Quote:
Originally Posted by joepole
Since I grew up about three decades after anyone that went to college stopped using expressions like "anal retentive" it never really was much of an issue.
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Common usage
Conversationally, the term is often used to describe a person deemed to be overly obsessed with minor details. Its roots are said to be from Sigmund Freud.
The term is often used in a derogatory sense to describe
a person with such attention to detail that the obsession becomes an annoyance to others, and can be carried out to the detriment of the so-called anal-retentive person.
Origins
In the psychology of Freud, the anal stage is said to follow the oral stage of infant/early-childhood development. This is a time when an infant's attention moves from oral stimulation to anal stimulation (including the bowels and bladder), usually synchronous with learning to control their excretory functions, a time of toilet training. Freud theorized that children who experience conflicts during this period of time may develop "anal" personality traits, namely those associated with a child's efforts at excretory control: orderliness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control. Those whose anal characteristics continue into later life are said to be "anal retentive" personality types.
Oh but it most definitly
is an issue, Joe. Ya say the term is antiquated? Well even if they
are an old pair o' shoes, they still fit...and you're wearin em!