formed tendency to perversions is characteristic of the psychoneurotic
constitution, there is a prospect of being able to distinguish a
multiformity of such constitutions in accordance with the congenital
preponderance of this or that erogenous zone, or of this or that partial
impulse. Whether there is a special relationship between the
predisposition to perversions and the selection of the morbid picture
has not, like many other things in this realm, been investigated.
REFERENCE TO THE INFANTILISM OF SEXUALITY
By demonstrating the perverted feelings as symptomatic formations in
psychoneurotics, we have enormously increased the number of persons who
can be added to the perverts. This is not only because neurotics
represent a very large proportion of humanity, but we must consider also
that the neuroses in all their gradations run in an uninterrupted series
to the normal state. Moebius was quite justified in saying that we are
all somewhat hysterical. Hence, the very wide dissemination of
perversions urged us to assume that the predisposition to perversions is
no rare peculiarity but must form a part of the normally accepted
constitution.
We have heard that it is a question whether perversions should be
referred to congenital determinations or whether they originate from
accidental experiences, just as Binet showed in fetichisms. Now we are
forced to the conclusion that there is indeed something congenital at
the basis of perversions, but it is something _which is congenital in
all persons_, which as a predisposition may fluctuate in intensity and
is brought into prominence by influences of life. We deal here with
congenital roots in the constitution of the sexual impulse which in one
series of cases develop into real carriers of sexual activity
(perverts); while in other cases they undergo an insufficient
suppression (repression), so that as morbid symptoms they are enabled to
attract to themselves in a round-about way a considerable part of the
sexual energy; while again in favorable cases between the two extremes
they originate the normal sexual life through effective restrictions and
other elaborations.
But we must also remember that the assumed constitution which shows the
roots of all perversions will be demonstrable only in the child, though
all impulses can be manifested in it only in moderate intensity. If we
are led to suppose that neurotics conserve the infantile state of their
sexuality or return to it, our interest must then turn to the sexual
life of the child, and we will then follow the play of influences which
control the processes of development of the infantile sexuality up to
its termination in a perversion, a neurosis or a normal sexual life.
[1] The facts contained in the first "Contribution" have been gathered
from the familiar publications of Krafft-Ebing, Moll, Moebius, Havelock
Ellis, Schrenk-Notzing, Löwenfeld, Eulenberg, J. Bloch, and M.
Hirschfeld, and from the later works published in the "Jahrbuch für
sexuelle Zwischenstufen." As these publications also mention the other
literature bearing on this subject I may forbear giving detailed
references.
The conclusions reached through the investigation of sexual inverts are
all based on the reports of J. Sadger and on my own experience.
[2] For general use the word "libido" is best translated by "craving."
(Prof. James J. Putnam, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. IV, 6.)
[3] For the difficulties entailed in the attempt to ascertain the
proportional number of inverts compare the work of M. Hirschfeld in the
Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, 1904. Cf. also Brill, The
Conception of Homosexuality, Journal of the A.M.A., August 2, 1913.
[4] Such a striving against the compulsion to inversion favors cures by
suggestion of psychoanalysis.
[5] Many have justly emphasized the fact that the autobiographic
statements of inverts, as to the time of the appearance of their
tendency to inversion, are untrustworthy as they may have repressed from
memory any evidences of heterosexual feelings.
Psychoanalysis has confirmed this suspicion in all cases of inversion
accessible, and has decidedly changed their anamnesis by filling up the
infantile amnesias.
[6] With what reserve the diagnosis of degeneration should be made and
what slight practical significance can be attributed to it can be
gathered from the discussions of Moebius (Ueber Entartung; Grenzfragen
des Nerven- und Seelenlebens, No. III, 1900). He says: "If we review the
wide sphere of degeneration upon which we have here turned some light we
can conclude without further ado that it is really of little value to
diagnose degeneration."
[7] We must agree with the spokesman of "Uranism" that some of the most
prominent men known have been inverts and perhaps absolute inverts.
[8] In the conception of inversion the pathological features have been
Separated from the anthropological. For this credit is due to I. Bloch
(Beiträge zur Ätiologie der Psychopathia Sexualis, 2 Teile, 1902-3), who
has also brought into prominence the existence of inversion in the old
civilized nations.
[9] Compare the last detailed discussion of somatic hermaphroditism
(Taruffi, Hermaphroditismus und Zeugungsunfähigkeit, German edit. by R.
