Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex Part 6

THE PRIMACY OF THE GENITAL ZONES AND THE FORE-PLEASURE

From the course of development as described we can clearly see the issue and the end aim. The intermediary transitions are still quite obscure and many a riddle will have to be solved in them.

The most striking process of p.u.b.erty has been selected as its most characteristic; it is the manifest growth of the external genitals which have shown a relative inhibition of growth during the latency period of childhood. Simultaneously the inner genitals develop to such an extent as to be able to furnish s.e.xual products or to receive them for the purpose of forming a new living being. A most complicated apparatus is thus formed which waits to be claimed.

This apparatus can be set in motion by stimuli, and observation teaches that the stimuli can affect it in three ways: from the outer world through the familiar erogenous zones; from the inner organic world by ways still to be investigated; and from the psychic life, which merely represents a depository of external impressions and a receptacle of inner excitations. The same result follows in all three cases, namely, a state which can be designated as "s.e.xual excitation" and which manifests itself in psychic and somatic signs. The psychic sign consists in a peculiar feeling of tension of a most urgent character, and among the manifold somatic signs the many changes in the genitals stand first.

They have a definite meaning, that of readiness; they const.i.tute a preparation for the s.e.xual act (the erection of the p.e.n.i.s and the glandular activity of the v.a.g.i.n.a).

*The s.e.xual Tension*--The character of the tension of s.e.xual excitation is connected with a problem the solution of which is as difficult as it would be important for the conception of the s.e.xual process. Despite all divergence of opinion regarding it in psychology, I must firmly maintain that a feeling of tension must carry with it the character of displeasure. For me it is conclusive that such a feeling carries with it the impulse to alter the psychic situation, and acts incitingly, which is quite contrary to the nature of perceived pleasure. But if we ascribe the tension of the s.e.xual excitation to the feelings of displeasure we encounter the fact that it is undoubtedly pleasurably perceived. The tension produced by s.e.xual excitation is everywhere accompanied by pleasure; even in the preparatory changes of the genitals there is a distinct feeling of satisfaction. What relation is there between this unpleasant tension and this feeling of pleasure?

Everything relating to the problem of pleasure and pain touches one of the weakest spots of present-day psychology. We shall try if possible to learn something from the determinations of the case in question and to avoid encroaching on the problem as a whole. Let us first glance at the manner in which the erogenous zones adjust themselves to the new order of things. An important role devolves upon them in the preparation of the s.e.xual excitation. The eye which is very remote from the s.e.xual object is most often in position, during the relations of object wooing, to become attracted by that particular quality of excitation, the motive of which we designate as beauty in the s.e.xual object. The excellencies of the s.e.xual object are therefore also called "attractions." This attraction is on the one hand already connected with pleasure, and on the other hand it either results in an increase of the s.e.xual excitation or in an evocation of the same where it is still wanting. The effect is the same if the excitation of another erogenous zone, _e.g._, the touching hand, is added to it. There is on the one hand the feeling of pleasure which soon becomes enhanced by the pleasure from the preparatory changes, and on the other hand there is a further increase of the s.e.xual tension which soon changes into a most distinct feeling of displeasure if it cannot proceed to more pleasure. Another case will perhaps be clearer; let us, for example, take the case where an erogenous zone, like a woman's breast, is excited by touching in a person who is not s.e.xually excited at the time. This touching in itself evokes a feeling of pleasure, but it is also best adapted to awaken s.e.xual excitement which demands still more pleasure. How it happens that the perceived pleasure evokes the desire for greater pleasure, that is the real problem.

*Fore-pleasure Mechanism.*--But the role which devolves upon the erogenous zones is clear. What applies to one applies to all. They are all utilized to furnish a certain amount of pleasure through their own proper excitation, which increases the tension, and which is in turn destined to produce the necessary motor energy in order to bring to a conclusion the s.e.xual act. The last part but one of this act is again a suitable excitation of an erogenous zone; _i.e._, the genital zone proper of the glans p.e.n.i.s is excited by the object most fit for it, the mucous membrane of the v.a.g.i.n.a, and through the pleasure furnished by this excitation it now produces reflexly the motor energy which conveys to the surface the s.e.xual substance. This last pleasure is highest in its intensity, and differs from the earliest ones in its mechanism. It is altogether produced through discharge, it is altogether gratification pleasure and the tension of the libido temporarily dies away with it.

