Question

Zach, a 20-year-old, adopts sublimation as a defense mechanism. He has a keen interest in poetry. He wants to pursue a career in theater as he loves acting. In the context of Freud’s psychosexual stages of personality development, he is most likely to be fixated at the:

a) oral stage.

b) anal stage.

c) phallic stage.

d) latent stage.

Answer 1

• The psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) if famous for his theory on personality development, in which he states how a child passes 5 different psychosexual stages that lead to the development of the adult personality. He specifically describes the role of pleasure, conflict, and libido on each of those stages.
• Zach is already a 20-year old who exercises, for example, sublimation which is a mature type of defense mechanism, which transforms socially unacceptable behaviours into acceptable actions. In the long run it would permanently transform the initial impulse.
• Phallic stage of the Freudian theory of psychosexual stages of personality development, which explains that expression of instinctive drives may conflict with society's expectations. So the energy that would have been used in these drives is channeled towards other forms of release, like poetry, theatre, etc., in other words, through sublimation.