"anal retentiveness"

Posted by Smokey Stover on June 15, 2005

In Reply to: "Anal retentiveness" posted by Ispakles on June 15, 2005

: Hi, does anyone know what does "anal retentiveness" mean?

From the Encyclopedia Britannica: Sigmund Freud believed that in a child's psycho-sexual development there is an anal stage (during the second and third years of life) in which the child's main concerns are with defecation. His responses to his parents' demands for bowel control may have far-reaching consequences. Should a person become fixated in the anal stage he may become a noticeably orderly, frugal, and obstinate adult.

Karl Abraham (1877-1925), who came to the ideas of Freud by way of Carl Jung, went Freud one better, in a way, by finding six stages in the development of the libido, dividing Freud's anal stage into anal-expulsive and anal-retentive. Being fixated at that stage can result in the behavioral traits noticed by Freud, including rigidity, obsession with rules and meticulousness. Despite the general decline of interest today in psychoanalysis, "anal personality" is a common locution, and means the same as anal-retentive personality, especially emphasizing rules, order and meticulousness. SS

• "Anal retentiveness" ESC 15/June/05
  • "Anal retentiveness" Smokey Stover 15/June/05