It does not seem to me unjustified to fix by name the distinction in the nature of these pleasures, the one through the excitation of the erogenous zones, and the other through the discharge of the s.e.xual substance. In contradistinction to the end-pleasure, or pleasure of gratification of s.e.xual activity, we can properly designate the first as _fore-pleasure_. The fore-pleasure is then the same as that furnished by the infantile s.e.xual impulse, though on a reduced scale; while the _end-pleasure_ is new and is probably connected with determinations which first appear at p.u.b.erty. The formula for the new function of the erogenous zones reads as follows: they are utilized for the purpose of making possible the production of the greater pleasure of gratification by means of the fore-pleasure which is gained from them as in infantile life.

I have recently been able to elucidate another example from a quite different realm of the psychic life, in which likewise a greater feeling of pleasure is achieved by means of a lesser feeling of pleasure which thereby acts as an alluring premium. We had there also the opportunity of entering more deeply into the nature of pleasure.[2]

*Dangers of the Fore-pleasure.*--However the connection of fore-pleasure with the infantile life is strengthened by the pathogenic role which may devolve upon it. In the mechanism through which the fore-pleasure is expressed there exists an obvious danger to the attainment of the normal s.e.xual aim. This occurs if it happens that there is too much fore-pleasure and too little tension in any part of the preparatory s.e.xual process. The motive power for the further continuation of the s.e.xual process then escapes, the whole road becomes shortened, and the preparatory action in question takes the place of the normal s.e.xual aim.

Experience shows that such a hurtful condition is determined by the fact that the erogenous zone concerned or the corresponding partial impulse has already contributed an unusual amount of pleasure in infantile life.

If other factors favoring fixation are added a compulsion readily results for the later life which prevents the fore-pleasure from arranging itself into a new combination. Indeed, the mechanism of many perversions is of such a nature; they merely represent a lingering at a preparatory act of the s.e.xual process.

The failure of the function of the s.e.xual mechanism through the fault of the fore-pleasure is generally avoided if the primacy of the genital zones has also already been sketched out in infantile life. The preparations of the second half of childhood (from the eighth year to p.u.b.erty) really seem to favor this. During these years the genital zones behave almost as at the age of maturity; they are the seat of exciting sensations and of preparatory changes if any kind of pleasure is experienced through the gratification of other erogenous zones; although this effect remains aimless, _i.e._, it contributes nothing towards the continuation of the s.e.xual process. Besides the pleasure of gratification a certain amount of s.e.xual tension appears even in infancy, though it is less constant and less abundant. We can now understand also why in the discussion of the sources of s.e.xuality we had a perfectly good reason for saying that the process in question acts as s.e.xual gratification as well as s.e.xual excitement. We note that on our way towards the truth we have at first enormously exaggerated the distinctions between the infantile and the mature s.e.xual life, and we therefore supplement what has been said with a correction. The infantile manifestations of s.e.xuality determine not only the deviations from the normal s.e.xual life but also the normal formations of the same.

THE PROBLEM OF s.e.xUAL EXCITEMENT

It remains entirely unexplained whence the s.e.xual tension comes which originates simultaneously with the gratification of erogenous zones and what is its nature. The obvious supposition that this tension originates in some way from the pleasure itself is not only improbable in itself but untenable, inasmuch as during the greatest pleasure which is connected with the voiding of s.e.xual substance there is no production of tension but rather a removal of all tension. Hence, pleasure and s.e.xual tension can be only indirectly connected.

*The Role of the s.e.xual Substance.*--Aside from the fact that only the discharge of the s.e.xual substance can normally put an end to the s.e.xual excitement, there are other essential facts which bring the s.e.xual tension into relation with the s.e.xual products. In a life of continence the s.e.xual activity is wont to discharge the s.e.xual substance at night during pleasurable dream hallucinations of a s.e.xual act, this discharge coming at changing but not at entirely capricious intervals; and the following interpretation of this process--the nocturnal pollution--can hardly be rejected, viz., that the s.e.xual tension which brings about a subst.i.tute for the s.e.xual act by the short hallucinatory road is a function of the acc.u.mulated s.e.m.e.n in the reservoirs for the s.e.xual products. Experiences with the exhaustibility of the s.e.xual mechanism speak for the same thing. Where there is no stock of s.e.m.e.n it is not only impossible to accomplish the s.e.xual act, but there is also a lack of excitability in the erogenous zones, the suitable excitation of which can evoke no pleasure. We thus discover incidentally that a certain amount of s.e.xual tension is itself necessary for the excitability of the erogenous zones.

