Sigmund Freud developed the concept of personality development as a gradual transition from one stage to another. The first of these, the oral stage, lasts from birth to approximately 18 months of age. Infants are nourished by sucking at the breast, and during this period the mouth area is most closely associated with the satisfaction of biological needs, and with pleasant sensations, and with pleasure. Therefore, the oral cavity — including the lips, tongue and related structures — becomes the main focus of the infant’s activity and interest.
Sigmund Freud was convinced that the mouth remains an important erogenous zone throughout a person’s life. Even in adulthood, there are residual manifestations of oral behavior in the form of chewing gum, biting nails, smoking, kissing, and overeating — all of which the Freudians see as attachment of the libido to the oral zone.
In Freud’s concept of psychoanalysis, pleasure and sexuality are closely intertwined. In this context, sexuality is understood as a state of arousal that accompanies the process of satiation in an infant. Accordingly, the first objects — sources of pleasure for him are the mother’s breast or the horn, and the first part of the body where the pleasure caused by the decrease in tension is localized is the mouth. Sucking and swallowing act as prototypes for every act of sexual satisfaction in the future. The main task facing the infant during this oral-dependent period is to lay down the basic attitudes (of course, in the form of their rudimentary manifestations) of dependence and independence, trust and support in relation to other people.
Over time, the mother’s breast will lose its significance as an object of love and will be replaced by a part of his own body. He will suck on his thumb or tongue to ease the tension caused by the lack of constant maternal care.
The oral stage ends when breastfeeding stops. According to the central premise of psychoanalysts, all infants experience some difficulty in weaning or taking the horn away because it deprives them of the corresponding pleasure. The greater these difficulties, that is, the stronger the concentration of libido in the oral stage, the more difficult it will be to cope with conflicts in the following stages, the more likely the need for psychological assistance will arise.
Freud put forward the postulate that in the psychology of a child who received excessive or insufficient stimulation in infancy, most likely, an oral-passive personality type will form in the future. A person with an oral-passive personality type is cheerful and optimistic, expects a “motherly” attitude towards himself from the outside world and constantly seeks approval at any cost. His psychological adaptation is gullibility, passivity, immaturity and overdependence, which is fraught with frustration and depression for him.
During the second half of the first year of life, the second phase of the oral stage begins — the oral-aggressive, or oral-sadistic phase. The infant is now developing teeth, making biting and chewing an important means of expressing the state of frustration caused by the absence of the mother or the delay in gratification. Fixation at the oral-sadistic stage is expressed in adults in such personality traits as love for arguments, pessimism, sarcastic “biting”, and also often in a cynical attitude towards everything around. People with this type of character, in addition, tend to exploit other people and dominate them in order to satisfy their own needs.