The oral stage begins at birth to about 18 months. This is sucking, eating, and things touching the mouth and lips. The anal stage is 18 months to about three and a half years-old. This is the bowl movements of the child. Freud said that at this stage, sexual pleasure came from the anus (Neill, 2004). .

             The next stage is phallic. The phallic stage is from three and a half years-old to about six-years-old. This is the stage of the penis. Children play with their genitals often at this stage. Boys wonder why girls do not have a penis, and girls wonder why boys do. Latency is from about six-years-old to puberty. This is the period of calm. There is no psycho-sexual conflict and the sexual and aggressive drives are much less active. The final stage is the genital stage. The genital stage is post puberty to death. This focus is on the genitals. It means reproduction, intelligence, and creativity. Someone who has reached the genital stage has no problems. They did not get fixated on any other stage. According to Freud, they are psychologically well adjusted. (Haggerty). .

             One of the strengths of the psychodynamic theory is that it provided a valuable insight .

             into how early experiences or relationships can affect our adult personality. One of the examples of this is that fixations can be caused at the Oral Stage of psychosexual development such as being separated from the primary caregiver too early or having feeding difficulties. These fixations can then lead to psychological problems centered on eating or drinking. Supporting evidence for this was carried out using Rorschach inkblots to compare the oral fixations of smokers versus that of non-smokers. It was found that smokers emerged as being significantly more oral (Neill, 2004). As Freud would say, smokers are people who are fixated on the oral stage.

             Psychodynamic theory has had an important influence on group work practice. Freud sets forth his theoretical formulations about groups and their influence on human behavior in his work Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego.