59

III

THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBERTY

With the beginning of puberty the changes set in which trans
form the infantile sexual life into its definite normal form. Hith
erto the sexual impulse has been preponderately autoerotic; it
now finds the sexual object. Thus far it has manifested itself
in single impulses and in erogenous zones seeking a certain
pleasure as a single sexual aim. A new sexual aim now appears
for the production of which all partial impulses coöperate, while
the erogenous zones subordinate themselves under the primacy
of the genital zone. As the new sexual aim assigns very different
functions to the two sexes their sexual developments now part
company. The sexual development of the man is more con
sistent and easier to understand, while in the woman there even
appears a form of regression. The normality of the sexual life
is guaranteed only by the exact concurrence of the two streams
directed to the sexual object and sexual aim. It is like the
piercing of a tunnel from opposite sides.

The new sexual aim in the man consists in the discharging of
the sexual products; it is not markedly different from the former
sexual aim in its manner of obtaining pleasure; on the contrary,
the highest amount of pleasure is connected with this final act in
the sexual process. The sexual impulse now enters into the ser
vice of the function of propagation; it becomes, so to say, altru
istic. If this transformation is to succeed its process must be
adjusted to the original dispositions and all the peculiarities of
the impulses.

Just as on every other occasion where new connections and
compositions are to be formed in complicated mechanisms, here,

60

too, there is a possibility of morbid disturbance if the new order
of things does not take place.

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 puberty 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 geni-
tals develop to such an extent as to be able to furnish sexual
products for the reception and formation of 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 observa-
tion 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 “sexual excitation” and which manifests itself in
psychic and somatic signs. The psychic sign consists in a pecu-
liar 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 con-
stitute a preparation for the sexual act (the erection of the penis
and the glandular activity of the vagina).

The Sexual Tension.–The character of the tension of sexual
excitation is connected with a problem the solution of which
would be difficult but important for the conception of the sexual
process. Despite all divergence of opinion regarding it in psy-

61

chology, I must firmly maintain that a feeling of tension must
carry with it the character of displeasure. For me it is conclu-
sive 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 ten-
sion of the sexual excitation to the feelings of displeasure we
encounter the fact that it is undoubtedly pleasurably perceived.
The tension produced by sexual excitation is everywhere accom-
panied by pleasure; even in the preparatory changes of the geni-
tals 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 impor-
tant rôle devolves upon them in the preparation of the sexual
excitation. The eye which is very remote from the sexual 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 sexual object.
The excellencies of the sexual object are therefore also called
“attractions.” This excitation is on the one hand already con-
nected with pleasure, and on the other hand it either results in
an increase of the sexual 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 prepara-
tory changes, and on the other hand there is a further increase
of the sexual 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

62

the case where an erogenous zone, like a woman's breast, is
excited by touching in a person who is not sexually excited at
the time. This touching in itself evokes a feeling of pleasure,
but nothing is better adapted to awaken sexual excitement which
demands a greater portion of pleasure. How it happens that the
perceived pleasure evokes the desire for greater pleasure, that
is the real problem.

Fore-pleasure Mechanism.—But the rôle 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 sexual act. The last
part but one of this act is again a suitable excitation of an eroge-
nous zone; i. e., the genital zone proper of the glans penis is
excited by the object most fit for it, the mucous membrane of the
vagina, and through the pleasure furnished by this excitation it
now produces reflexly the motor energy which conveys to the
surface the sexual substance. This last pleasure is highest in
its intensity, and differs from the earliest ones in its mechanism.
It is altogether produced through discharge and it is altogether
a pleasure of gratification; the tension of the libido temporarily
dies away with it.

