what is the condition of arrested development, or development fixation?

Question

and how would a person know if they have that, and not a form of mental retardation?

Answer 1

Developmental fixation is different than mental retardation because the person who is in arrested development can progress beyond the fixation, given enough motivation and or attention to the difficulty.

Also, developmental fixations often have emotionaly and/or psychological reinforcements hidden within them that prevent the person from progressing. Mental retardation is primarily a physical deformation of the brain, of which no amount of cognitive assessment can touch.

In other words, if a person is developmentally fixated on thinking of their 'privates' as something to 'pee' with, it is usually the result of a strong psychological/emotional 'barrier' created during the period which prevented the person from progressing beyond such an idea. With a fair amount of professional therapy, a person can learn to 'grow' beyond that.

However, in retardation, no amount of psychological assessment can alter the physical wiring of the brain to adapt to the new 'idea'. Since the brain is incapable of adapting physically, the emotional adaptation remains as it was at the time of the greatest development.