Some commentators have referred to Sigmund Freud as “Psychology’s man of genius”. Evaluate this claim, with reference to his work and impact on the discipline of Psychology.

Sigmund Freud analyzed the human mind to a greater extent than did any other scientist who came before him. His contribution to psychology is enormous and his work has influenced not only areas concentrated around psychology but also literature, art and even the manner in which parents raise their children. Even though much of his work is refereed to as a ‘fallacy’, his findings remain relevant and applicable to this day.

Freud hypothesized that personality emerged through a series of stages of psychosexual development, namely the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage. He argued that the Oral stage occurs from birth until the age of two during which the child is focused on oral pleasures e.g. sucking, and if it receives too much or too little gratification, it can result in an oral personality evidenced later in life through preoccupation with oral acts such as a tendency to smoke, chew gum excessively, bite nails etc. Freud believed that these people would then have a personality that is over dependent on others and naïve. The Anal stage was said to occur from the age of two to four and Freud believed that during this stage the pleasure source arose from retaining or eliminating feces. The effects of anal fixation were also believed to become evident later in life. Those who were retentive, were assumed to be obsessed with perfection, cleanliness and control. On the contrary, those who were expulsive were assumed to become disorganized and messy people. From the ages of three to six, the Phallic stage was believed to occur during which the pleasure regions move on to the genitals. Freud theorized that during this stage, boys developed unconscious sexual desires towards their