It does not seem to me unauthorized to fix by name the dis-
tinction in the nature of these pleasures, the one through the
excitation of the erogenous zones, and the other through the
discharge of the sexual substance. In contradistinction to the
end-pleasure, or pleasure of gratification of sexual activity, we
can properly designate the first as fore-pleasure. The fore-
pleasure is then the same as that furnished by the infantile sexual
impulse, though on a reduced scale; while the end-pleasure is new
and is probably connected with determinations which first appear
in puberty. The formula for the new function of the erogenous
zones reads as follows: they are utilized for the purpose of

63

making possible the production of the greater pleasure of grati-
fication 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 feel-
ing of pleasure which acts as an alluring premium. We had
there also the opportunity of entering more deeply into the nature
of pleasure.¹

Dangers of the Fore-pleasure.—However the connection of
fore-pleasure with the infantile life is strengthened by the patho-
genic rôle which may devolve upon it. The mechanism shelter-
ing the fore-pleasure may result in a danger for the attainment of
the normal sexual aim. This occurs if it happens that there is
too much fore-pleasure and too little tension on any part of the
preparatory sexual process. The motive power for the further
continuation of the sexual process then escapes, the whole road
becomes shortened, and the preparatory action in question takes
the place of the normal sexual aim. Experience shows that such
a hurtful case is determined by the fact that the erogenous zone
concerned or the corresponding partial impulse has already con-
tributed an unusual amount of pleasure in infantile life. If other
factors favoring fixation are added a compulsion readily results
which prevents the fore-pleasure from arrang-
ing 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 sexual process.

The failure of the function of the sexual 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 infan-
tile life. The preparations of the second half of childhood (from

¹See my work “Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten”:
“The fore-pleasure gained by the technique of wit is utilized for the pur-
pose of setting free a greater pleasure by the removal of inner inhibitions.”

64

the eighth year to puberty) 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 prepara-
tory changes if any kind of pleasure is experienced through the
gratification of other erogenous zones; although this effect re-
mains aimless, i. e., it contributes nothing towards the continua-
tion of the sexual process. Besides the pleasure of gratification
a certain amount of sexual tension appears even in infancy,
though it is less constant and less abundant. We can now under-
stand also why in the discussion of the sources of sexuality we
had a perfectly good reason for saying that the process in ques-
tion acts as sexual gratification as well as sexual excitement. We
note that on our way towards the truth we have at first enor-
mously exaggerated the distinctions between the infantile and
the mature sexual life, and we therefore supplement what has
been said with a correction. The infantile manifestations of
sexuality determine not only the deviations from the normal
sexual life but also the normal formations of the same.

THE PROBLEM OF SEXUAL EXCITEMENT

It remained to us above entirely unexplained whence the sexual
tension comes which originates simultaneously with the gratifi-
cation 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, inas-
much as during the greatest pleasure which is connected with the
voiding of sexual substance there is no production of tension but
rather a removal of all tension. Hence, pleasure and sexual ten-
sion can be only indirectly connected.

The Rôle of the Sexual Substance.–Aside from the fact that
only the discharge of the sexual substance can normally put an
end to the sexual excitement, there are other essential facts which
bring the sexual tension into relation with the sexual products.
In a life of continence the sexual activity is wont to discharge

65

the sexual substance at night during pleasurable dream halluci-
nations of a sexual act, this discharge coming at changing but
not at entirely capricious intervals; and the following interpreta-
tion of this process—the nocturnal pollution—can hardly be re-
jected, viz., that the sexual tension which brings about a substi-
tute for the sexual act by the short hallucinatory road is a function
of the accumulated semen in the reservoirs for the sexual prod-
ucts. Experiences with the exhaustibility of the sexual mech-
anism speak for the same thing. Where there is no stock of
semen it is not only impossible to accomplish the sexual 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 sexual tension is
itself necessary for the excitability of the erogenous zones.

One is thus forced to the assumption, which if I am not mis-
taken is quite generally adopted, that the accumulation of sexual
substance produces and maintains the sexual tension. The pres-
sure of these products on the walls of their receptacles acts as
an excitant on the spinal center, the state of which is then per-
ceived by the higher centers which then produce in consciousness
the familiar feeling of tension. If the excitation of erogenous
zones increases the sexual tension, it can only be due to the fact
that the erogenous zones are connected with these centers by pre-
viously formed anatomical connections. They increase there the
tone of the excitation, and with sufficient sexual tension they set
in motion the sexual act, and with insufficient tension they merely
stimulate a production of the sexual substance.

The weakness of the theory which one finds adopted, e. g., in
v. Krafft-Ebing’s description of the sexual process, lies in the
fact that it has been formed for the sexual 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

66

none of the three cases can we speak of an accumulation of sexual
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. At all events one
should be cautious about burdening the factor of accumulation
of sexual products with actions which it seems incapable of
supporting.

