30-year-old man had difficulties in forming
meaningful relationships since he has a tendency to idealize women as mother figures
or “caregivers” suggesting an unresolved Oedipus Complex derived from the third stage
or Phallic Stage. During his early childhood, he experienced attachment, rivalry, and
identification with his father which is greatly correlated to his current struggles. It
highlighted Freud’s theory on fixations particularly emotional dependence, difficulties
with sexual and romantic intimacy, and challenges in perceiving women as equals.
REFERENCES
Blass, R. B. (2018). Beyond the Oedipal paradigm: The psychodynamics of identity and
the recognition of difference. Routledge.
Cherry, K. (2025, January 29). Freud's stages of human development: Understanding
The 5 psychosexual stages of development by age. Verywell Mind.
https://www.verywellmind.com/freuds-stages-of-psychosexual-development-2795
962
Freud, S. (2001). The dissolution of the Oedipus complex. In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.),
The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol.
19, pp. 173–179). Vintage.
McLeod, S. (2024, January 16). Freud's stages of human development: 5 psychosexual
stages. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/psychosexual.html
Lantz, S.E. & Ray, S. (2023). National Library of Medicine. Psychosexual stages of
Development. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557526/