Teuscher, 1903), and the works of Neugebauer in many volumes of the
Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen.
[10] J. Halban, "Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere," Arch. für
Gynäkologie, Bd. 70, 1903. See also there the literature on the subject.
[11] According to a report in Vol. 6 of the Jahrbuch f. sexuelle
Zwischenstufen, E. Gley is supposed to have been the first to mention
bisexuality as an explanation of inversion. He published a paper (Les
Abérrations de l'instinct Sexuel) in the Revue Philosophique as early as
January, 1884. It is moreover noteworthy that the majority of authors
who trace the inversion to bisexuality assume this factor not only for
the inverts but also for those who have developed normally, and justly
interpret the inversion as a result of a disturbance in development.
Among these authors are Chevalier (Inversion Sexuelle, 1893), and v.
Krafft-Ebing ("Zur Erklärung der konträren Sexualempfindung," Jahrbücher
f. Psychiatrie u. Nervenheilkunde, XIII), who states that there are a
number of observations "from which at least the virtual and continued
existence of this second center (of the underlying sex) results." A Dr.
Arduin (Die Frauenfrage und die sexuellen Zwischenstufen, 2d vol. of the
Jahrbuch f. sexuelle Zwischenstufen, 1900) states that "in every man
there exist male and female elements." See also the same Jahrbuch, Bd.
I, 1899 ("Die objektive Diagnose der Homosexualitat," by M. Hirschfeld,
pp. 8-9). In the determination of sex, as far as heterosexual persons
are concerned, some are disproportionately more strongly developed than
others. G. Herman is firm in his belief "that in every woman there are
male, and in every man there are female germs and qualities" (Genesis,
das Gesetz der Zeugung, 9 Bd., Libido und Manie, 1903). As recently as
1906 W. Fliess (Der Ablauf des Lebens) has claimed ownership of the idea
of bisexuality (in the sense of double sex). Psychoanalytic
investigation very strongly opposes the attempt to separate homosexuals
from other persons as a group of a special nature. By also studying
sexual excitations other than the manifestly open ones it discovers that
all men are capable of homosexual object selection and actually
accomplish this in the unconscious. Indeed the attachments of libidinous
feelings to persons of the same sex play no small rôle as factors in
normal psychic life, and as causative factors of disease they play a
greater rôle than those belonging to the opposite sex. According to
psychoanalysis, it rather seems that it is the independence of the
object, selection of the sex of the object, the same free disposal over
male and female objects, as observed in childhood, in primitive states
and in prehistoric times, which forms the origin from which the normal
as well as the inversion types developed, following restrictions in this
or that direction. In the psychoanalytic sense the exclusive sexual
interest of the man for the woman is also a problem requiring an
explanation, and is not something that is self-evident and explainable
on the basis of chemical attraction. The determination as to the
definite sexual behavior does not occur until after puberty and is the
result of a series of as yet not observable factors, some of which are
of a constitutional, while some are of an accidental nature. Certainly
some of these factors can turn out to be so enormous that by their
character they influence the result. In general, however, the
multiplicity of the determining factors is reflected by the manifoldness
of the outcomes in the manifest sexual behavior of the person. In the
inversion types it can be ascertained that they are altogether
controlled by an archaic constitution and by primitive psychic
mechanisms. The importance of the _narcissistic object selection_ and
the _clinging_ to the erotic significance of the _anal_ zone seem to be
their most essential characteristics. But one gains nothing by
separating the most extreme inversion types from the others on the basis
of such constitutional peculiarities. What is found in the latter as
seemingly an adequate determinant can also be demonstrated only in
lesser force in the constitution of transitional types and in manifestly
normal persons. The differences in the results may be of a qualitative
nature, but analysis shows that the differences in the determinants are
only quantitative. As a remarkable factor among the accidental
influences of the object selection, we found the sexual rejection or the
early sexual intimidation, and our attention was also called to the fact
that the existence of both parents plays an important rôle in the
child's life. The disappearance of a strong father in childhood not
infrequently favors the inversion. Finally, one might demand that the
inversion of the sexual object should notionally be strictly separated
from the mixing of the sex characteristics in the subject. A certain
amount of independence is unmistakable also in this relation.
[12] Although psychoanalysis has not yet given us a full explanation for
the origin of inversion, it has revealed the psychic mechanism of its
genesis and has essentially enriched the problems in question. In all
the cases examined we have ascertained that the later inverts go through
in their childhood a phase of very intense but short-lived fixation on
the woman (usually on the mother) and after overcoming it they identify
themselves with the woman and take themselves as the sexual object; that
is, proceeding on a narcissistic basis, they look for young men
resembling themselves in persons whom they wish to love as their mother
has loved them. We have, moreover, frequently found that alleged inverts
are by no means indifferent to the charms of women, but the excitation
evoked by the woman is always transferred to a male object. They thus
repeat through life the mechanism which gave origin to their inversion.
Their obsessive striving for the man proves to be determined by their
restless flight from the woman.
[13] The most pronounced difference between the sexual life
(Liebesleben) of antiquity and ours lies in the fact that the ancients
placed the emphasis on the impulse itself, while we put it on its
object. The ancients extolled the impulse and were ready to ennoble
through it even an inferior object, while we disparage the activity of
the impulse as such and only countenance it on account of the merits of
the object.
[14] I must mention here that the blind obedience evinced by the
hypnotized subject to the hypnotist causes me to think that the nature
of hypnosis is to be found in the unconscious fixation of the libido on
the person of the hypnotizer (by means of the masochistic component of
the sexual impulse).
Ferenczi connects this character of suggestibility with the "parent
complex" (Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und psychopathologische
Forschungen, I, 1909).
[15] Moreover, it is to be noted that sexual overvaluation does not
become pronounced in all mechanisms of object selection, and that we
shall later learn to know another and more direct explanation for the
sexual rôle of the other parts of the body.
[16] Further investigations lead to the conclusion that I. Bloch has
overestimated the factor of excitement-hunger (Reizhunger). The various
roads upon which the libido moves behave to each other from the very
beginning like communicating pipes; the factor of collateral streaming
must also be considered.
[17] This weakness corresponds to the constitutional predisposition. The
early sexual intimidation which pushes the person away from the normal
sexual aim and urges him to seek a substitute, has been demonstrated by
psychoanalysis, as an accidental determinant.
[18] The shoe or slipper is accordingly a symbol for the female
genitals.
[19] Psychoanalysis has filled up the gap in the understanding of
fetichisms by showing that the selection of the fetich depends on a
coprophilic smell-desire which has been lost by repression. Feet and
hair are strong smelling objects which are raised to fetiches after the
renouncing of the now unpleasant sensation of smell. Accordingly, only
the filthy and ill-smelling foot is the sexual object in the perversion
which corresponds to the foot fetichism. Another contribution to the
explanation of the fetichistic preference of the foot is found in the
Infantile Sexual Theories (see later). The foot replaces the penis which
is so much missed in the woman. In some cases of foot fetichism it could
be shown that the desire for looking originally directed to the
genitals, which wished to reach its object from below, was stopped on
the way by prohibition and repression, and therefore adhered to the foot
or shoe as a fetich. In conformity with infantile expectation, the
female genital was hereby imagined as a male genital.
[20] I have no doubt that the conception of the "beautiful" is rooted in
the soil of sexual excitement and originally signified the sexual
excitant. The more remarkable, therefore, is the fact that the genitals,
the sight of which provokes the greatest sexual excitement, can really
never be considered "beautiful."
[21] Cf. here the later communication on the pregenital phases of the
sexual development, in which this view is confirmed. See below,
"Ambivalence."
[22] Instead of substantiating this statement by many examples I will
merely cite Havelock Ellis (The Sexual Impulse, 1903): "All known cases
of sadism and masochism, even those cited by v. Krafft-Ebing, always
show (as has already been shown by Colin, Scott, and Féré) traces of
both groups of manifestations in the same individual."
[23] On the other hand the restricting forces of the sexual
evolution--disgust, shame, morality--must also be looked upon as
historic precipitates of the outer inhibitions which the sexual impulse
experienced in the psychogenesis of humanity. One can observe that they
appear in their time during the development of the individual almost
spontaneously at the call of education and influence.
[24] Studien über Hysterie, 1895, J. Breuer tells of the patient on whom
he first practiced the cathartic method: "The sexual factor was
surprisingly undeveloped."
[25] The well-known fancies of perverts which under favorable conditions
are changed into contrivances, the delusional fears of paranoiacs which
are in a hostile manner projected on others, and the unconscious fancies
of hysterics which are discovered in their symptoms by psychoanalysis,
agree as to content in the minutest details.