One would thus be forced to the a.s.sumption, which if I am not mistaken is quite generally adopted, that the acc.u.mulation of s.e.xual substance produces and maintains the s.e.xual tension. The pressure of these products on the walls of their receptacles acts as an excitant on the spinal center, the state of which is then perceived by the higher centers which then produce in consciousness the familiar feeling of tension. If the excitation of erogenous zones increases the s.e.xual tension, it can only be due to the fact that the erogenous zones are connected with these centers by previously formed anatomical connections. They increase there the tone of the excitation, and with sufficient s.e.xual tension they set in motion the s.e.xual act, and with insufficient tension they merely stimulate a production of the s.e.xual substance.

The weakness of the theory which one finds adopted, _e.g._, in v.

Krafft-Ebing's description of the s.e.xual process, lies in the fact that it has been formed for the s.e.xual activity of the mature man and pays too little heed to three kinds of relations which should also have been elucidated. We refer to the relations as found in the child, in the woman, and in the castrated male. In none of the three cases can we speak of an acc.u.mulation of s.e.xual products in the same sense as in the man, which naturally renders difficult the general application of this scheme; still it may be admitted without any further ado that ways can be found to justify the subordination of even these cases. Nevertheless one should be cautious about burdening the factor of acc.u.mulation of s.e.xual products with actions which it seems incapable of supporting.

*Overestimation of the Internal Genitals.*--That s.e.xual excitement can be independent to a considerable extent of the production of s.e.xual substance seems to be shown by observations on castrated males, in whom the libido sometimes escapes the injury caused by the operation, although the opposite behavior, which is really the motive for the operation, is usually the rule. It is therefore not at all surprising, as C. Rieger puts it, that the loss of the male germ glands in maturer age should exert no new influence on the psychic life of the individual.

The germ glands are really not the s.e.xuality, and the experience with castrated males only verifies what we had long before learned from the removal of the ovaries, namely that it is impossible to do away with the s.e.xual character by removing the germ glands. To be sure, castration performed at a tender age, before p.u.b.erty, comes nearer to this aim, but it would seem in this case that besides the loss of the s.e.xual glands we must also consider the inhibition of development and other factors which are connected with that loss.

*Chemical Theories.*--The truth remains, however, that we are unable to give any information about the nature of the s.e.xual excitement for the reason that we do not know with what organ or organs s.e.xuality is connected, since we have seen that the s.e.xual glands have been overestimated in this significance. Since surprising discoveries have taught us the important role of the thyroid gland in s.e.xuality, we may a.s.sume that the knowledge of the essential factors of s.e.xuality are still withheld from us. One who feels the need of filling up the large gap in our knowledge with a preliminary a.s.sumption may formulate for himself the following theory based on the active substances found in the thyroid. Through the appropriate excitement of erogenous zones, as well as through other conditions under which s.e.xual excitement originates, a material which is universally distributed in the organism becomes disintegrated, the decomposing products of which supply a specific stimulus to the organs of reproduction or to the spinal center connected with them. Such a transformation of a toxic stimulus in a particular organic stimulus we are already familiar with from other toxic products introduced into the body from without. To treat, if only hypothetically, the complexities of the pure toxic and the physiologic stimulations which result in the s.e.xual processes is not now our appropriate task. To be sure, I attach no value to this special a.s.sumption and I shall be quite ready to give it up in favor of another, provided its original character, the emphasis on the s.e.xual chemism, were preserved. For this apparently arbitrary statement is supported by a fact which, though little heeded, is most noteworthy. The neuroses which can be traced only to disturbances of the s.e.xual life show the greatest clinical resemblance to the phenomena of intoxication and abstinence which result from the habitual introduction of pleasure-producing poisonous substances (alkaloids.)

