According to Freud, human development proceeds through various psychosexual

stages. In each, a particular area of the body becomes an erogenous zone, the
focus of libidinal energy during that particular period. Sexuality was conceived as
an instinctual force that naturally seeks discharge. For most people, progress
through the psychosexual stages is largely unremarkable. Some individuals,
however, experience either excessive frustration or excessive indulgence,
resulting in the fixation of sexual energy on the concerns of a particular stage,
thus coloring the total personality. During the oral stage, for example, sexual
energy is focused on the mouth. Excessive gratification of oral needs was believed
to lead to the development of an oral character, the psychodynamic equivalent of
the contemporary dependent personality.