Freud recognised the importance of suckling and weaning in the formation of the psyche, an area of psychoanalysis which later received particular development by Melanie Klein. In the Oral Stage the child.s relationship to the not-I is structured by the sensuous pleasure experienced in the mouth by suckling and the processes of ingestion and incorporation. This pleasure usually centres the growing love-relationship with the mother and is primordial to all later love-relations but it is not without its conflicts, notably the question of presence and absence, the experience of being full then howlingly empty, and, later, around teething and weaning, confused fantasies about eating the mother.s body and fears of being eaten by her. The experience of weaning is indeed now thought to be…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Oral Phase". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1607, accessed 23 November 2024.]
