introduced here by Freud is that the mind possesses a number of defence mechanisms, in case a compromise is not reached. These defence mechanisms include, repression (pushing conflicts back into the unconscious), reaction formation (acting the opposite way from the way the person feels), projection (attributing the persons unacceptable impulse to others), regression (returning to an earlier form of behaviour), and fixation (remaining at the present level). The most important of these is repression, and Freud's account of this is as follows: when a person experiences an instinctual impulse to behave in a manner which the superego thinks is unacceptable, (for instance a strong sexual feeling towards the parent of the opposite sex), it is then possible for the mind to push it away, to repress it into the unconscious; and so repression is one of the central defence mechanisms by which the ego seeks to avoid internal conflict and pain, and to reconcile reality with the demands of both id and superego.
             Freud also advanced a theory of personality development that was based on the effects of the sexual pleasure drive on the individual. At certain points in the developmental process, a single body part is very sensitive to sexual, erotic stimulation, he claimed. These zones were these are the mouth (oral), the anus (anal), and the genital region; the child's libido centres on certain behaviour which will affect the zone whatever it may be at the time. The child cannot focus on the zone of the next stage without resolving the conflict of the one he is in now. At any given stage in the child's life he or she has certain needs and demands, such as the need of the infant to nurse; if these needs are not met the child will get frustrated. But if the child's needs are more than met, then the child may be reluctant to move onto the next stage. Both of these will lock some amount of the child's libido permanently into the stag...