Overestimation of the Internal Genitals.—That sexual excite-
ment can be to a considerable extent independent of the produc-
tion of sexual 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 sexuality, 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 sexual character by removing the germ glands. To be
sure, castration performed at a delicate age, before puberty, comes
nearer to this aim, but it would seem in this case that besides the
loss of the sexual 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 sexual
excitement for the reason that we do not know with what organ
or organs sexuality is connected, since we have seen that the
sexual glands have been overestimated in this significance. Since
surprising discoveries have taught us the important rôle of the
thyroid gland in sexuality, we may assume that the knowledge
of the essential factors of sexuality are still withheld from us.
One who feels the need of filling up the large gap in our knowl-

67

edge with a preliminary assumption may formulate for himself
the following theory based on the active substances found in the
thyroid. Through the adapted excitement of erogenous zones,
as well as through other conditions under which sexual excite-
ment 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 transforma-
tion 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 sexual processes is not now our appropriate
task. To be sure, I attach no value to this special assumption
and I shall be quite ready to give it up in favor of another, pro-
vided its original character, the emphasis on the sexual chemism,
were preserved. For this apparently arbitrary statement is sup-
ported by a fact which, though little heeded, is most noteworthy.
The neuroses which can be traced only to disturbances of the
sexual life show the greatest clinical resemblance to the phe-
nomena of intoxication and abstinence which result through
the habitual introduction of pleasure-producing poisonous sub-
stances (alkaloids).

DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN

It is known that the sharp differentiation of the male and
female character originates at puberty, and it is the resulting
difference which, more than any other factor, decisively influ-
ences the later development of personality. To be sure, the male
and female dispositions are easily recognizable even in infantile
life; thus the development of sexual inhibitions (shame, loathing,
sympathy, etc.) ensues earlier and with less resistance in the
little girl than in the little boy. The tendency to sexual repres-
sion certainly seems much greater, and where partial impulses

68 THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SEXUAL THEORY

of sexuality are noticed they show a preference for the passive
form. But the autoerotic activity of the erogenous zones is the
same in both sexes, and it is this agreement that removes the pos-
sibility of a sex differentiation in childhood as it appears after
puberty. In respect to the autoerotic and masturbatic sexual
manifestations, it may be asserted that the sexuality 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, be it in the man or in the woman; and if
we consider its object, this may be either the man or the woman.

Since becoming acquainted with the aspect of bisexuality I
hold this factor as here decisive, and I believe that without taking
into account the factor of bisexuality it will hardly be possible
to understand the actually observed sexual 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 clitoris, which is homologous to the male penis.
All I have been able to discover concerning masturbation in little
girls concerned the clitoris and not those other external genitals
which are so important for the later sexual functions. With few
exceptions I myself doubt whether the female child can be seduced
to anything but clitoris masturbation. The frequent spontaneous
discharges of sexual excitement in little girls manifest themselves
in a twitching of the clitoris, and the frequent erections of the
same enable the girl to understand correctly even without any
instruction the sexual manifestations of the other sex ; they simply
transfer to the boys the sensations of their own sexual processes.

If one wishes to understand how the little girl becomes a
woman, he must follow up the further destinies of this clitoris
excitation. Puberty, 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 clitoris sexuality. It is a part of

69

THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBERTY

the male sexual life that merges into repression. The reënforce-
ment of the sexual inhibitions produced in the woman by the
repression of puberty 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 sexual, which
can be present in its full force only when the woman refuses and
denies her sexuality. If the sexual act is finally submitted to
and the clitoris becomes excited its rôle 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 clitoris 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
vaginal entrance but not at all unexcitable through the clitoris 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
clitoris to the vagina has succeeded, the woman has thus changed
her leading zone for the future sexual activity; the man on the
other hand retains his from childhood. The main determinants
for the woman’s preference for the neuroses, especially for hys-
teria, lie in this change of the leading zone as well as in the repres-
sion of puberty. These determinants are therefore most inti-
mately connected with the nature of femininity.

