MOTHER
Freud postulated that psychosexual development plays a central role in the formation of sexual orientation. According to his theory, individuals experience various stages of psychosexual development during childhood, shaping their future sexual and psychological identity. In Freud’s model, the initial stage is the oral stage, followed by the anal, phallic, latent, and genital stages.
During the phallic stage, typically occurring between the ages of three and five, Freud believed that children experience the Oedipus or Electra complex.
This stage is characterized by a child’s sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent. Freud argued that the resolution of this complex, marked by identification with the same-sex parent, paves the way for the development of a heterosexual orientation.
The psychiatrist added another fundamental aspect to his theory: the child, in desiring his mother, would fear punishment from the parent. The fear of being castrated by the father, or the castration complex, caused the child to decide to abandon their beloved object, the mother, and identify with their feared rival, the father.