II: THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY
It is a part of popular belief about the sexual impulse that it is
absent in childhood and that it first appears in the period of life
known as puberty. This, though a common error, is serious in its
consequences and is chiefly due to our present ignorance of the
fundamental principles of the sexual life. A comprehensive study of the
sexual manifestations of childhood would probably reveal to us the
existence of the essential features of the sexual impulse, and would
make us acquainted with its development and its composition from various
sources.
The Neglect of the Infantile.—It is remarkable that those writers who
endeavor to explain the qualities and reactions of the adult individual
have given so much more attention to the ancestral period than to the
period of the individual's own existence—that is, they have attributed
more influence to heredity than to childhood. As a matter of fact, it
might well be supposed that the influence of the latter period would be
easier to understand, and that it would be entitled to more
consideration than heredity.[1] To be sure, one
occasionally finds in medical literature notes on the premature sexual
activities of small children, about erections and masturbation and even
actions resembling coitus, but these are referred to merely as
exceptional occurrences, as curiosities, or as deterring examples of
premature perversity. No author has to my knowledge recognized the
normality of the sexual impulse in childhood, and in the numerous
writings on the development of the child the chapter on
"Sexual Development" is usually passed over.[2]
Infantile Amnesia.—This remarkable negligence is due partly to
conventional considerations, which influence the writers on account of
their own bringing up, and partly to a psychic phenomenon which has thus
far remained unexplained. I refer to the peculiar
amnesia which veils from most people (not from all!) the first years of
their childhood, usually the first six or eight years. So far it has not
occurred to us that this amnesia ought to surprise us, though we have
good reasons for surprise. For we are informed that in those years from
which we later obtain nothing except a few incomprehensible memory
fragments, we have vividly reacted to impressions, that we have
manifested pain and pleasure like any human being, that we have evinced
love, jealousy, and other passions as they then affected us; indeed we
are told that we have uttered remarks which proved to grown-ups that we
possessed understanding and a budding power of judgment. Still we know
nothing of all this when we become older. Why does our memory lag behind
all our other psychic activities? We really have reason to believe that
at no time of life are we more capable of impressions and reproductions
than during the years of childhood.[3]
On the other hand we must assume, or we may convince ourselves through
psychological observations on others, that the very impressions which we
have forgotten have nevertheless left the deepest traces in our psychic
life, and acted as determinants for our whole future development. We
conclude therefore that we do not deal with a real forgetting of
infantile impressions but rather with an amnesia similar to that
observed in neurotics for later experiences, the nature of which
consists in their being detained from consciousness (repression). But
what forces bring about this repression of the infantile impressions? He
who can solve this riddle will also explain hysterical amnesia.
We shall not, however, hesitate to assert that the existence of the
infantile amnesia gives us a new point of comparison between the psychic
states of the child and those of the psychoneurotic. We
have already encountered another point of comparison when confronted by
the fact that the sexuality of the psychoneurotic preserves the
infantile character or has returned to it. May there not be an ultimate
connection between the infantile and the hysterical amnesias?
The connection between the infantile and the hysterical amnesias is
really more than a mere play of wit. The hysterical amnesia which serves
the repression can only be explained by the fact that the individual
already possesses a sum of recollections which have been withdrawn from
conscious disposal and which by associative connection now seize that
which is acted upon by the repelling forces of the repression emanating
from consciousness.[4] We may say that without
infantile amnesia there would be no hysterical amnesia.
I believe that the infantile amnesia which causes the individual to look
upon his childhood as if it were a prehistoric time and conceals from
him the beginning of his own sexual life—that this amnesia is
responsible for the fact that one does not usually attribute any value
to the infantile period in the development of the sexual life. One
single observer cannot fill the gap which has been thus produced in our
knowledge. As early as 1896 I had already emphasized the significance of
childhood for the origin of certain important phenomena connected with
the sexual life, and since then I have not ceased to put into the
foreground the importance of the infantile factor for sexuality.
THE SEXUAL LATENCY PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD AND ITS INTERRUPTIONS
The extraordinary frequent discoveries of apparently abnormal and
exceptional sexual manifestations in childhood, as well as the discovery of infantile reminiscences in neurotics,
which were hitherto unconscious, allow us to sketch the following
picture of the sexual behavior of childhood.[5]
It seems certain that the newborn child brings with it the germs of
sexual feelings which continue to develop for some time and then succumb
to a progressive suppression, which is in turn broken through by the
proper advances of the sexual development and which can be checked by
individual idiosyncrasies. Nothing is known concerning the laws and
periodicity of this oscillating course of development. It seems,
however, that the sexual life of the child mostly manifests itself in
the third or fourth year in some form accessible to observation.[6]
The Sexual Inhibition.—It is during this period of total or at least
partial latency that the psychic forces develop which later act as
inhibitions on the sexual life, and narrow its direction like dams.
These psychic forces are loathing, shame, and moral and esthetic ideal
demands. We may gain the impression that the erection of these dams in
the civilized child is the work of education; and surely education
contributes much to it. In reality, however, this development is
organically determined and can occasionally be produced without the help
of education. Indeed education remains properly within its assigned
realm only if it strictly follows the path of the organic determinant
and impresses it somewhat cleaner and deeper.
Reaction Formation and Sublimation.—What are the means that accomplish these very important constructions so
significant for the later personal culture and normality? They are
probably brought about at the cost of the infantile sexuality itself,
the influx of which has not stopped even in this latency
period—the energy of which indeed has been turned away either
wholly or partially from sexual utilization and conducted to other aims.
The historians of civilization seem to be unanimous in the opinion that
such deviation of sexual motive powers from sexual aims to new aims, a
process which merits the name of sublimation, has furnished powerful
components for all cultural accomplishments. We will therefore add that
the same process acts in the development of every individual, and that
it begins to act in the sexual latency period.[7]
We can also venture an opinion about the mechanisms of such sublimation.
The sexual feelings of these infantile years on the one hand could not
be utilizable, since the procreating functions are postponed,—this is
the chief character of the latency period; on the other hand, they would
in themselves be perverse, as they would emanate from erogenous zones
and would be born of impulses which in the individual's course of
development could only evoke a feeling of displeasure. They therefore
awaken contrary forces (feelings of reaction), which in order to
suppress such displeasure, build up the above mentioned psychic dams:
loathing, shame, and morality.[8]
The Interruptions of the Latency Period.—Without deluding
ourselves as to the hypothetical nature and deficient clearness of our
understanding regarding the infantile period of latency and delay, we
will return to reality and state that such a utilization of the infantile sexuality represents an ideal bringing
up from which the development of the individual usually deviates in some
measure and often very considerably. A portion of the sexual
manifestation which has withdrawn from sublimation occasionally breaks
through, or a sexual activity remains throughout the whole duration of
the latency period until the reinforced breaking through of the sexual
impulse in puberty. In so far as they have paid any attention to
infantile sexuality the educators behave as if they shared our views
concerning the formation of the moral forces of defence at the cost of
sexuality, and as if they knew that sexual activity makes the child
uneducable; for the educators consider all sexual manifestations of the
child as an "evil" in the face of which little can be accomplished. We
have, however, every reason for directing our attention to those
phenomena so much feared by the educators, for we expect to find in them
the solution of the primitive formation of the sexual impulse.
THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY
For reasons which we shall discuss later we will take as a model of the
infantile sexual manifestations thumbsucking (pleasure-sucking), to
which the Hungarian pediatrist, Lindner, has devoted an excellent
essay.[9]
Thumbsucking.—Thumbsucking, which manifests itself in the nursing
baby and which may be continued till maturity or throughout life,
consists in a rhythmic repetition of sucking contact with the mouth (the
lips), wherein the purpose of taking nourishment is excluded. A part of
the lip itself, the tongue, which is another preferable skin region
within reach, and even the big toe—may be taken as objects for sucking.
Simultaneously, there is also a desire to grasp things, which manifests
itself in a rhythmical pulling of the ear lobe and which may cause the
child to grasp a part of another person (generally the ear) for the same
purpose. The pleasure-sucking is connected with an
entire exhaustion of attention and leads to sleep or even to a motor
reaction in the form of an orgasm.[10]
Pleasure-sucking is often combined with a rubbing contact with certain
sensitive parts of the body, such as the breast and external genitals.
It is by this road that many children go from thumb-sucking to
masturbation.
Lindner himself has recognized the sexual nature of this action and
openly emphasized it. In the nursery thumbsucking is often treated in
the same way as any other sexual "naughtiness" of the child. A very
strong objection was raised against this view by many pediatrists and
neurologists which in part is certainly due to the confusion of the
terms "sexual" and "genital." This contradiction raises the difficult
question, which cannot be rejected, namely, in what general traits do we
wish to recognize the sexual manifestations of the child. I believe that
the association of the manifestations into which we gained an insight
through psychoanalytic investigation justify us in claiming thumbsucking
as a sexual activity and in studying through it the essential features
of the infantile sexual activity.
Autoerotism.—It is our duty here to arrange this state of affairs
differently. Let us insist that the most striking character of this
sexual activity is that the impulse is not directed against other
persons but that it gratifies itself on its own body; to use the happy
term invented by Havelock Ellis, we will say that it is autoerotic.[11]
It is, moreover, clear that the action of the thumbsucking child is
determined by the fact that it seeks a pleasure which has already been
experienced and is now remembered. Through the rhythmic sucking on a portion of the skin or mucous membrane it
finds the gratification in the simplest way. It is also easy to
conjecture on what occasions the child first experienced this pleasure
which it now strives to renew. The first and most important activity in
the child's life, the sucking from the mother's breast (or its
substitute), must have acquainted it with this pleasure. We would say
that the child's lips behaved like an erogenous zone, and that the
excitement through the warm stream of milk was really the cause of the
pleasurable sensation. To be sure, the gratification of the erogenous
zone was at first united with the gratification of taking nourishment.
He who sees a satiated child sink back from the mother's breast, and
fall asleep with reddened cheeks and blissful smile, will have to admit
that this picture remains as typical of the expression of sexual
gratification in later life. But the desire for repetition of the sexual
gratification is separated from the desire for taking nourishment; a
separation which becomes unavoidable with the appearance of the teeth
when the nourishment is no longer sucked in but chewed. The child does
not make use of a strange object for sucking but prefers its own skin
because it is more convenient, because it thus makes itself independent
of the outer world which it cannot yet control, and because in this way
it creates for itself, as it were, a second, even if an inferior,
erogenous zone. The inferiority of this second region urges it later to
seek the same parts, the lips of another person. ("It is a pity that I
cannot kiss myself," might be attributed to it.)
Not all children suck their thumbs. It may be assumed that it is found
only in children in whom the erogenous significance of the lip-zone is
constitutionally reënforced. Children in whom this is retained are
habitual kissers as adults and show a tendency to perverse kissing, or
as men they have a marked desire for drinking and smoking. But if
repression comes into play they experience disgust for eating and evince
hysterical vomiting. By virtue of the community of the
lip-zone the repression encroaches upon the impulse of nourishment. Many
of my female patients showing disturbances in eating, such as hysterical
globus, choking sensations, and vomiting, have been energetic
thumbsuckers during infancy.
In the thumbsucking or pleasure-sucking we have already been able to
observe the three essential characters of an infantile sexual
manifestation. The latter has its origin in conjunction with a bodily
function which is very important for life, it does not yet know any
sexual object, it is autoerotic and its sexual aim is under the
control of an erogenous zone. Let us assume for the present that these
characters also hold true for most of the other activities of the
infantile sexual impulse.
THE SEXUAL AIM OF THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY
The Characters of the Erogenous Zones.—From the example of
thumbsucking we may gather a great many points useful for the
distinguishing of an erogenous zone. It is a portion of skin or mucous
membrane in which the stimuli produce a feeling of pleasure of definite
quality. There is no doubt that the pleasure-producing stimuli are
governed by special determinants which we do not know. The rhythmic
characters must play some part in them and this strongly suggests an
analogy to tickling. It does not, however, appear so certain whether the
character of the pleasurable feeling evoked by the stimulus can be
designated as "peculiar," and in what part of this peculiarity the
sexual factor exists. Psychology is still groping in the dark when it
concerns matters of pleasure and pain, and the most cautious assumption
is therefore the most advisable. We may perhaps later come upon reasons
which seem to support the peculiar quality of the sensation of pleasure.
The erogenous quality may adhere most notably to definite regions of the
body. As is shown by the example of thumbsucking,
there are predestined erogenous zones. But the same example also shows
that any other region of skin or mucous membrane may assume the function
of an erogenous zone; it must therefore carry along a certain
adaptability. The production of the sensation of pleasure therefore
depends more on the quality of the stimulus than on the nature of the
bodily region. The thumbsucking child looks around on his body and
selects any portion of it for pleasure-sucking, and becoming accustomed
to it, he then prefers it. If he accidentally strikes upon a predestined
region, such as breast, nipple or genitals, it naturally has the
preference. A quite analogous tendency to displacement is again found in
the symptomatology of hysteria. In this neurosis the repression mostly
concerns the genital zones proper; these in turn transmit their
excitation to the other erogenous zones, usually dormant in mature life,
which then behave exactly like genitals. But besides this, just as in
thumbsucking, any other region of the body may become endowed with the
excitation of the genitals and raised to an erogenous zone. Erogenous
and hysterogenous zones show the same characters.[12]
The Infantile Sexual Aim.—The sexual aim of the infantile impulse
consists in the production of gratification through the proper
excitation of this or that selected erogenous zone. In order to leave a
desire for its repetition this gratification must have been previously
experienced, and we may be sure that nature has devised definite means
so as not to leave this occurrence to mere chance. The arrangement which
has fulfilled this purpose for the lip-zone we have already discussed;
it is the simultaneous connection of this part of the body with the
taking of nourishment. We shall also meet other similar mechanisms as
sources of sexuality. The state of desire for repetition of
gratification can be recognized through a peculiar feeling of tension
which in itself is rather of a painful character, and through a centrally-determined feeling of itching or sensitiveness
which is projected into the peripheral erogenous zone. The sexual aim
may therefore be formulated as follows: the chief object is to
substitute for the projected feeling of sensitiveness in the erogenous
zone that outer stimulus which removes the feeling of sensitiveness by
evoking the feeling of gratification. This external stimulus consists
usually in a manipulation which is analogous to sucking.
It is in full accord with our physiological knowledge if the desire
happens to be awakened also peripherally through an actual change in the
erogenous zone. The action is puzzling only to some extent as one
stimulus for its suppression seems to want another applied to the same
place.
THE MASTURBATIC SEXUAL MANIFESTATIONS[13]
It is a matter of great satisfaction to know that there is nothing
further of greater importance to learn about the sexual activity of the
child after the impulse of one erogenous zone has become comprehensible
to us. The most pronounced differences are found in the action necessary
for the gratification, which consists in sucking for the lip zone and
which must be replaced by other muscular actions according to the
situation and nature of the other zones.
The Activity of the Anal Zone.—Like the lip zone the anal zone is,
through its position, adapted to conduct the sexuality to the other
functions of the body. It should be assumed that the erogenous
significance of this region of the body was originally very large.
Through psychoanalysis one finds, not without surprise, the many
transformations that are normally undertaken with the usual excitations
emanating from here, and that this zone often retains for life a
considerable fragment of genital irritability.[14] The intestinal catarrhs so frequent during
infancy produce intensive irritations in this zone, and we often hear it
said that intestinal catarrh at this delicate age causes "nervousness."
In later neurotic diseases they exert a definite influence on the
symptomatic expression of the neurosis, placing at its disposal the
whole sum of intestinal disturbances. Considering the erogenous
significance of the anal zone which has been retained at least in
transformation, one should not laugh at the hemorrhoidal influences to
which the old medical literature attached so much weight in the
explanation of neurotic states.
Children utilizing the erogenous sensitiveness of the anal zone can be
recognized by their holding back of fecal masses until through
accumulation there result violent muscular contractions; the passage of
these masses through the anus is apt to produce a marked irritation of
the mucus membrane. Besides the pain this must produce also a sensation
of pleasure. One of the surest premonitions of later eccentricity or
nervousness is when an infant obstinately refuses to empty his bowel
when placed on the chamber by the nurse and reserves this function at
its own pleasure. It does not concern him that he will soil his bed; all
he cares for is not to lose the subsidiary pleasure while defecating.
The educators have again the right inkling when they designate children
who withhold these functions as bad. The content of the bowel which is
an exciting object to the sexually sensitive surface of mucous membrane
behaves like the precursor of another organ which does not become active
until after the phase of childhood. In addition it has other important
meanings to the nursling. It is evidently treated as an additional part
of the body, it represents the first "donation," the disposal of which
expresses the pliability while the retention of it can express the spite of the little being towards its environment. From the
idea of "donation" he later gains the meaning of the "babe" which
according to one of the infantile sexual theories is acquired through
eating and is born through the bowel.
The retention of fecal masses, which is at first intentional in order to
utilize them, as it were, for masturbatic excitation of the anal zone,
is at least one of the roots of constipation so frequent in neuropaths.
The whole significance of the anal zone is mirrored in the fact that
there are but few neurotics who have not their special scatologic
customs, ceremonies, etc., which they retain with cautious secrecy.
Real masturbatic irritation of the anal zone by means of the fingers,
evoked through either centrally or peripherally supported itching, is
not at all rare in older children.
The Activity of the Genital Zone.—Among the erogenous zones of the
child's body there is one which certainly does not play the main rôle,
and which cannot be the carrier of earliest sexual feeling—which,
however, is destined for great things in later life. In both male and
female it is connected with the voiding of urine (penis, clitoris), and
in the former it is enclosed in a sack of mucous membrane, probably in
order not to miss the irritations caused by the secretions which may
arouse the sexual excitement at an early age. The sexual activities of
this erogenous zone, which belongs to the real genitals, are the
beginning of the later normal sexual life.
Owing to the anatomical position, the overflowing of secretions, the
washing and rubbing of the body, and to certain accidental excitements
(the wandering of intestinal worms in the girl), it happens that the
pleasurable feeling which these parts of the body are capable of
producing makes itself noticeable to the child even during the sucking
age, and thus awakens desire for its repetition. When we review all the
actual arrangements, and bear in mind that the measures for cleanliness
have the same effect as the uncleanliness itself, we can
then scarcely mistake nature's intention, which is to establish the
future primacy of these erogenous zones for the sexual activity through
the infantile onanism from which hardly an individual escapes. The
action of removing the stimulus and setting free the gratification
consists in a rubbing contiguity with the hand or in a certain
previously-formed pressure reflex effected by the closure of the thighs.
The latter procedure seems to be the more primitive and is by far the
more common in girls. The preference for the hand in boys already
indicates what an important part of the male sexual activity will be
accomplished in the future by the impulse to mastery
(Bemächtigungstrieb).[15] It can only help towards
clearness if I state that the infantile masturbation should be divided
into three phases. The first phase belongs to the nursing period, the
second to the short flourishing period of sexual activity at about the
fourth year, only the third corresponds to the one which is often
considered exclusively as onanism of puberty.
The infantile onanism seems to disappear after a brief time, but it
may continue uninterruptedly till puberty and thus represent the first
marked deviation from the development desirable for civilized man. At
some time during childhood after the nursing period, the sexual impulse
of the genitals reawakens and continues active for some time until it is
again suppressed, or it may continue without interruption. The possible
relations are very diverse and can only be elucidated through a more
precise analysis of individual cases. The details, however, of this
second infantile sexual activity leave behind the profoundest
(unconscious) impressions in the persons's memory; if the individual
remains healthy they determine his character and if he becomes sick
after puberty they determine the symptomatology of his neurosis.[16] In the latter case
it is found that this sexual period is forgotten and the conscious
reminiscences pointing to them are displaced; I have already mentioned
that I would like to connect the normal infantile amnesia with this
infantile sexual activity. By psychoanalytic investigation it is
possible to bring to consciousness the forgotten material, and thereby
to remove a compulsion which emanates from the unconscious psychic
material.
The Return of the Infantile Masturbation.—The sexual excitation of
the nursing period returns during the designated years of childhood as a
centrally determined tickling sensation demanding onanistic
gratification, or as a pollution-like process which, analogous to the
pollution of maturity, may attain gratification without the aid of any
action. The latter case is more frequent in girls and in the second half
of childhood; its determinants are not well understood, but it often,
though not regularly, seems to have as a basis a period of early active
onanism. The symptomatology of this sexual manifestation is poor; the
genital apparatus is still undeveloped and all signs are therefore
displayed by the urinary apparatus which is, so to say, the guardian of
the genital apparatus. Most of the so-called bladder disturbances of
this period are of a sexual nature; whenever the enuresis nocturna does
not represent an epileptic attack it corresponds to a pollution.
The return of the sexual activity is determined by inner and outer
causes which can be conjectured from the formation of the symptoms of
neurotic diseases and definitely revealed by psychoanalytic
investigations. The internal causes will be discussed later, the
accidental outer causes attain at this time a great and permanent
significance. As the first outer cause we have the influence of
seduction which prematurely treats the child as a sexual
object; under conditions favoring impressions this teaches the child the
gratification of the genital zones, and thus usually forces it to repeat
this gratification in onanism. Such influences can come from adults or
other children. I cannot admit that I overestimated its frequency or its
significance in my contributions to the etiology of hysteria,[17] though I did not know then that normal
individuals may have the same experiences in their childhood, and hence
placed a higher value on seductions than on the factors found in the
sexual constitution and development.[18] It is
quite obvious that no seduction is necessary to awaken the sexual life
of the child, that such an awakening may come on spontaneously from
inner sources.
Polymorphous-perverse Disposition.—It is instructive to know that
under the influence of seduction the child may become
polymorphous-perverse and may be misled into all sorts of
transgressions. This goes to show that it carries along the adaptation
for them in its disposition. The formation of such perversions meets but
slight resistance because the psychic dams against sexual
transgressions, such as shame, loathing and morality—which depend on
the age of the child—are not yet erected or are only in the process of
formation. In this respect the child perhaps does not behave differently
from the average uncultured woman in whom the same polymorphous-perverse
disposition exists. Such a woman may remain sexually normal under usual
conditions, but under the guidance of a clever seducer
she will find pleasure in every perversion and will retain the same as
her sexual activity. The same polymorphous or infantile disposition fits
the prostitute for her professional activity, and in the enormous number
of prostitutes and of women to whom we must attribute an adaptation for
prostitution, even if they do not follow this calling, it is absolutely
impossible not to recognize in their uniform disposition for all
perversions the universal and primitive human.
Partial Impulses.—For the rest, the influence of seduction does not
aid us in unravelling the original relations of the sexual impulse, but
rather confuses our understanding of the same, inasmuch as it
prematurely supplies the child with the sexual object at a time when the
infantile sexual impulse does not yet evince any desire for it. We must
admit, however, that the infantile sexual life, though mainly under the
control of erogenous zones, also shows components in which from the very
beginning other persons are regarded as sexual objects. Among these we
have the impulses for looking and showing off, and for cruelty, which
manifest themselves somewhat independently of the erogenous zones and
which only later enter into intimate relationship with the sexual life;
but along with the erogenous sexual activity they are noticeable even in
the infantile years as separate and independent strivings. The little
child is above all shameless, and during its early years it evinces
definite pleasure in displaying its body and especially its sexual
organs. A counterpart to this desire which is to be considered as
perverse, the curiosity to see other persons' genitals, probably appears
first in the later years of childhood when the hindrance of the feeling
of shame has already reached a certain development. Under the influence
of seduction the looking perversion may attain great importance for the
sexual life of the child. Still, from my investigations of the childhood
years of normal and neurotic patients, I must conclude that the impulse
for looking can appear in the child as a spontaneous
sexual manifestation. Small children, whose attention has once been
directed to their own genitals—usually by masturbation—are wont to
progress in this direction without outside interference, and to develop
a vivid interest in the genitals of their playmates. As the occasion for
the gratification of such curiosity is generally afforded during the
gratification of both excrementitious needs, such children become
voyeurs and are zealous spectators at the voiding of urine and feces
of others, After this tendency has been repressed, the curiosity to see
the genitals of others (one's own or those of the other sex) remains as
a tormenting desire which in some neurotic cases furnishes the strongest
motive power for the formation of symptoms.
The cruelty component of the sexual impulse develops in the child with
still greater independence of those sexual activities which are
connected with erogenous zones. Cruelty is especially near the childish
character, since the inhibition which restrains the impulse to mastery
before it causes pain to others—that is, the capacity for
sympathy—develops comparatively late. As we know, a thorough
psychological analysis of this impulse has not as yet been successfully
accomplished; we may assume that the cruel feelings emanate from the
impulse to mastery and appear at a period in the sexual life before the
genitals have taken on their later rôle. It then dominates a phase of
the sexual life, which we shall later describe as the pregenital
organization. Children who are distinguished for evincing especial
cruelty to animals and playmates may be justly suspected of intensive
and premature sexual activity in the erogenous zones; and in a
simultaneous prematurity of all sexual impulses, the erogenous sexual
activity surely seems to be primary. The absence of the barrier of
sympathy carries with it the danger that the connections between cruelty
and the erogenous impulses formed in childhood cannot be broken in later
life.
An erogenous source of the passive impulse for cruelty (masochism) is found in the painful irritation of the
gluteal region which is familiar to all educators since the confessions
of J.J. Rousseau. This has justly caused them to demand that physical
punishment, which usually concerns this part of the body, should be
withheld from all children in whom the libido might be forced into
collateral roads by the later demands of cultural education.[19]
THE INFANTILE SEXUAL INVESTIGATION
Inquisitiveness.—At the same time when the sexual life of the child
reaches its first bloom, from the age of three to the age of five, it
also evinces the beginning of that activity which is ascribed to the
impulse for knowledge and investigation. The desire for knowledge can
neither be added to the elementary components of the impulses nor can it
be altogether subordinated under sexuality. Its activity corresponds on
the one hand to a sublimating mode of acquisition and on the other hand
it labors with the energy of the desire for looking. Its
relations to the sexual life, however, are of particular importance, for
we have learned from psychoanalysis that the inquisitiveness of children
is attracted to the sexual problems unusually early and in an
unexpectedly intensive manner, indeed it perhaps may first be awakened
by the sexual problems.
The Riddle of the Sphinx.—It is not theoretical but practical
interests which start the work of the investigation activity in the
child. The threat to the conditions of his existence through the actual
or expected arrival of a new child, the fear of the loss in care and
love which is connected with this event, cause the child to become
thoughtful and sagacious. Corresponding with the history of this
awakening, the first problem with which it occupies itself is not the
question as to the difference between the sexes, but the riddle: from
where do children come? In a distorted form, which can easily be
unraveled, this is the same riddle which was given by the Theban Sphinx.
The fact of the two sexes is usually first accepted by the child without
struggle and hesitation. It is quite natural for the male child to
presuppose in all persons it knows a genital like his own, and to find
it impossible to harmonize the lack of it with his conception of others.
The Castration Complex.—This conviction is energetically adhered to
by the boy and tenaciously defended against the contradictions which
soon result, and are only given up after severe internal struggles
(castration complex). The substitutive formations of this lost penis of
the woman play a great part in the formation of many perversions.
The assumption of the same (male) genital in all persons is the first of
the remarkable and consequential infantile sexual theories. It is of
little help to the child when biological science agrees with his
preconceptions and recognizes the feminine clitoris as the real
substitute for the penis. The little girl does not react with similar
refusals when she sees the differently formed genital of
the boy. She is immediately prepared to recognize it, and soon becomes
envious of the penis; this envy reaches its highest point in the
consequentially important wish that she also should be a boy.
Birth Theories.—Many people can remember distinctly how intensely
they interested themselves, in the prepubescent period, in the question
where children came from. The anatomical solutions at that time read
very differently; the children come out of the breast or are cut out of
the body, or the navel opens itself to let them out. Outside of analysis
one only seldom remembers the investigation corresponding to the early
childhood years; it had long merged into repression but its results were
thoroughly uniform. One gets children by eating something special (as in
the fairy tale) and they are born through the bowel like a passage.
These infantile theories recall the structures in the animal kingdom,
especially do they recall the cloaca of the types which stand lower than
the mammals.
Sadistic Conception of the Sexual Act.—If children of so delicate an
age become spectators of the sexual act between grown-ups, for which an
occasion is furnished by the conviction of the grown-ups that little
children cannot understand anything sexual, they cannot help conceiving
the sexual act as a kind of maltreating or overpowering, that is, it
impresses them in a sadistic sense. Psychoanalysis also teaches us that
such an early childhood impression contributes much to the disposition
for a later sadistic displacement of the sexual aim. Besides this
children also occupy themselves with the problem of what the sexual act
consists in or, as they grasp it, of what marriage consists, and seek
the solution of the mystery mostly in an association to which the
functions of urination and defecation give occasion.
The Typical Failure of the Infantile Sexual Investigation.—It
can be stated in general about the infantile sexual theories that they
are reproductions of the child's own sexual constitution, and that despite their grotesque mistakes they evince more
understanding of the sexual processes than is credited to their
creators. Children also perceive the pregnancy of the mother and know
how to interpret it correctly; the stork fable is very often related
before auditors who confront it with a deep, but mostly mute suspicion.
But as two elements remain unknown to the infantile sexual
investigation, namely, the rôle of the propagating semen and the female
genital opening—precisely the same points in which the infantile
organization is still backward—the effort of the infantile
investigator regularly remains fruitless, and ends in a renunciation
which not infrequently leaves a lasting injury to the desire for
knowledge. The sexual investigation of these early childhood years is
always conducted alone, it signifies the first step towards independent
orientation in the world, and causes a marked estrangement between the
child and the persons of his environment who formerly enjoyed its full
confidence.
The Phases of Development of the Sexual Organization.—As
characteristics of the infantile sexuality we have hitherto emphasized
the fact that it is essentially autoerotic (it finds its object in its
own body), and that its individual partial impulses, which on the whole
are unconnected and independent of one another, are striving for the
acquisition of pleasure. The end of this development forms the so-called
normal sexual life of the adult in which the acquisition of pleasure has
been put into the service of the function of propagation, and the
partial impulses, under the primacy of one single erogenous zone, have
formed a firm organization for the attainment of the sexual aim in a
strange sexual object.
Pregenital Organizations.—The study, with the help of psychoanalysis,
of the inhibitions and disturbances in this course of development now
permits us to recognize additions and primary stages of such
organization of the partial impulses which likewise furnish a sort of
sexual regime. These phases of the sexual organization
normally will pass over smoothly and will only be recognizable by slight
indications. Only in pathological cases do they become active and
discernible to coarse observation.
Organizations of the sexual life in which the genital zones have not yet
assumed the dominating rôle we would call the pregenital phase. So far
we have become acquainted with two of them which recall reversions to
early animal states.
One of the first of such pregenital sexual organizations is the oral,
or if we wish, the cannibalistic. Here the sexual activity is not yet
separated from the taking of nourishment, and the contrasts within the
same not yet differentiated. The object of the one activity is also that
of the other, the sexual aim consists in the incorporating into one's
own body of the object, it is the prototype of that which later plays
such an important psychic rôle as identification. As a remnant of this
fictitious phase of organization forced on us by pathology we can
consider thumbsucking. Here the sexual activity became separated from
the nourishment activity and the strange object was given up in favor of
one from his own body.
A second pregenital phase is the sadistic-anal organization. Here the
contrasts which run through the whole sexual life are already developed,
but cannot yet be designated as masculine and feminine, but must be
called active and passive. The activity is supplied by the
musculature of the body through the mastery impulse; the erogenous
mucous membrane of the bowel manifests itself above all as an organ with
a passive sexual aim, for both strivings there are objects present,
which however do not merge together. Besides them there are other
partial impulses which are active in an autoerotic manner. The sexual
polarity and the strange object can thus already be demonstrated in this
phase. The organization and subordination under the function of
propagation are still lacking.
Ambivalence.—This form of the sexual organization could be retained throughout life and continue to draw to itself a
large part of the sexual activity. The prevalence of sadism and the rôle
of the cloaca of the anal zone stamps it with an exquisitely archaic
impression. As another characteristic belonging to it we can mention the
fact that the contrasting pair of impulses are developed in almost the
same manner, a behavior which was designated by Bleuler with the happy
name of ambivalence.
The assumption of the pregenital organizations of the sexual life is
based on the analysis of the neuroses and hardly deserves any
consideration without a knowledge of the same. We may expect that
continued analytic efforts will furnish us with still more disclosures
concerning the structure and development of the normal sexual function.
To complete the picture of the infantile sexual life one must add that
frequently or regularly an object selection takes place even in
childhood which is as characteristic as the one we have represented for
the phase of development of puberty. This object selection proceeds in
such a manner that all the sexual strivings proceed in the direction of
one person in whom they wish to attain their aim. This is then the
nearest approach to the definitive formation of the sexual life after
puberty, that is possible in childhood. It differs from the latter only
in the fact that the collection of the partial impulses and their
subordination to the primacy of the genitals is very imperfectly or not
at all accomplished in childhood. The establishment of this primacy in
the service of propagation is therefore the last phase through which the
sexual organization passes.
The Two Periods of Object Selection.—That the object selection takes
place in two periods, or in two shifts, can be spoken of as a typical
occurrence. The first shift has its origin between the age of three and
five years, and is brought to a stop or to retrogression by the latency
period; it is characterized by the infantile nature of its sexual aims.
The second shift starts with puberty and determines the definitive
formation of the sexual life.
The fact of the double object selection which is
essentially due to the effect of the latency period, becomes most
significant for the disturbance of this terminal state. The results of
the infantile object selection reach into the later period; they are
either preserved as such or are even refreshed at the time of puberty.
But due to the development of the repression which takes place between
the two phases they turn out as unutilizable. The sexual aims have
become softened and now represent what we can designate as the tender
streams of the sexual life. Only psychoanalytic investigation can
demonstrate that behind this tenderness, such as honoring and esteeming,
there is concealed the old sexual strivings of the infantile partial
impulses which have now become useless. The object selection of the
pubescent period must renounce the infantile objects and begin anew as a
sensuous stream. The fact that the two streams do not meet often enough
has as a result that one of the ideals of the sexual life, namely, the
union of all desires in one object, can not be attained.
THE SOURCES OF THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY
In our effort to follow up the origins of the sexual impulse, we have
thus far found that the sexual excitement originates (a) as an imitation
of a gratification which has been experienced in conjunction with other
organic processes; (b) through the appropriate peripheral stimulation of
erogenous zones; (c) and as an expression of some "impulse," like the
looking and cruelty impulses, the origin of which we do not yet fully
understand. The psychoanalytic investigation of later life which leads
back to childhood and the contemporary observation of the child itself
coöperate to reveal to us still other regularly-flowing sources of the
sexual excitement. The observation of childhood has the disadvantage of
treating easily misunderstood material, while psychoanalysis is made
difficult by the fact that it can reach its objects and conclusions only
by great detours; still the united efforts of both
methods achieve a sufficient degree of positive understanding.
In investigating the erogenous zones we have already found that these
skin regions merely show the special exaggeration of a form of
sensitiveness which is to a certain degree found over the whole surface
of the skin. It will therefore not surprise us to learn that certain
forms of general sensitiveness in the skin can be ascribed to very
distinct erogenous action. Among these we will above all mention the
temperature sensitiveness; this will perhaps prepare us for the
understanding of the therapeutic effects of warm baths.
Mechanical Excitation.—We must, moreover, describe here the
production of sexual excitation by means of rhythmic mechanical shaking
of the body. There are three kinds of exciting influences: those acting
on the sensory apparatus of the vestibular nerves, those acting on the
skin, and those acting on the deep parts, such as the muscles and
joints. The sexual excitation produced by these influences seems to be
of a pleasurable nature—it is worth emphasizing that for some time we
shall continue to use indiscriminately the terms "sexual excitement" and
"gratification" leaving the search for an explanation of the terms to a
later time—and that the pleasure is produced by mechanical stimulation
is proved by the fact that children are so fond of play involving
passive motion, like swinging or flying in the air, and repeatedly
demand its repetition.[20] As we know, rocking is
regularly used in putting restless children to sleep. The shaking
sensation experienced in wagons and railroad trains exerts such a
fascinating influence on older children, that all boys, at least at one
time in their lives, want to become conductors and drivers. They are
wont to ascribe to railroad activities an extraordinary and mysterious
interest, and during the age of phantastic activity (shortly before
puberty) they utilize these as a nucleus for exquisite
sexual symbolisms. The desire to connect railroad travelling with
sexuality apparently originates from the pleasurable character of the
sensation of motion. When the repression later sets in and changes so
many of the childish likes into their opposites, these same persons as
adolescents and adults then react to the rocking and rolling with nausea
and become terribly exhausted by a railroad journey, or they show a
tendency to attacks of anxiety during the journey, and by becoming
obsessed with railroad phobia they protect themselves against a
repetition of the painful experiences.
This also fits in with the not as yet understood fact that the
concurrence of fear with mechanical shaking produces the severest
hysterical forms of traumatic neurosis. It may at least be assumed that
inasmuch as even a slight intensity of these influences becomes a source
of sexual excitement, the action of an excessive amount of the same will
produce a profound disorder in the sexual mechanism.
Muscular Activity.—It is well known that the child has need for
strong muscular activity, from the gratification of which it draws
extraordinary pleasure. Whether this pleasure has anything to do with
sexuality, whether it includes in itself sexual satisfaction? or can be
the occasion of sexual excitement; all this may be refuted by critical
consideration, which will probably be directed also to the position
taken above that the pleasure in the sensations of passive movement are
of sexual character or that they are sexually exciting. The fact
remains, however, that a number of persons report that they experienced
the first signs of excitement in their genitals during fighting or
wrestling with playmates, in which situation, besides the general
muscular exertion, there is an intensive contact with the opponent's
skin which also becomes effective. The desire for muscular contest with
a definite person, like the desire for word contest in later years, is a
good sign that the object selection has been directed toward this person. "Was sich liebt, das neckt sich."[21] In the promotion of sexual excitement through
muscular activity we might recognize one of the sources of the sadistic
impulse. The infantile connection between fighting and sexual excitement
acts in many persons as a determinant for the future preferred course of
their sexual impulse.[22]
Affective Processes.—The other sources of sexual excitement in the
child are open to less doubt. Through contemporary observations, as well
as through later investigations, it is easy to ascertain that all more
intensive affective processes, even excitements of a terrifying nature,
encroach upon sexuality; this can at all events furnish us with a
contribution to the understanding of the pathogenic action of such
emotions. In the school child, fear of a coming examination or exertion
expended in the solution of a difficult task can become significant for
the breaking through of sexual manifestations as well as for his
relations to the school, inasmuch as under such excitements a sensation
often occurs urging him to touch the genitals, or leading to a
pollution-like process with all its disagreeable consequences. The
behavior of children at school, which is so often mysterious to the
teacher, ought surely to be considered in relation with their
germinating sexuality. The sexually-exciting influence of some painful
affects, such as fear, shuddering, and horror, is felt by a great many
people throughout life and readily explains why so many seek
opportunities to experience such sensations, provided that certain
accessory circumstances (as under imaginary circumstances in reading, or
in the theater) suppress the earnestness of the painful feeling.
If we might assume that the same erogenous action also reaches the
intensive painful feelings, especially if the pain be toned down or held
at a distance by a subsidiary determination, this relation would then
contain the main roots of the masochistic-sadistic impulse, into the
manifold composition of which we are gaining a gradual insight.
Intellectual Work.—Finally, is is evident that mental application or
the concentration of attention on an intellectual accomplishment will
result, especially often in youthful persons, but in older persons as
well, in a simultaneous sexual excitement, which may be looked upon as
the only justified basis for the otherwise so doubtful etiology of
nervous disturbances from mental "overwork."
If we now, in conclusion, review the evidences and indications of the
sources of the infantile sexual excitement, which have been reported
neither completely nor exhaustively, we may lay down the following
general laws as suggested or established. It seems to be provided in the
most generous manner that the process of sexual excitement—the nature
of which certainly remains quite mysterious to us—should be set in
motion. The factor making this provision in a more or less direct way is
the excitation of the sensible surfaces of the skin and sensory organs,
while the most immediate exciting influences are exerted on certain
parts which are designated as erogenous zones. The criterion in all
these sources of sexual excitement is really the quality of the stimuli,
though the factor of intensity (in pain) is not entirely unimportant.
But in addition to this there are arrangements in the organism which
induce sexual excitement as a subsidiary action in a large number of
inner processes as soon as the intensity of these processes has risen
above certain quantitative limits. What we have designated as the
partial impulses of sexuality are either directly derived from these
inner sources of sexual excitation or composed of contributions from
such sources and from erogenous zones. It is possible
that nothing of any considerable significance occurs in the organism
that does not contribute its components to the excitement of the sexual
impulse.
It seems to me at present impossible to shed more light and certainty on
these general propositions, and for this I hold two factors responsible;
first, the novelty of this manner of investigation, and secondly, the
fact that the nature of the sexual excitement is entirely unfamiliar to
us. Nevertheless, I will not forbear speaking about two points which
promise to open wide prospects in the future.
Diverse Sexual Constitutions.—(a) We have considered above the
possibility of establishing the manifold character of congenital sexual
constitutions through the diverse formation of the erogenous zones; we
may now attempt to do the same in dealing with the indirect sources of
sexual excitement. We may assume that, although these different sources
furnish contributions in all individuals, they are not all equally
strong in all persons; and that a further contribution to the
differentiation of the diverse sexual constitution will be found in the
preferred developments of the individual sources of sexual excitement.
The Paths of Opposite Influences.—(b) Since we are now
dropping the figurative manner of expression hitherto employed, by which
we spoke of sources of sexual excitement, we may now assume that all
the connecting ways leading from other functions to sexuality must also
be passable in the reverse direction. For example, if the lip zone, the
common possession of both functions, is responsible for the fact that
the sexual gratification originates during the taking of nourishment,
the same factor offers also an explanation for the disturbances in the
taking of nourishment if the erogenous functions of the common zone are
disturbed. As soon as we know that concentration of attention may
produce sexual excitement, it is quite natural to assume that acting on
the same path, but in a contrary direction, the state of sexual excitement will be able to influence the
availability of the voluntary attention. A good part of the
symptomatology of the neuroses which I trace to disturbance of sexual
processes manifests itself in disturbances of the other non-sexual
bodily functions, and this hitherto incomprehensible action becomes less
mysterious if it only represents the counterpart of the influences
controlling the production of the sexual excitement.
However the same paths through which sexual disturbances encroach upon
the other functions of the body must in health be supposed to serve
another important function. It must be through these paths that the
attraction of the sexual motive-powers to other than sexual aims, the
sublimation of sexuality, is accomplished. We must conclude with the
admission that very little is definitely known concerning the paths
beyond the fact that they exist, and that they are probably passable in
both directions.
Note 1: For it is really
impossible to have a correct knowledge of the part belonging to heredity
without first understanding the part belonging to the infantile.
Note 2: This assertion on revision seemed even to myself so bold
that I decided to test its correctness by again reviewing the
literature. The result of this second review did not warrant any change
in my original statement. The scientific elaboration of the physical as
well as the psychic phenomena of the infantile sexuality is still in its
initial stages. One author (S. Bell, "A Preliminary Study of the
Emotions of Love Between the Sexes," American Journal of Psychology,
XIII, 1902) says: "I know of no scientist who has given a careful
analysis of the emotion as it is seen in the adolescent." The only
attention given to somatic sexual manifestations occurring before the
age of puberty was in connection with degenerative manifestations, and
these were referred to as a sign of degeneration. A chapter on the
sexual life of children is not to be found in all the representative
psychologies of this age which I have read. Among these works I can
mention the following: Preyer; Baldwin (The Development of the Mind in
the Child and in the Race, 1898); Pérez (L'enfant de 3-7 ans, 1894);
Strümpel (Die pädagogische Pathologie, 1899); Karl Groos (Das
Seelenleben des Kindes, 1904); Th. Heller (Grundriss der Heilpädagogic,
1904); Sully (Observations Concerning Childhood, 1897). The best
impression of the present situation of this sphere can be obtained from
the journal Die Kinderfehler (issued since 1896). On the other hand one
gains the impression that the existence of love in childhood is in no
need of demonstration. Pérez (l.c.) speaks for it; K. Groos (Die Spiele
der Menschen, 1899) states that some children are very early subject to
sexual emotions, and show a desire to touch the other sex (p. 336); S.
Bell observed the earliest appearance of sex-love in a child during the
middle part of its third year. See also Havelock Ellis, The Sexual
Impulse, Appendix II.
The above-mentioned judgment concerning the literature of infantile
sexuality no longer holds true since the appearance of the great and
important work of G. Stanley Hall (Adolescence, Its Psychology and its
Relation to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion,
and Education, 2 vols., New York, 1908). The recent book of A. Moll, Das
Sexualleben des Kindes, Berlin, 1909, offers no occasion for such a
modification. See, on the other hand, Bleuler, Sexuelle abnormitäten der
Kinder (Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für
Schulgesundheitspflege, IX, 1908). A book by Mrs. Dr. H.v. Hug-Hellmuth,
Aus dem Seelenleben des Kindes (1913), has taken full account of the
neglected sexual factors. [Translated in Monograph Series.]
Note 3: I have attempted to solve the problems presented by the
earliest infantile recollections in a paper, "Über Deckerinnerungen"
(Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, VI, 1899). Cf. also The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life, The Macmillan Co., New York, and
Unwin, London.
Note 4: One cannot understand the mechanism of repression when one
takes into consideration only one of the two cooperating processes. As a
comparison one may think of the way the tourist is despatched to the top
of the great pyramid of Gizeh; he is pushed from one side and pulled
from the other.
Note 5: The use of the latter
material is justified by the fact that the years of childhood of those
who are later neurotics need not necessarily differ from those who are
later normal except in intensity and distinctness.
Note 6: An anatomic analogy to
the behavior of the infantile sexual function formulated by me is
perhaps given by Bayer (Deutsches Archiv für klinische Medizin, Bd. 73)
who claims that the internal genitals (uterus) are regularly larger in
newborn than in older children. However, Halban's conception, that after
birth there is also an involution of the other parts of the sexual
apparatus, has not been verified. According to Halban (Zeitschrift für
Geburtshilfe u. Gynäkologie, LIII, 1904) this process of involution ends
after a few weeks of extra-uterine life.
Note 7: The expression "sexual
latency period" (sexuelle latenz-periode) I have borrowed from W.
Fliess.
Note 8: In the case here
discussed the sublimation of the sexual motive powers proceed on the
road of reaction formations. But in general it is necessary to separate
from each other sublimation and reaction formation as two diverse
processes. Sublimation may also result through other and simpler
mechanisms.
Note 9: Jahrbuch für
Kinderheilkunde, N.F., XIV, 1879.
Note 10: This already shows
what holds true for the whole life, namely, that sexual gratification is
the best hypnotic. Most nervous insomnias are traced to lack of sexual
gratification. It is also known that unscrupulous nurses calm crying
children to sleep by stroking their genitals.
Note 11: Ellis spoils, however,
the sense of his invented term by comprising under the phenomena of
autoerotism the whole of hysteria and masturbation in its full extent.
Note 12: Further reflection and
observation lead me to attribute the quality of erogenity to all parts
of the body and inner organs. See later on narcism.
Note 13: Compare here the very
comprehensive but confusing literature on onanism, e.g., Rohleder, Die
Masturbation, 1899. Cf. also the pamphlet, "Die Onanie," which contains
the discussion of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, Wiesbaden, 1912.
Note 14: Compare here the essay on "Charakter und Analerotic" in
the Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Zweite Folge, 1909.
Cf. also Brill, Psychanalysis, Chap. XIII, Anal Eroticism and Character,
W.B. Saunders, Philadelphia.
Note 15: Unusual techniques in the performance of onanism seem to
point to the influence of a prohibition against onanism which has been
overcome.
Note 16: Why neurotics, when conscience stricken, regularly connect
it with their onanistic activity, as was only recently recognized by
Bleuler, is a problem which still awaits an exhaustive analysis.
Note 17: Freud, Selected Papers
on Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses, 3d edition, translated by A.A.
Brill, N.Y. Nerv. and Ment. Dis. Pub. Co. Nervous and Mental Disease
Monograph, Series No. 4.
Note 18: Havelock Ellis, in an
appendix to his study on the Sexual Impulse, 1903, gives a number of
autobiographic reports of normal persons treating their first sexual
feelings in childhood and the causes of the same. These reports
naturally show the deficiency due to infantile amnesia; they do not
cover the prehistoric time in the sexual life and therefore must be
supplemented by psychoanalysis of individuals who became neurotic.
Notwithstanding this these reports are valuable in more than one
respect, and information of a similar nature has urged me to modify my
etiological assumption as mentioned in the text.
Note 19: The above-mentioned assertions concerning the infantile
sexuality were justified in 1905, in the main through the results of
psychoanalytic investigations in adults. Direct observation of the child
could not at the time be utilized to its full extent and resulted only
in individual indications and valuable confirmations. Since then it has
become possible through the analysis of some cases of nervous disease in
the delicate age of childhood to gain a direct understanding of the
infantile psychosexuality (Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und
psychopathologische Forschungen, Bd. 1, 2, 1909). I can point with
satisfaction to the fact that direct observation has fully confirmed the
conclusion drawn from psychoanalysis, and thus furnishes good evidence
for the reliability of the latter method of investigation.
Moreover, the "Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy" (Jahrbuch,
Bd. 1) has taught us something new for which psychoanalysis had not
prepared us, to wit, that sexual symbolism, the representation of the
sexual by non-sexual objects and relations—reaches back into the years
when the child is first learning to master the language. My attention
has also been directed to a deficiency in the above-cited statement
which for the sake of clearness described any conceivable separation
between the two phases of autoerotism and object love as a temporal
separation. From the cited analysis (as well as from the above-mentioned
work of Bell) we learn that children from three to five are capable of
evincing a very strong object-selection which is accompanied by strong
affects.
Note 20: Some persons can
recall that the contact of the moving air in swinging caused them direct
sexual pleasure in the genitals.
Note 21: "Those who love each
other tease each other."
Note 22: The analyses of
neurotic disturbances of walking and of agoraphobia remove all doubt as
to the sexual nature of the pleasure of motion. As everybody knows
modern cultural education utilizes sports to a great extent in order to
turn away the youth from sexual activity; it would be more proper to say
that it replaces the sexual pleasure by motion pleasure, and forces the
sexual activity back upon one of its autoerotic components.
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