THE OBJECT-FINDING

While the primacy of the genital zones is being established
through the processes of puberty, and the erected penis in the
man imperiously points towards the new sexual aim, i. e., towards
the penetration of a cavity which excites the genital zone, the

70

object-
finding, for which also preparations have been made since
early childhood, becomes consummated on the psychic side.
While the very incipient sexual gratifications are still connected
with the taking of nourishment, the sexual impulse has a sexual
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 sexual im-
pulse later regularly becomes autoerotic, and only after over-
coming the latency period is there a resumption of the original
relation. It is not without good reason that the suckling of the
child from its mother’s breast has become a model for every
amour. The object-finding is really a re-finding.

The Sexual Object of the Nursing Period.—However, even
after the separation of the sexual activity from the taking of
nourishment, there still remains from this first and most impor-
tant of all sexual relations an important share, which prepares the
object selection and assists in reëstablishing the lost happiness.
Throughout the latency period the child learns to love other per-
sons who assist it in its helplessness and gratify its wants; all
this follows the model and is a continuation of the child’s infan-
tile relations to his wet nurse. One may perhaps hesitate to
identify the tender feelings and esteem of the child for his foster-
parents with sexual love; I believe, however, that a more thor-
ough psychological investigation will establish this identity beyond
any doubt. The intercourse between the child and its foster-
parents is for the former an inexhaustible source of sexual exci-
tation 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 sexual life; she pats it, kisses it,
and rocks it, plainly taking it as a substitute for a full-valued
sexual object.²

²Those to whom this conception appears “wicked” may read Havelock
Ellis’s treatise on the relations between mother and child which expresses
almost the same ideas (The Sexual Impulse, p. 16).

71

were explained to her that all her tenderness awakens the sexual
impulse of her child and prepares its future intensity. She con-
siders her actions as asexually “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 sexual
impulse is not awakened by the excitation of genital zones alone.
What we call tenderness will some day surely manifest its influ-
ence on the genital zones also. If the mother better understood
the high significance of the sexual 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 sexual needs, and accomplish in life all that the
impulse urges the man to do. Of course, too much parental ten-
derness becomes harmful because it accelerates the sexual matur-
ity, 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 ner-
vousness 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 dis-
eases. 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 sexual love. The fear of children is origi-
nally 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

72

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 sexual impulse
is excessive or prematurely developed, or has become pretentious
through pampering. The child behaves here like the adult, that
is, it changes its libido into fear when it cannot bring it to grati-
fication, 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.³

Incest Barriers.—If the tenderness of the parents for the
child has luckily failed to awaken the sexual impulse of the child
prematurely, i. e., before the physical determinations for puberty
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 sexual object. It
would, of course, be most natural for the child to select as the
sexual object that person whom it has loved since childhood with,
so to speak, a suppressed libido. But owing to the delay of sexual
maturity time has been gained for the erection beside the sexual
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 explanation of the origin of the infantile fear I am indebted
to a three-year-old boy whom I once heard calling from a dark room:
“Aunt, talk to me, I am afraid because it is dark.” “How will that
help you,” answered the aunt; “you cannot see anyhow.” “That’s
nothing,” answered the child; “If some one talks then it becomes light.”
—He was, as we see, not afraid of the darkness but he was afraid because
he missed the person he loved, and he could promise to calm down as
soon as he was assured of her presence.

73

the production of higher social units. Society, therefore, uses
every means to loosen those family ties in every individual, espe-
cially in the boy, which are authoritative in childhood only.
The object selection, however, is first accomplished in the
imagination, and the sexual 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 reënforced by somatic
emphasis, reappear, and among them one finds in lawful fre-
quency and in first place the sexual feeling of the child for the
parents. This has usually already been differentiated by the
sexual attraction, the attraction of the son for the mother and
of the daughter for the father.¹⁾ Simultaneously with the over-
coming 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 puberty; it is the break-
ing 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 every station in the course of development through
which the individual must pass; 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 puberty, 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
sexually anesthetic. This shows that the apparently non-sexual
love for the parents and the sexual 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 psycho-
 

¹⁾Compare the description concerning the inevitable relation in the
Œdipus fable (Traumdeutung, 2d edition, p. 185).

74

sexual development the more easily we can recognize the evident
significance of the incestuous object-selection. As a result of
sexual rejection there remains in the unconscious of the psycho-
neurotic a great part or the whole of the psychosexual activity for
object finding. Girls with an excessive need for affection and
an equal horror for the real demands of the sexual life, experience
an uncontrollable temptation on the one hand to realize in life
the ideal of the asexual 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 attrac-
tion for their parents or brothers or sisters which has been
repressed in puberty. With the help of the symptoms and other
morbid manifestations, psychoanalysis 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 consan-
guinous relations in the popular meaning of the term. Likewise
when a once healthy person merges into disease after an unhappy
love affair, the mechanism of the disease can distinctly be ex-
plained 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. Gener-
ally speaking object selection unquestionably takes place by fol-
lowing 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

75

sexual object, it is easy to understand that every disturbance of
this infantile relation brings to a head the most serious results
for the sexual life after puberty. Jealousy of the lover, too,
never lacks the infantile sources or at least the infantile reinforce-
ment. Quarrels between parents and unhappy marital relations
between the same determine the severest predispositions for dis-
turbed sexual 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 puberty 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 sexual series and to form different determi-
nations for the object selection.

Prevention of Inversion.—One of the resulting tasks in the
object selection consists in not missing the opposite sex. This,
as we know, is not solved without some difficulty. The first feel-
ings after puberty often enough go astray, though not with any
permanent injury. Dessoir has justly called attention to the
lawfulness betrayed in the enthusiastic friendships formed by
boys and girls with their own sex. The greatest force which
guards against a permanent inversion of the sexual object is
surely the attraction exerted by the opposite sex 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 authorita-
tive inhibition of society; experience shows that where the inver-
sion is not considered a crime it fully corresponds to the sexual
inclinations of many persons. Moreover, it may be assumed
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 assists in directing his selection to the woman; while
the girl, besides merging into a period of repression at the onset
of puberty, is detained from the love for the same sex through

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the incitements of the competitor. The bringing up of boys by
male persons (slaves in the ancient times) seems to favor homo-
sexuality; the frequency of inversion in the present day nobility
is probably explained by their employment of male servants, and
by the scant care that mothers of that class give to their children.
It happens in some hysterics that one of the parents has disap-
peared (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 sex of the person
to be selected later as the sexual object; thus a permanent inver-
sion is made possible.

SUMMARY

It is now time to attempt a summarization. We have started
from the aberrations of the sexual 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 sexual life of psychoneurotics, a numerous group not very
remote from the normal. This examination has been made
through psychoanalytic 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 recog-
nized 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 sexual impulse, from
which the normal sexual behavior develops in consequence of
organic changes and psychic inhibitions in the course of maturity.
We hope to be able to demonstrate the original disposition in the
infantile life; among the forces restraining the direction of the
sexual impulse we have mentioned shame, loathing and sympathy,

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and the social constructions of morality and authority. We have
thus been forced to perceive in every fixed aberration from the
normal sexual life a fragment of inhibited development and in-
fantilism. The significance of the variations of the primitive
dispositions had to be put into the foreground, but between them
and the influences of life we had to assume a relation of coöpera-
tion and not of opposition. On the other hand, as the primitive
disposition must be a complex one, the sexual impulse itself
appeared to us as something composed of many factors, which in
the perversions becomes separated, as it were, into its compo-
nents. 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 assump-
tion that the sexual impulse of the adult originates through the
comprehension of the diverse feelings of the infantile life into
one unit and one aspiration with one single aim.

We also added an explanation for the preponderance of perver-
sive tendencies in the psychoneurotics by recognizing in these
tendencies collateral fillings of side branches caused by the shift-
ing of the main river bed through repression, and we then turned
our examination to the sexual life of the infantile period. We
found it deplorable that the existence of a sexual life in infancy
has been disputed, and that the sexual 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 sexual activity and that even while taking
nourishment it at the same time also enjoys a sexual gratification
which it then seeks to again procure for itself through the familiar
activity of “thumbsucking.” The sexual activity of the child,
however, does not develop in the same measure as its other func-
tions, but merges first into the so-called latency period. The
production of sexual 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 sexual; namely, on the one

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hand for the delivery of sexual components for social feelings,
and on the other hand (by means of repression and reaction
formation) for the erection of the future sexual barriers. Ac-
cordingly, the forces which are destined to hold the sexual impulse
in certain tracks are built up in infancy at the expense of the
greater part of the perverse sexual feelings and with the assist-
ance of the bringing up. Another part of the infantile sexual
manifestations escapes this utilization and may manifest itself as
sexual activity. It can then be discovered that the sexual excita-
tion of the child flows from diverse sources. Above all gratifi-
cations 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 mech-
anisms is assured from the beginning. Moreover, sexual excita-
tion originates in the organism, as it were, as a by-product in a
great number of processes, as soon as they attain a certain inten-
sity; 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 indi-
vidually—this aim consisting merely in the gaining of a certain
pleasure. The sexual impulse of childhood is therefore object-
less 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 sen-
sible stimulus or because in some incomprehensible way the
gratification from other sources causes at the same time the sexual
excitement which has a special connection with the genital zone.
We found cause to regret that a sufficient explanation of the
relations between sexual gratification and sexual excitement, as
well as between the activity of the genital zone and the remaining
sources of sexuality, was not to be attained.

We were unable to state what amount of sexual activity in

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childhood might be designated as normal—as activity which is
not carried on at the expense of further development. The char-
acter of the sexual manifestation showed itself to be preponder-
ately 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 sexual impulse of the child
really shows itself to be polymorphous perverse; furthermore,
that every such premature sexual activity impairs the educability
of the child.

Despite the incompleteness of our examinations of the infantile
sexual life we were subsequently forced to attempt to study the
serious changes produced by the appearance of puberty. We
selected two of the same as criteria, namely, the subordination of
all other sources of the sexual feeling to the primacy of the
genital zones, and the process of object finding. The first is
accomplished through the mechanism of utilizing the fore-
pleasure, whereby all other independent sexual acts which are
connected with pleasure and excitement become preparatory acts
for the new sexual aim, the voiding of the sexual products, the
attainment of which under enormous pleasure puts an end to the
sexual feeling. At the same time we had to consider the differ-
entiation of the sexual nature of man and woman, and we found
that in order to become a woman a new repression is required
which abolishes a piece of infantile masculinity, and prepares the
woman for the change of the leading genital zones. Lastly, we
found the object selection, tracing it through infancy to its revival
in puberty; we also found indications of sexual inclinations on
the part of the child for the parents and foster-parents, which,
however, were turned away from these persons to others resem-
bling them by the incest barriers which had been erected in the
meantime. Let us finally add that during the transition period
of puberty the somatic and psychic processes of development pro-
ceed side by side, but separately, until the normally acquired

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unification in the function of love has been established by the
breaking through of an intensive psychic feeling of love for the
innervation of the genitals.

The Factors Disturbing the Development.—As we have
already shown by different examples, every step on this long road
of development may become a point of fixation and every joint
in this complicated structure may afford opportunity for a disso-
ciation of the sexual impulse. It still remains for us to review
the various inner and outer factors which disturb the develop-
ment, and to mention the part of the mechanism affected by the
disturbance emanating from them. The factors which we men-
tion here in a series cannot, of course, all be in themselves of
equal validity and we must expect to meet with difficulties in the
assigning to the individual factors their due importance.

Constitution and Heredity.—In the first place, we must men-
tion here the congenital variation in the sexual constitution, upon
which the greatest weight probably falls, but the existence of
which, as may be easily understood, can be established only
through its later manifestations and even then not always with
great certainty. We understand by it a preponderance of one
or another of the manifold sources of the sexual feeling, and we
believe that such a difference of disposition must always come to
expression in the final result, even if it should remain within
normal limits. Of course, we can also imagine certain variations
of the original disposition that even without further aid must
necessarily lead to the formation of an abnormal sexual life.
We can call these “degenerative” and consider them as an ex-
pression of hereditary deterioration. In this connection I have
to report a remarkable fact. In more than half of the severe
cases of hysteria, compulsion neuroses, etc., which I have treated
by psychotherapy, I have succeeded in positively demonstrating
that their fathers have gone through an attack of syphilis before
marriage; they have either suffered from tabes or general paresis,
or there was a definite history of lues. I expressly add that the

81

children who were later neurotic showed absolutely no signs of
hereditary lues, so that the abnormal sexual constitution was to
be considered as the last off-
shoot of the luetic heredity. As far
as it is now from my thoughts to put down a descent from syphi-
litic parents as a regular and indispensable etiological determina-
tion of the neuropathic constitution, I nevertheless maintain that
the coincidence observed by me is not accidental and not without
significance.

The hereditary relations of the positive perverts are not so well
known because they know how to avoid inquiry. Still there is
reason to believe that the same holds true in the perversions as
in the neuroses. We often find perversions and psychoneuroses
in the different sexes of the same family, so distributed that the
male members, or one of them, is a positive pervert, while the
females, following the repressive tendencies of their sex, are
negative perverts or hysterics. This is a good example of the
substantial relations between the two disturbances which I have
discovered.

It cannot, however, be maintained that our notion of the struc-
ture of the sexual life is rendered finally complete by the addition
of the diverse components of the sexual constitution. On the
contrary, qualifications continue to appear and new possibilities
result, depending upon the fate experienced by the sexual streams
originating from the individual sources. This further elabora-
tion is evidently the final and decisive one and the constitution
described as uniform may lead to three final issues. If all the
dispositions assumed to be abnormal retain their relative propor-
tion, and are strengthened with maturity, the ultimate result can
only be a perverse sexual life. The analysis of such abnormally
constituted dispositions has not yet been thoroughly undertaken,
but we already know cases that can be readily explained in the
light of these theories. Authors believe, for example, that a
whole series of fixation perversions must necessarily have had

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as their basis a congenital weakness of the sexual impulse. The
statement seems to me untenable in this form, but it becomes
ingenious if it refers to a constitutional weakness of one factor
in the sexual impulse, namely, the genital zone, which later in the
interests of propagation accepts as a function the sum of the indi-
vidual sexual activities. In this case the summation which is
demanded in puberty must fail and the strongest of the other
sexual components continues its activity as a perversion.

Repression.—Another issue results if in the course of develop-
ment certain powerful components experience a repression—which
we must carefully note is not a suspension. The excitations in
question are produced as usual but are prevented from attaining
their aim by psychic hindrances, and are driven off into many
other paths until they express themselves in a symptom. The
result can be an almost normal sexual life—usually a limited
one—but with the addition of a psychoneurotic disease. It is
these cases that become so familiar to us through the psycho-
analytic investigation of neurotics. The sexual life of such per-
sons begins like that of perverts, a considerable part of their
childhood is filled up with perverse sexual activity which occa-
sionally extends far beyond the period of maturity, but owing to
inner reasons a repressive change then results—usually before
puberty, but now and then even much later—and from this point
on without any extinction of the old feelings there appears a
neurosis instead of a perversion. One may recall here the say-
ing, “Junge Hure, alte Betschwester,”—only here youth has
turned out to be much too short. The relieving of the perver-
sion by the neurosis in the life of the same person, as well as the
above mentioned distribution of perversion and hysteria in dif-
ferent persons of the same family must be placed side by side with
the fact that the neurosis is the negative of the perversion.

Sublimation.—The third issue in abnormal constitutional dis-
positions is made possible by the process of “sublimation,”

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through which the powerful excitations from individual sources
of sexuality are discharged and utilized in other spheres, so that
a considerable increase of psychic capacity results from an, in
itself dangerous, predisposition. This forms one of the sources
of artistic activity, and, according as such sublimation is complete
or incomplete, the analysis of the character of highly gifted, espe-
cially of artistically disposed persons, will show any proportionate
blending between productive ability, perversion, and neurosis. A
sub-species of sublimation is the suppression through reaction-
formation, which, as we have found, begins even in the latency
period of infancy, only to continue throughout life in favorable
cases. What we call the character of a person is built up to a
great extent from the material of sexual excitations; it is com-
posed of impulses fixed since infancy and won through sublima-
tion, and of such constructions as are destined to suppress effect-
ually those perverse feelings which are recognized as useless.
The general perverse sexual disposition of childhood can there-
fore be esteemed as a source of a number of our virtues, insofar
as it incites their creation through the formation of reactions.⁵
Accidental Experiences.—All other influences lose in signifi-
cance when compared with the sexual discharges, repressions,
and sublimation; the inner determinations for the last two proc-
esses are totally unknown to us. He who includes repressions
and sublimations among constitutional predispositions, and con-
siders them as the living manifestations of the same, has surely
the right to maintain that the final structure of the sexual life is
above all the result of the congenital constitution. No intelligent

