DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT
The sex instinct, in the course of development from its infantile
aspect to its adult manifestation, goes through well-marked phases
which are little known outside the ranks of the psychotherapists, but
which are of great importance to the educationalist and sociologist.
The sexuality of the child is simply a capacity for deriving
gratification from certain feelings, and it is a diffused and vague
sensation that he experiences; this capacity, however, as the child
grows older, becomes gradually concentrated upon its physiological
channels of activity, and as it becomes concentrated it increases in
intensity, just as the placid waters of a broad and shallow river
become deep and headlong in a ravine.
The interests of a very young child only gradually extend beyond his
own bodily sensations, and he therefore leads an existence that is
self-centred beyond any adult conception of the term. The organs of
reproduction, being very highly nerved in preparation for their future
functions, are found to be capable of keener sensation than the rest of
the body, and therefore attract his attention. This is the AUTO-EROTIC
STAGE.
The, to a child, striking manifestations connected with the exercise of
the bodily functions also attract his interest. This is the COPROPHILIC
STAGE.
Later, his curiosity concerning his own body being satisfied, he begins
to be curious concerning the bodies of others. This is called the
HOMOSEXUAL STAGE, the stage wherein he is interested in bodies of the
same sex as his own, but it might more truly be called the stage of
undifferentiated interest, for the child is only interested in those
who are made in the same way as himself, because he is not aware that
anyone is made differently.
This curiosity being outgrown, his interest is transferred to those who
are different from himself, regardless as to whether they are closely
related to him or not. Soon, however, he begins to differentiate
between his immediate relations and those who are less closely
connected. This is called by psychologists “the raising of the incest
barriers,” but to the child it appears simply as a moving on of the
focus of interest; he is no longer attracted by his mother and sisters,
not because he feels it is wrong to have such feelings towards them,
but because familiarity breeds contempt, and gives rise to the state of
mind that is expressed in the phrase “insipid as sisters’ kisses.”
The child has now attained the adult attitude towards sex, and it only
remains for the physical organs to make their corresponding development
at the time of puberty for the circuit to be complete.