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The term ‘regression’ has been used by Freud and other writers in various senses.
In the sense which we shall discuss it in this paper, Freud refers to the backward movement of the libido, retracing to a certain point its former path of development, a process which occurs in characteristic forms in particular types of mental illness. This concept of the regression of the libido is intimately bound up with his conclusions as to the forward course of the development of the libido and its ‘fixation points’, conclusions which are complementary to the notion of regression and were formulated pari passu with it.
As we know, Freud discovered that the sexual instinct as met with in the adult is a complex set of component impulses and feelings, involving various membranes and organs of the body and having a complicated developmental history from the earliest days of infancy. Sexuality passes through various phases (oral, anal, and genital), in each of which one of the chief erogenous zones is predominant in aim. The earlier phases do not pass away altogether, they become more or less subordinated to the later aims. In the normal person, the libidinal life as a whole is eventually integrated under the primacy of the genital organ and its aims and satisfactions.
The order and essential character of this development of the libido is biologically determined, and springs from organic sources. It is not inherently dependent upon circumstance or experience. Yet it is