anal stage

1. According to psychoanalysis, the second social and sexual stage of an infant's development (after the oral stage), in which the infant learns to control bowel movements. Freudian psychology maintains that children gain pleasure from both passing and withholding their feces. Psychoanalysts believe that development of an anal personality is associated with frustration over toilet training. (See also genital stage and pleasure principle.)

Example Sentences

Some, in fact, claimed he was in the anal stage of his development and that his taste was all in his mouth.

From Project Gutenberg