THE THEORY OF THE LIBIDO

These a.s.sumptions concerning the chemical basis of the s.e.xual excitement are in full accord with the auxiliary conception which we formed for the purpose of mastering the psychic manifestations of the s.e.xual life. We have determined the concept of _libido_ as that of a force of variable quant.i.ty which has the capacity of measuring processes and transformations in the spheres of s.e.xual excitement. This libido we distinguished from the energy which is to be generally adjudged to the psychic processes with reference to its special origin and thus we attribute to it also a qualitative character. In separating libidinous from other psychic energy we give expression to the a.s.sumption that the s.e.xual processes of the organism are differentiated from the nutritional processes through a special chemism. The a.n.a.lyses of perversions and psychoneuroses have taught us that this s.e.xual excitement is furnished not only from the so-called s.e.xual parts alone but from all organs of the body. We thus formulate for ourselves the concept of a libido-quantum whose psychic representative we designate as the ego-libido; the production, increase, distribution and displacement of this ego-libido will offer the possible explanation for the observed psycho-s.e.xual phenomena.

But this ego-libido becomes conveniently accessible to psychoa.n.a.lytic study only when the psychic energy is employed on s.e.xual objects, that is when it becomes object libido. Then we see it as it concentrates and fixes itself on objects, or as it leaves those objects and pa.s.ses over to others from which positions it directs the individual's s.e.xual activity, that is, it leads to partial and temporary extinction of the libido. Psychoa.n.a.lysis of the so-called transference neuroses (hysteria and compulsion neurosis) offers us here a reliable insight.

Concerning the fates of the object libido we also state that it is withdrawn from the object, that it is preserved floating in special states of tension and is finally taken back into the ego, so that it again becomes ego-libido. In contradistinction to the object-libido we also call the ego-libido narcissistic libido. From psychoa.n.a.lysis we look over the boundary which we are not permitted to pa.s.s into the activity of the narcissistic libido and thus form an idea of the relations between the two. The narcissistic or ego-libido appears to us as the great reservoir from which the energy for the investment of the object is sent out and into which it is drawn back again, while the narcissistic libido investment of the ego appears to us as the realized primitive state in the first childhood, which only becomes hidden by the later emissions of the libido, and is retained at the bottom behind them.

The task of a theory of libido of neurotic and psychotic disturbances would have for its object to express in terms of the libido-economy all observed phenomena and disclosed processes. It is easy to divine that the greater significance would attach thereby to the destinies of the ego-libido, especially where it would be the question of explaining the deeper psychotic disturbances. The difficulty then lies in the fact that the means of our investigation, psychoa.n.a.lysis, at present gives us definite information only concerning the transformation of the object-libido, but cannot distinguish without further study the ego-libido from the other effective energies in the ego.[3]

DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN

It is known that the sharp differentiation of the male and female character originates at p.u.b.erty, and it is the resulting difference which, more than any other factor, decisively influences the later development of personality. To be sure, the male and female dispositions are easily recognizable even in infantile life; thus the development of s.e.xual inhibitions (shame, loathing, sympathy, etc.) ensues earlier and with less resistance in the little girl than in the little boy. The tendency to s.e.xual repression certainly seems much greater, and where partial impulses of s.e.xuality are noticed they show a preference for the pa.s.sive form. But, the autoerotic activity of the erogenous zones is the same in both s.e.xes, and it is this agreement that removes the possibility of a s.e.x differentiation in childhood as it appears after p.u.b.erty. In respect to the autoerotic and masturbatic s.e.xual manifestations, it may be a.s.serted that the s.e.xuality of the little girl has entirely a male character. Indeed, if one could give a more definite content to the terms "masculine and feminine," one might advance the opinion that _the libido is regularly and lawfully of a masculine nature, whether in the man or in the woman; and if we consider its object, this may be either the man or the woman_.[4]

Since becoming acquainted with the aspect of bis.e.xuality I hold this factor as here decisive, and I believe that without taking into account the factor of bis.e.xuality it will hardly be possible to understand the actually observed s.e.xual manifestations in man and woman.

*The Leading Zones in Man and Woman.*--Further than this I can only add the following. The chief erogenous zone in the female child is the c.l.i.toris, which is h.o.m.ologous to the male p.e.n.i.s. All I have been able to discover concerning masturbation in little girls concerned the c.l.i.toris and not those other external genitals which are so important for the later s.e.xual functions. With few exceptions I myself doubt whether the female child can be seduced to anything but c.l.i.toris masturbation. The frequent spontaneous discharges of s.e.xual excitement in little girls manifest themselves in a twitching of the c.l.i.toris, and its frequent erections enable the girl to understand correctly even without any instruction the s.e.xual manifestations of the other s.e.x; they simply transfer to the boys the sensations of their own s.e.xual processes.

If one wishes to understand how the little girl becomes a woman, he must follow up the further destinies of this c.l.i.toris excitation. p.u.b.erty, which brings to the boy a great advance of libido, distinguishes itself in the girl by a new wave of repression which especially concerns the c.l.i.toris s.e.xuality. It is a part of the male s.e.xual life that sinks into repression. The reenforcement of the s.e.xual inhibitions produced in the woman by the repression of p.u.b.erty causes a stimulus in the libido of the man and forces it to increase its capacity; with the height of the libido there is a rise in the overestimation of the s.e.xual, which can be present in its full force only when the woman refuses and denies her s.e.xuality. If the s.e.xual act is finally submitted to and the c.l.i.toris becomes excited its role is then to conduct the excitement to the adjacent female parts, and in this it acts like a chip of pine wood which is utilized to set fire to the harder wood. It often takes some time for this transference to be accomplished; during which the young wife remains anesthetic. This anesthesia may become permanent if the c.l.i.toris zone refuses to give up its excitability; a condition brought on by abundant activities in infantile life. It is known that anesthesia in women is often only apparent and local. They are anesthetic at the v.a.g.i.n.al entrance but not at all unexcitable through the c.l.i.toris or even through other zones. Besides these erogenous causes of anesthesia there are also psychic causes likewise determined by the repression.

If the transference of the erogenous excitability from the c.l.i.toris to the v.a.g.i.n.a has succeeded, the woman has thus changed her leading zone for the future s.e.xual activity; the man on the other hand retains his from childhood. The main determinants for the woman's preference for the neuroses, especially for hysteria, lie in this change of the leading zone as well as in the repression of p.u.b.erty. These determinants are therefore most intimately connected with the nature of femininity.

THE OBJECT-FINDING

While the primacy of the genital zones is being established through the processes of p.u.b.erty, and the erected p.e.n.i.s in the man imperiously points towards the new s.e.xual aim, _i.e._, towards the penetration of a cavity which excites the genital zone, the object-finding, for which also preparations have been made since early childhood, becomes consummated on the psychic side. While the very incipient s.e.xual gratifications are still connected with the taking of nourishment, the s.e.xual impulse has a s.e.xual object outside its own body in his mother's breast. This object it loses later, perhaps at the very time when it becomes possible for the child to form a general picture of the person to whom the organ granting him the gratification belongs. The s.e.xual impulse later regularly becomes autoerotic, and only after overcoming the latency period is there a resumption of the original relation. It is not without good reason that the suckling of the child at its mother's breast has become a model for every amour. The object-finding is really a re-finding.[5]

*The s.e.xual Object of the Nursing Period.*--However, even after the separation of the s.e.xual activity from the taking of nourishment, there still remains from this first and most important of all s.e.xual relations an important share, which prepares the object selection and a.s.sists in reestablishing the lost happiness. Throughout the latency period the child learns to love other persons who a.s.sist it in its helplessness and gratify its wants; all this follows the model and is a continuation of the child's infantile relations to his wet nurse. One may perhaps hesitate to identify the tender feelings and esteem of the child for his foster-parents with s.e.xual love; I believe, however, that a more thorough psychological investigation will establish this ident.i.ty beyond any doubt. The intercourse between the child and its foster-parents is for the former an inexhaustible source of s.e.xual excitation and gratification of erogenous zones, especially since the parents--or as a rule the mother--supplies the child with feelings which originate from her own s.e.xual life; she pats it, kisses it, and rocks it, plainly taking it as a subst.i.tute for a full-valued s.e.xual object.[6] The mother would probably be terrified if it were explained to her that all her tenderness awakens the s.e.xual impulse of her child and prepares its future intensity. She considers her actions as as.e.xually "pure" love, for she carefully avoids causing more irritation to the genitals of the child than is indispensable in caring for the body. But as we know the s.e.xual impulse is not awakened by the excitation of genital zones alone.

What we call tenderness will some day surely manifest its influence on the genital zones also. If the mother better understood the high significance of the s.e.xual impulse for the whole psychic life and for all ethical and psychic activities, the enlightenment would spare her all reproaches. By teaching the child to love she only fulfills her function; for the child should become a fit man with energetic s.e.xual needs, and accomplish in life all that the impulse urges the man to do.

Of course, too much parental tenderness becomes harmful because it accelerates the s.e.xual maturity, and also because it "spoils" the child and makes it unfit to temporarily renounce love or be satisfied with a smaller amount of love in later life. One of the surest premonitions of later nervousness is the fact that the child shows itself insatiable in its demands for parental tenderness; on the other hand, neuropathic parents, who usually display a boundless tenderness, often with their caressing awaken in the child a disposition for neurotic diseases. This example at least shows that neuropathic parents have nearer ways than inheritance by which they can transfer their disturbances to their children.

*Infantile Fear.*--The children themselves behave from their early childhood as if their attachment to their foster-parents were of the nature of s.e.xual love. The fear of children is originally nothing but an expression for the fact that they miss the beloved person. They therefore meet every stranger with fear, they are afraid of the dark because they cannot see the beloved person, and are calmed if they can grasp that person's hand. The effect of childish fears and of the terrifying stories told by nurses is overestimated if one blames the latter for producing the fear in children. Children who are predisposed to fear absorb these stories, which make no impression whatever upon others; and only such children are predisposed to fear whose s.e.xual impulse is excessive or prematurely developed, or has become exigent through pampering. The child behaves here like the adult, that is, it changes its libido into fear when it cannot bring it to gratification, and the grown-up who becomes neurotic on account of ungratified libido behaves in his anxiety like a child; he fears when he is alone, _i.e._, without a person of whose love he believes himself sure, and who can calm his fears by means of the most childish measures.[7]

*Incest Barriers.*--If the tenderness of the parents for the child has luckily failed to awaken the s.e.xual impulse of the child prematurely, _i.e._, before the physical determinations for p.u.b.erty appear, and if that awakening has not gone so far as to cause an unmistakable breaking through of the psychic excitement into the genital system, it can then fulfill its task and direct the child at the age of maturity in the selection of the s.e.xual object. It would, of course, be most natural for the child to select as the s.e.xual object that person whom it has loved since childhood with, so to speak, a suppressed libido.[8] But owing to the delay of s.e.xual maturity time has been gained for the erection beside the s.e.xual inhibitions of the incest barrier, that moral prescription which explicitly excludes from the object selection the beloved person of infancy or blood relation. The observance of this barrier is above all a demand of cultural society which must guard against the absorption by the family of those interests which it needs for the production of higher social units. Society, therefore, uses every means to loosen those family ties in every individual, especially in the boy, which are authoritative in childhood only.[9]

The object selection, however, is first accomplished in the imagination, and the s.e.xual life of the maturing youth has hardly any escape except indulgence in phantasies or ideas which are not destined to be brought to execution. In the phantasies of all persons the infantile inclinations, now reenforced by somatic emphasis, reappear, and among them one finds in regular frequency and in the first place the s.e.xual feeling of the child for the parents. This has usually already been differentiated by the s.e.xual attraction, the attraction of the son for the mother and of the daughter for the father.[10] Simultaneously with the overcoming and rejection of these distinctly incestuous phantasies there occurs one of the most important as well as one of the most painful psychic accomplishments of p.u.b.erty; it is the breaking away from the parental authority, through which alone is formed that opposition between the new and old generations which is so important for cultural progress. Many persons are detained at each of the stations in the course of development through which the individual must pa.s.s; and accordingly there are persons who never overcome the parental authority and never, or very imperfectly, withdraw their affection from their parents. They are mostly girls, who, to the delight of their parents, retain their full infantile love far beyond p.u.b.erty, and it is instructive to find that in their married life these girls are incapable of fulfilling their duties to their husbands. They make cold wives and remain s.e.xually anesthetic. This shows that the apparently non-s.e.xual love for the parents and the s.e.xual love are nourished from the same source, _i.e._, that the first merely corresponds to an infantile fixation of the libido.

The nearer we come to the deeper disturbances of the psychos.e.xual development the more easily we can recognize the evident significance of the incestuous object-selection. As a result of s.e.xual rejection there remains in the unconscious of the psychoneurotic a great part or the whole of the psychos.e.xual activity for object finding. Girls with an excessive need for affection and an equal horror for the real demands of the s.e.xual life experience an uncontrollable temptation on the one hand to realize in life the ideal of the as.e.xual love and on the other hand to conceal their libido under an affection which they may manifest without self reproach; this they do by clinging for life to the infantile attraction for their parents or brothers or sisters which has been repressed in p.u.b.erty. With the help of the symptoms and other morbid manifestations, psychoa.n.a.lysis can trace their unconscious thoughts and translate them into the conscious, and thus easily show to such persons that they are in love with their consanguinous relations in the popular meaning of the term. Likewise when a once healthy person falls sick after an unhappy love affair, the mechanism of the disease can distinctly be explained as a return of his libido to the persons preferred in his infancy.

*The After Effects of the Infantile Object Selection.*--Even those who have happily eluded the incestuous fixation of their libido have not completely escaped its influence. It is a distinct echo of this phase of development that the first serious love of the young man is often for a mature woman and that of the girl for an older man equipped with authority--_i.e._, for persons who can revive in them the picture of the mother and father. Generally speaking object selection unquestionably takes place by following more freely these prototypes. The man seeks above all the memory picture of his mother as it has dominated him since the beginning of childhood; this is quite consistent with the fact that the mother, if still living, strives against this, her renewal, and meets it with hostility. In view of this significance of the infantile relation to the parents for the later selection of the s.e.xual object, it is easy to understand that every disturbance of this infantile relation brings to a head the most serious results for the s.e.xual life after p.u.b.erty. Jealousy of the lover, too, never lacks the infantile sources or at least the infantile reinforcement. Quarrels between parents and unhappy marital relations between the same determine the severest predispositions for disturbed s.e.xual development or neurotic diseases in the children.

The infantile desire for the parents is, to be sure, the most important, but not the only trace revived in p.u.b.erty which points the way to the object selection. Other dispositions of the same origin permit the man, still supported by his infancy, to develop more than one single s.e.xual series and to form different determinations for the object selection.[11]

*Prevention of Inversion.*--One of the tasks imposed in the object selection consists in not missing the opposite s.e.x. This, as we know, is not solved without some difficulty. The first feelings after p.u.b.erty often enough go astray, though not with any permanent injury. Dessoir has called attention to the normality of the enthusiastic friendships formed by boys and girls with their own s.e.x. The greatest force which guards against a permanent inversion of the s.e.xual object is surely the attraction exerted by the opposite s.e.x characters on each other. For this we can give no explanation in connection with this discussion. This factor, however, does not in itself suffice to exclude the inversion; besides this there are surely many other supporting factors. Above all, there is the authoritative inhibition of society; experience shows that where the inversion is not considered a crime it fully corresponds to the s.e.xual inclinations of many persons. Moreover, it may be a.s.sumed that in the man the infantile memories of the mother's tenderness, as well as that of other females who cared for him as a child, energetically a.s.sist in directing his selection to the woman, while the early s.e.xual intimidation experienced through the father and the att.i.tude of rivalry existing between them deflects the boy from the same s.e.x. Both factors also hold true in the case of the girl whose s.e.xual activity is under the special care of the mother. This results in a hostile relation to the same s.e.x which decisively influences the object selection in the normal sense. The bringing up of boys by male persons (slaves in the ancient times) seems to favor h.o.m.os.e.xuality; the frequency of inversion in the present day n.o.bility is probably explained by their employment of male servants, and by the scant care that mothers of that cla.s.s give to their children. It happens in some hysterics that one of the parents has disappeared (through death, divorce, or estrangement), thus permitting the remaining parent to absorb all the love of the child, and in this way establishing the determinations for the s.e.x of the person to be selected later as the s.e.xual object; thus a permanent inversion is made possible.

SUMMARY

It is now time to attempt a summing-up. We have started from the aberrations of the s.e.xual impulse in reference to its object and aim and have encountered the question whether these originate from a congenital predisposition, or whether they are acquired in consequence of influences from life. The answer to this question was reached through an examination of the relations of the s.e.xual life of psychoneurotics, a numerous group not very remote from the normal. This examination has been made through psychoa.n.a.lytic investigations. We have thus found that a tendency to all perversions might be demonstrated in these persons in the form of unconscious forces revealing themselves as symptom creators and we could say that the neurosis is, as it were, the negative of the perversion. In view of the now recognized great diffusion of tendencies to perversion the idea forced itself upon us that the disposition to perversions is the primitive and universal disposition of the human s.e.xual impulse, from which the normal s.e.xual behavior develops in consequence of organic changes and psychic inhibitions in the course of maturity. We hoped to be able to demonstrate the original disposition in the infantile life; among the forces restraining the direction of the s.e.xual impulse we have mentioned shame, loathing and sympathy, and the social constructions of morality and authority. We have thus been forced to perceive in every fixed aberration from the normal s.e.xual life a fragment of inhibited development and infantilism. The significance of the variations of the original dispositions had to be put into the foreground, but between them and the influences of life we had to a.s.sume a relation of cooperation and not of opposition. On the other hand, as the original disposition must have been a complex one, the s.e.xual impulse itself appeared to us as something composed of many factors, which in the perversions becomes separated, as it were, into its components. The perversions, thus prove themselves to be on the one hand inhibitions, and on the other dissociations from the normal development.

Both conceptions became united in the a.s.sumption that the s.e.xual impulse of the adult due to the composition of the diverse feelings of the infantile life became formed into one unit, one striving, with one single aim.

We also added an explanation for the preponderance of perversive tendencies in the psychoneurotics by recognizing in these tendencies collateral fillings of side branches caused by the shifting of the main river bed through repression, and we then turned our examination to the s.e.xual life of the infantile period.[12] We found it regrettable that the existence of a s.e.xual life in infancy has been disputed, and that the s.e.xual manifestations which have been often observed in children have been described as abnormal occurrences. It rather seemed to us that the child brings along into the world germs of s.e.xual activity and that even while taking nourishment it at the same time also enjoys a s.e.xual gratification which it then seeks again to procure for itself through the familiar activity of "thumbsucking." The s.e.xual activity of the child, however, does not develop in the same measure as its other functions, but merges first into the so-called latency period from the age of three to the age of five years. The production of s.e.xual excitation by no means ceases at this period but continues and furnishes a stock of energy, the greater part of which is utilized for aims other than s.e.xual; namely, on the one hand for the delivery of s.e.xual components for social feelings, and on the other hand (by means of repression and reaction formation) for the erection of the future s.e.xual barriers. Accordingly, the forces which are destined to hold the s.e.xual impulse in certain tracks are built up in infancy at the expense of the greater part of the perverse s.e.xual feelings and with the a.s.sistance of education. Another part of the infantile s.e.xual manifestations escapes this utilization and may manifest itself as s.e.xual activity. It can then be discovered that the s.e.xual excitation of the child flows from diverse sources. Above all gratifications originate through the adapted sensible excitation of so-called erogenous zones. For these probably any skin region or sensory organ may serve; but there are certain distinguished erogenous zones the excitation of which by certain organic mechanisms is a.s.sured from the beginning. Moreover, s.e.xual excitation originates in the organism, as it were, as a by-product in a great number of processes, as soon as they attain a certain intensity; this especially takes place in all strong emotional excitements even if they be of a painful nature. The excitations from all these sources do not yet unite, but they pursue their aim individually--this aim consisting merely in the gaining of a certain pleasure. The s.e.xual impulse of childhood is therefore objectless or _autoerotic_.

Still during infancy the erogenous zone of the genitals begins to make itself noticeable, either by the fact that like any other erogenous zone it furnishes gratification through a suitable sensible stimulus, or because in some incomprehensible way the gratification from other sources causes at the same time the s.e.xual excitement which has a special connection with the genital zone. We found cause to regret that a sufficient explanation of the relations between s.e.xual gratification and s.e.xual excitement, as well as between the activity of the genital zone and the remaining sources of s.e.xuality, was not to be attained.

We were unable to state what amount of s.e.xual activity in childhood might be designated as normal to the extent of being incapable of further development. The character of the s.e.xual manifestation showed itself to be preponderantly masturbatic. We, moreover, verified from experience the belief that the external influences of seduction, might produce premature breaches in the latency period leading as far as the suppression of the same, and that the s.e.xual impulse of the child really shows itself to be polymorphous-perverse; furthermore, that every such premature s.e.xual activity impairs the educability of the child.