ORAL PHASE: According to Freud, the earliest phase in a child's psychosexual development, during which time the mouth and lips take on an erotic charge (roughly 0-2 years of age). The first sexual object, according to Freudian psychoanalysis, is the mother's breast, followed by the mother herself. In dealing with the loss of the breast, the young child of the oral phase naturally turns, for exaample, to thumb-sucking in order to compensate for the loss of gratification. See Freud Module I on psychosexual development.