phallic

Meaning: Freud proposed that personality develops through psychosexual stages, each focused on an erogenous zone. The phallic stage is the third, after oral and anal and before latency and genital. Pleasure centers on the genitals, and the child becomes aware of anatomical differences between the sexes.

In Freud's account, the child develops unconscious desire for the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the same-sex parent (the Oedipus complex; Electra complex is the term often used for girls). Fear of punishment (castration anxiety, in Freud's account for boys) pushes the child to resolve the conflict by identifying with the same-sex parent. This identification internalizes parental values and helps form the superego.

On the MCAT: Expect a question that gives a short scenario or description and asks which stage it matches, or asks you to put the stages in order (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital). Another common question asks which part of personality, the superego, develops through resolving the phallic conflict.

Common confusion: Students mix up the phallic stage and the genital stage. The phallic stage is early childhood, with sexual feelings directed toward the parent in fantasy. The genital stage begins at puberty and involves mature sexual interest in others. Another trap is the fixation. Fixation at any stage is a Freudian idea about unresolved conflict, and "phallic" in this sense is not the everyday word for a physical object.