infantile sexuality
in psychoanalytic theory, the concept that psychic energy or libido concentrated in various organs of the body throughout infancy gives rise to erotic pleasure. This is manifested in sucking the mother’s breast during the oral stage of psychosexual development, in defecating during the anal stage, and in self-stimulating activities during the early genital stage. The term and concept, first enunciated by Sigmund Freud, proved highly controversial from the start, and it is more in line with subsequent thought to emphasize the sensual nature of breast-feeding, defecation, and discovery of the body in childhood and the role of the pleasurable feelings so obtained in the origin and development of sexual feelings.