Over 150 years ago, Freud developed his emotional developmental stages from birth through maturation, which became common knowledge for psychoanalysts and many other professional fields. Freud’s classical insights continue to be effectively applied in the understanding of normal and pathological emotional development. This course clarifies why Freud named the first stage the Oral stage (from birth until two years) and the second stage as the Anal stage from (two to three years old). We will expand these basic concepts along with Freudian theory concerning the development of personality components and object relation theory. An in-depth understanding of these first two stages yields deep and practical applications in the clinical setting.

In this course, we will delve into the emotional development of the infant from birth to three years of age, and disclose how we may discover these signs in adulthood. Specifically, we will discuss how the Ego and its adaptation and defense mechanisms, as well as Healthy Narcissism, are gradually developed in the Oral and Anal stages. We will delve into how Object relations, separateness and individuation are gradually developed in the Oral and Anal stage, and follow the infant’s emotional development in order to reveal why and how the child develops or does not in these areas. Lastly, we will discuss the characteristics of each stage and of each personality component.

In order to identify where and how the client is stuck, we will investigate how our work with clients can incorporate this information. For example, exploring whether there was trauma, over-protection etc., that have a long-lasting impact on the client’s life and how can this be ameliorated. We will cover a lively illustration using case studies.

This course will help us find ways to help your clients to better understand their problems, and become aware of the link between their difficulties and reverberations of childhood memory traces that overrule their life, Helping your clients to make these connections will help them to face frustrations, narcissistic injuries, and trauma. Principles of psychoanalytic-psycho-dynamic theory can help psychotherapists and patients to re-create better relationships.