Latency Period (Noun)
Meaning
(psychoanalysis) the fourth period (from about age 5 or 6 until puberty) during which sexual interests are supposed to be sublimated into other activities.
Classification
Nouns denoting time and temporal relations.
Examples
- Children often engage in non-competitive, imaginative play during the latency period as their primary method of social interaction and development.
- The latency period begins when a child redirects their sexual energy into more productive activities like sports or art.
- According to psychoanalytic theory, the latency period serves as an essential break from the Oedipal desires experienced during an earlier stage of development.
- Freudian psychoanalysts argue that the latency period typically begins around the age of five and may extend until the onset of puberty.
- During the latency period, an individual is often more interested in the immediate object of their surroundings rather than objects of opposite-sex affection.