Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex Part 3

[6] With what reserve the diagnosis of degeneration should be made and what slight practical significance can be attributed to it can be gathered from the discussions of Moebius (Ueber Entartung; Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens, No. III, 1900). He says: "If we review the wide sphere of degeneration upon which we have here turned some light we can conclude without further ado that it is really of little value to diagnose degeneration."

[7] We must agree with the spokesman of "Uranism" that some of the most prominent men known have been inverts and perhaps absolute inverts.

[8] In the conception of inversion the pathological features have been Separated from the anthropological. For this credit is due to I. Bloch (Beitrage zur atiologie der Psychopathia s.e.xualis, 2 Teile, 1902-3), who has also brought into prominence the existence of inversion in the old civilized nations.

[9] Compare the last detailed discussion of somatic hermaphroditism (Taruffi, Hermaphroditismus und Zeugungsunfahigkeit, German edit. by R.

Teuscher, 1903), and the works of Neugebauer in many volumes of the Jahrbuch fur s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen.

[10] J. Halban, "Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere," Arch. fur Gynakologie, Bd. 70, 1903. See also there the literature on the subject.

[11] According to a report in Vol. 6 of the Jahrbuch f. s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen, E. Gley is supposed to have been the first to mention bis.e.xuality as an explanation of inversion. He published a paper (Les Aberrations de l'instinct s.e.xuel) in the Revue Philosophique as early as January, 1884. It is moreover noteworthy that the majority of authors who trace the inversion to bis.e.xuality a.s.sume this factor not only for the inverts but also for those who have developed normally, and justly interpret the inversion as a result of a disturbance in development.

Among these authors are Chevalier (Inversion s.e.xuelle, 1893), and v.

Krafft-Ebing ("Zur Erklarung der kontraren s.e.xualempfindung," Jahrbucher f. Psychiatrie u. Nervenheilkunde, XIII), who states that there are a number of observations "from which at least the virtual and continued existence of this second center (of the underlying s.e.x) results." A Dr.

Arduin (Die Frauenfrage und die s.e.xuellen Zwischenstufen, 2d vol. of the Jahrbuch f. s.e.xuelle Zwischenstufen, 1900) states that "in every man there exist male and female elements." See also the same Jahrbuch, Bd.

I, 1899 ("Die objektive Diagnose der h.o.m.os.e.xualitat," by M. Hirschfeld, pp. 8-9). In the determination of s.e.x, as far as heteros.e.xual persons are concerned, some are disproportionately more strongly developed than others. G. Herman is firm in his belief "that in every woman there are male, and in every man there are female germs and qualities" (Genesis, das Gesetz der Zeugung, 9 Bd., Libido und Manie, 1903). As recently as 1906 W. Fliess (Der Ablauf des Lebens) has claimed ownership of the idea of bis.e.xuality (in the sense of double s.e.x). Psychoa.n.a.lytic investigation very strongly opposes the attempt to separate h.o.m.os.e.xuals from other persons as a group of a special nature. By also studying s.e.xual excitations other than the manifestly open ones it discovers that all men are capable of h.o.m.os.e.xual object selection and actually accomplish this in the unconscious. Indeed the attachments of libidinous feelings to persons of the same s.e.x play no small role as factors in normal psychic life, and as causative factors of disease they play a greater role than those belonging to the opposite s.e.x. According to psychoa.n.a.lysis, it rather seems that it is the independence of the object, selection of the s.e.x of the object, the same free disposal over male and female objects, as observed in childhood, in primitive states and in prehistoric times, which forms the origin from which the normal as well as the inversion types developed, following restrictions in this or that direction. In the psychoa.n.a.lytic sense the exclusive s.e.xual interest of the man for the woman is also a problem requiring an explanation, and is not something that is self-evident and explainable on the basis of chemical attraction. The determination as to the definite s.e.xual behavior does not occur until after p.u.b.erty and is the result of a series of as yet not observable factors, some of which are of a const.i.tutional, while some are of an accidental nature. Certainly some of these factors can turn out to be so enormous that by their character they influence the result. In general, however, the multiplicity of the determining factors is reflected by the manifoldness of the outcomes in the manifest s.e.xual behavior of the person. In the inversion types it can be ascertained that they are altogether controlled by an archaic const.i.tution and by primitive psychic mechanisms. The importance of the _narcissistic object selection_ and the _clinging_ to the erotic significance of the _a.n.a.l_ zone seem to be their most essential characteristics. But one gains nothing by separating the most extreme inversion types from the others on the basis of such const.i.tutional peculiarities. What is found in the latter as seemingly an adequate determinant can also be demonstrated only in lesser force in the const.i.tution of transitional types and in manifestly normal persons. The differences in the results may be of a qualitative nature, but a.n.a.lysis shows that the differences in the determinants are only quant.i.tative. As a remarkable factor among the accidental influences of the object selection, we found the s.e.xual rejection or the early s.e.xual intimidation, and our attention was also called to the fact that the existence of both parents plays an important role in the child's life. The disappearance of a strong father in childhood not infrequently favors the inversion. Finally, one might demand that the inversion of the s.e.xual object should notionally be strictly separated from the mixing of the s.e.x characteristics in the subject. A certain amount of independence is unmistakable also in this relation.