⁵That keen observer of human nature E. Zola, describes in his book La
Joie de vivre, a girl who in cheerful self renunciation offers all she has
in possession or expectation, her fortune and her life’s hopes to those
she loves without thought of return. The childhood of this girl was
dominated by an insatiable desire for love which whenever she was de-
preciated caused her to merge into a fit of cruelty.

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person, however, will dispute that in such a coöperation of factors
there is also room for the modifying influences of accidental
factors derived from experience in childhood and later on. We
may now continue with our task of enumerating the factors which
have become known to us as influential for the sexual develop-
ment, whether they be active forces or merely manifestations of
the same.

Prematurity.—Such a factor is the spontaneous sexual pre-
maturity which can be definitely demonstrated at least in the
etiology of the neuroses, though in itself it is as little adequate
for causation as the other factors. It manifests itself in a break-
ing through, shortening, or suspending of the infantile latency
period and becomes a cause of disturbances inasmuch as it pro-
vokes sexual manifestations which, either on account of the
unready state of the sexual inhibitions or because of the undevel-
oped state of the genital system, can only carry along the char-
acter of perversions. These tendencies to perversion may either
remain as such, or after the repression sets in they may become
motive powers for neurotic symptoms; at all events, the sexual
prematurity renders difficult the desirable later control of the
sexual impulse by the higher psychic influences, and enhances
the compulsive-like character which even without this prema-
turity would be claimed by the psychic representatives of the
impulse. Sexual prematurity often runs parallel with premature
intellectual development; it is found as such in the infantile his-
tory of the most distinguished and most productive individuals,
and in such connection it does not seem to act as pathogenically
as when appearing isolated.

Adhesion.—The significance of all premature sexual mani-
festations is enhanced by a psychic factor of unknown origin
which at present can be put down only as a psychological pre-
liminary. I believe that it is the heightened adhesion of fixedness
of these impressions of the sexual life which in later neurotics,

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as well as in perverts, must be added for the completion of the
other facts; for the same premature sexual manifestations in
other persons cannot impress themselves deeply enough to repeat
themselves compulsively and to succeed in prescribing the way
for the sexual impulse throughout later life. Perhaps a part of
the explanation for this adhesion lies in another psychic factor
which we cannot miss in the causation of the neuroses, namely,
in the preponderance which in the psychic life falls to the share
of memory traces as compared with recent impressions. This
factor is apparently independent of intellectual development and
grows with the growth of personal culture. In contrast to this
the savage has been characterized as “the unfortunate child of
the moment.”⁶ Owing to the oppositional relation existing be-
tween culture and the free development of sexuality, the results
of which may be traced far into the formation of our life, the
problem how the sexual life of the child evolves is of very little
importance for the later life in the lower stages of culture and
civilization, and of very great importance in the higher.

Fixation.—The influence of the psychic factors just mentioned
favored the development of the accidentally experienced impulses
of the infantile sexuality. The latter (especially in the form of
seductions through other children or through adults) produce the
material which, with the help of the former, may become fixed
as a permanent disturbance. A considerable number of the
deviations from the normal sexual life observed later have been
thus established in neurotics and perverts from the beginning
through the impressions received during the alleged sexually free
period of childhood. The causation may thus be divided into the
responsiveness of the constitution, the prematurity, the quality
of heightened adhesion, and the accidental excitement of the
sexual impulse through outside influence.

^*It is possible that the heightened adhesion is only the result of a special
intensive somatic sexual manifestation of former years.

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The unsatisfactory conclusion which must result from an inves-
tigation of the disturbances of the sexual life is due to the fact
that we as yet know too little concerning the biological processes
in which the nature of sexuality consists to form from our isolated
examinations a satisfactory theory for the explanation of either
the normal or the pathological.