Definition of pregenital in English:
pregenital
adjective priːˈdʒɛnɪt(ə)lprēˈjenədl
1Psychoanalysis
Relating to psychosexual development before the genital phase.
Example sentencesExamples
- Gay quotes Schur's comment to Jones about Freud. ‘Altogether there are many evidences of complicated pregenital relationships with mother which perhaps he never analysed’.
- In summarizing various findings, Robert Dickes states that most pregenital research stands in direct opposition to Freud, i.e., that ‘the fetish represents more than the female phallus’.
- Chasseguet-Smirgel discusses the idealization of pregenital sexuality as a hallmark of the perversions.
- Such a shift upsets the view taken by analysts where the notion of linear development is the norm and other sexual identities are viewed as regression to, or a fixation at a pregenital level of functioning.
2Zoology
Situated in front of the genital region.