Sigmund Freud is famous and infamous for introducing a sexuality
based drive theory and model of the psyche. His 1905 Three
Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is one of first works introduced by
Freud regarding this important aspect of his theory.
The first
essay on the theory of sexuality regards sexual perversions and aberrations. Here Freud distinguishes sexual aim- a desire
- and sexual object- with which one wishes to fulfill that desire. Sexual aberrations
are cases in which sexual aim is directed at a certain unaccepted (now) sexual
object such as children or animals. Freud thought that we all might have the
potential for such dispositions but that a proper course of sexual development
would lead our aims away from these abnormal objects and in the direction of
acceptable ones. If not, well...
The second
essay on the theory of sexuality deals with childhood
sexuality and here Freud lays out is famous theory of the psychosexual development
track. From the moment we are born we have sexual energy, libido, which is
transformed in our early years which shapes its aims and objects. Freud sketches
this phases that have physical centers, starting from the oral stage, through
the anal stage, on to the phallic stage, the latency stage and finally to
genital stage (see other summaries here for elaboration on Freud's psychosexual
development theory).
The third
and last essay on the theory of sexuality, "The Transformations of Puberty", ties the
sexual development of the adolescent with the events of his early childhood
which produce his adult sexuality.
Summaries of important works by Freud:
Sigmund Freud - The Interpretation of DreamsSigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents