ANAL STAGE

in Freudian psychoanalytic theory, the period in a child's psychosexual development during which the child's main concerns are with the processes of defecation. The anal stage, generally the second and third years of life, is held to be significant for the child's later development because his responses to parental demands for bowel control may have far-reaching effects on his personality. Should a person become fixated, or locked, in the anal stage, he may develop what has been termed an anal characterorderly, frugal, and obstinate.