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The purpose of this article is to suggest a comprehensive dynamic framework for the conceptualization of psychosexual development within the context of drive theory, without resorting to somatic and physiological factors for the dynamics of interstage transition. Several perspectives are considered that conform to the requirement of embedding psychosexual transition within a continuous rather than concatenated process. Object relations modes, such as sadism, are explored as alternatives for the bridging of orality and anality, as is the hypothesis that defense mechanisms affect interstage transition. These are suggested as possible constructs in elucidating development within unitary contexts.
The major system proposed here is equilibration, a system which involves periodic pendulum swings from positive to negative cathexes. Equilibration is explored in detail, spanning development from birth through the other stages, including the analytically neglected latency phase. In exploring implications of this theory, various other problems are tackled. Some of those are the dynamic differences between the phallic and genital modes, sex differences in oedipal resolution, and the elucidation of eros. Castration is shown to be a multifaceted construct, with important differential implications for individual development. Breast development for women is posited as an integral facet of genitality, especially crucial in enabling resolution of the oedipal conflict and in allaying castration anxiety. Equilibration is presented as an holistic system, which is psychological and analytic rather than physiological in its dynamics — an elaboration of psychosexual development where the stress is primarily on psyche.
The metapsychological premise is that negative and positive cathexes