[12] Although psychoa.n.a.lysis has not yet given us a full explanation for the origin of inversion, it has revealed the psychic mechanism of its genesis and has essentially enriched the problems in question. In all the cases examined we have ascertained that the later inverts go through in their childhood a phase of very intense but short-lived fixation on the woman (usually on the mother) and after overcoming it they identify themselves with the woman and take themselves as the s.e.xual object; that is, proceeding on a narcissistic basis, they look for young men resembling themselves in persons whom they wish to love as their mother has loved them. We have, moreover, frequently found that alleged inverts are by no means indifferent to the charms of women, but the excitation evoked by the woman is always transferred to a male object. They thus repeat through life the mechanism which gave origin to their inversion.

Their obsessive striving for the man proves to be determined by their restless flight from the woman.

[13] The most p.r.o.nounced difference between the s.e.xual life (Liebesleben) of antiquity and ours lies in the fact that the ancients placed the emphasis on the impulse itself, while we put it on its object. The ancients extolled the impulse and were ready to enn.o.ble through it even an inferior object, while we disparage the activity of the impulse as such and only countenance it on account of the merits of the object.

[14] I must mention here that the blind obedience evinced by the hypnotized subject to the hypnotist causes me to think that the nature of hypnosis is to be found in the unconscious fixation of the libido on the person of the hypnotizer (by means of the m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic component of the s.e.xual impulse).

Ferenczi connects this character of suggestibility with the "parent complex" (Jahrbuch fur Psychoa.n.a.lytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, I, 1909).

[15] Moreover, it is to be noted that s.e.xual overvaluation does not become p.r.o.nounced in all mechanisms of object selection, and that we shall later learn to know another and more direct explanation for the s.e.xual role of the other parts of the body.

[16] Further investigations lead to the conclusion that I. Bloch has overestimated the factor of excitement-hunger (Reizhunger). The various roads upon which the libido moves behave to each other from the very beginning like communicating pipes; the factor of collateral streaming must also be considered.

[17] This weakness corresponds to the const.i.tutional predisposition. The early s.e.xual intimidation which pushes the person away from the normal s.e.xual aim and urges him to seek a subst.i.tute, has been demonstrated by psychoa.n.a.lysis, as an accidental determinant.

[18] The shoe or slipper is accordingly a symbol for the female genitals.

[19] Psychoa.n.a.lysis has filled up the gap in the understanding of fetichisms by showing that the selection of the fetich depends on a coprophilic smell-desire which has been lost by repression. Feet and hair are strong smelling objects which are raised to fetiches after the renouncing of the now unpleasant sensation of smell. Accordingly, only the filthy and ill-smelling foot is the s.e.xual object in the perversion which corresponds to the foot fetichism. Another contribution to the explanation of the fetichistic preference of the foot is found in the Infantile s.e.xual Theories (see later). The foot replaces the p.e.n.i.s which is so much missed in the woman. In some cases of foot fetichism it could be shown that the desire for looking originally directed to the genitals, which wished to reach its object from below, was stopped on the way by prohibition and repression, and therefore adhered to the foot or shoe as a fetich. In conformity with infantile expectation, the female genital was hereby imagined as a male genital.

[20] I have no doubt that the conception of the "beautiful" is rooted in the soil of s.e.xual excitement and originally signified the s.e.xual excitant. The more remarkable, therefore, is the fact that the genitals, the sight of which provokes the greatest s.e.xual excitement, can really never be considered "beautiful."

[21] Cf. here the later communication on the pregenital phases of the s.e.xual development, in which this view is confirmed. See below, "Ambivalence."

[22] Instead of substantiating this statement by many examples I will merely cite Havelock Ellis (The s.e.xual Impulse, 1903): "All known cases of sadism and masochism, even those cited by v. Krafft-Ebing, always show (as has already been shown by Colin, Scott, and Fere) traces of both groups of manifestations in the same individual."

[23] On the other hand the restricting forces of the s.e.xual evolution--disgust, shame, morality--must also be looked upon as historic precipitates of the outer inhibitions which the s.e.xual impulse experienced in the psychogenesis of humanity. One can observe that they appear in their time during the development of the individual almost spontaneously at the call of education and influence.

[24] Studien uber Hysterie, 1895, J. Breuer tells of the patient on whom he first practiced the cathartic method: "The s.e.xual factor was surprisingly undeveloped."

[25] The well-known fancies of perverts which under favorable conditions are changed into contrivances, the delusional fears of paranoiacs which are in a hostile manner projected on others, and the unconscious fancies of hysterics which are discovered in their symptoms by psychoa.n.a.lysis, agree as to content in the minutest details.

[26] A psychoneurosis very often a.s.sociates itself with a manifest inversion in which the heteros.e.xual feeling becomes subjected to complete repression.--It is but just to state that the necessity of a general recognition of the tendency to inversion in psychoneurotics was first imparted to me personally by Wilh. Fliess, of Berlin, after I had myself discovered it in some cases.

[27] It is not easy to justify here this a.s.sumption which was taken from a definite cla.s.s of neurotic diseases. On the other hand, it would be impossible to a.s.sert anything definite concerning the impulses if one did not take the trouble of mentioning these presuppositions.

[28] One should here think of Moll's a.s.sertion, who divides the s.e.xual impulse into the impulses of contrectation and detumescence.

Contrectation signifies a desire to touch the skin.

II

THE INFANTILE s.e.xUALITY

It is a part of popular belief about the s.e.xual impulse that it is absent in childhood and that it first appears in the period of life known as p.u.b.erty. This, though a common error, is serious in its consequences and is chiefly due to our present ignorance of the fundamental principles of the s.e.xual life. A comprehensive study of the s.e.xual manifestations of childhood would probably reveal to us the existence of the essential features of the s.e.xual 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 ent.i.tled to more consideration than heredity.[1] To be sure, one occasionally finds in medical literature notes on the premature s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual impulse in childhood, and in the numerous writings on the development of the child the chapter on "s.e.xual Development" is usually pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sions 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 a.s.sume, 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 a.s.sert 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 s.e.xuality 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 a.s.sociative 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 s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual life, and since then I have not ceased to put into the foreground the importance of the infantile factor for s.e.xuality.

THE s.e.xUAL LATENCY PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD AND ITS INTERRUPTIONS

The extraordinary frequent discoveries of apparently abnormal and exceptional s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual behavior of childhood.[5]

It seems certain that the newborn child brings with it the germs of s.e.xual feelings which continue to develop for some time and then succ.u.mb to a progressive suppression, which is in turn broken through by the proper advances of the s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual life of the child mostly manifests itself in the third or fourth year in some form accessible to observation.[6]

*The s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual 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 a.s.signed 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 s.e.xuality 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 s.e.xual utilization and conducted to other aims. The historians of civilization seem to be unanimous in the opinion that such deviation of s.e.xual motive powers from s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual latency period.[7]

We can also venture an opinion about the mechanisms of such sublimation.

The s.e.xual 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 s.e.xuality 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 s.e.xual manifestation which has withdrawn from sublimation occasionally breaks through, or a s.e.xual activity remains throughout the whole duration of the latency period until the reinforced breaking through of the s.e.xual impulse in p.u.b.erty.

In so far as they have paid any attention to infantile s.e.xuality the educators behave as if they shared our views concerning the formation of the moral forces of defence at the cost of s.e.xuality, and as if they knew that s.e.xual activity makes the child uneducable; for the educators consider all s.e.xual 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 s.e.xual impulse.

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE INFANTILE s.e.xUALITY

For reasons which we shall discuss later we will take as a model of the infantile s.e.xual manifestations thumbsucking (pleasure-sucking), to which the Hungarian pediatrist, Lindner, has devoted an excellent essay.[9]