[26] A psychoneurosis very often associates itself with a manifest
inversion in which the heterosexual feeling becomes subjected to
complete repression.--It is but just to state that the necessity of a
general recognition of the tendency to inversion in psychoneurotics was
first imparted to me personally by Wilh. Fliess, of Berlin, after I had
myself discovered it in some cases.
[27] It is not easy to justify here this assumption which was taken from
a definite class of neurotic diseases. On the other hand, it would be
impossible to assert anything definite concerning the impulses if one
did not take the trouble of mentioning these presuppositions.
[28] One should here think of Moll's assertion, who divides the sexual
impulse into the impulses of contrectation and detumescence.
Contrectation signifies a desire to touch the skin.
II
THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY
It is a part of popular belief about the sexual impulse that it is
absent in childhood and that it first appears in the period of life
known as puberty. This, though a common error, is serious in its
consequences and is chiefly due to our present ignorance of the
fundamental principles of the sexual life. A comprehensive study of the
sexual manifestations of childhood would probably reveal to us the
existence of the essential features of the sexual impulse, and would
make us acquainted with its development and its composition from various
sources.
*The Neglect of the Infantile.*--It is remarkable that those writers who
endeavor to explain the qualities and reactions of the adult individual
have given so much more attention to the ancestral period than to the
period of the individual's own existence--that is, they have attributed
more influence to heredity than to childhood. As a matter of fact, it
might well be supposed that the influence of the latter period would be
easier to understand, and that it would be entitled to more
consideration than heredity.[1] To be sure, one occasionally finds in
medical literature notes on the premature sexual activities of small
children, about erections and masturbation and even actions resembling
coitus, but these are referred to merely as exceptional occurrences, as
curiosities, or as deterring examples of premature perversity. No author
has to my knowledge recognized the normality of the sexual impulse in
childhood, and in the numerous writings on the development of the child
the chapter on "Sexual Development" is usually passed over.[2]
*Infantile Amnesia.*--This remarkable negligence is due partly to
conventional considerations, which influence the writers on account of
their own bringing up, and partly to a psychic phenomenon which has thus
far remained unexplained. I refer to the peculiar amnesia which veils
from most people (not from all!) the first years of their childhood,
usually the first six or eight years. So far it has not occurred to us
that this amnesia ought to surprise us, though we have good reasons for
surprise. For we are informed that in those years from which we later
obtain nothing except a few incomprehensible memory fragments, we have
vividly reacted to impressions, that we have manifested pain and
pleasure like any human being, that we have evinced love, jealousy, and
other passions as they then affected us; indeed we are told that we have
uttered remarks which proved to grown-ups that we possessed
understanding and a budding power of judgment. Still we know nothing of
all this when we become older. Why does our memory lag behind all our
other psychic activities? We really have reason to believe that at no
time of life are we more capable of impressions and reproductions than
during the years of childhood.[3]
On the other hand we must assume, or we may convince ourselves through
psychological observations on others, that the very impressions which we
have forgotten have nevertheless left the deepest traces in our psychic
life, and acted as determinants for our whole future development. We
conclude therefore that we do not deal with a real forgetting of
infantile impressions but rather with an amnesia similar to that
observed in neurotics for later experiences, the nature of which
consists in their being detained from consciousness (repression). But
what forces bring about this repression of the infantile impressions? He
who can solve this riddle will also explain hysterical amnesia.
We shall not, however, hesitate to assert that the existence of the
infantile amnesia gives us a new point of comparison between the psychic
states of the child and those of the psychoneurotic. We have already
encountered another point of comparison when confronted by the fact that
the sexuality of the psychoneurotic preserves the infantile character or
has returned to it. May there not be an ultimate connection between the
infantile and the hysterical amnesias?
The connection between the infantile and the hysterical amnesias is
really more than a mere play of wit. The hysterical amnesia which serves
the repression can only be explained by the fact that the individual
already possesses a sum of recollections which have been withdrawn from
conscious disposal and which by associative connection now seize that
which is acted upon by the repelling forces of the repression emanating
from consciousness.[4] We may say that without infantile amnesia there
would be no hysterical amnesia.
I believe that the infantile amnesia which causes the individual to look
upon his childhood as if it were a _prehistoric_ time and conceals from
him the beginning of his own sexual life--that this amnesia is
responsible for the fact that one does not usually attribute any value
to the infantile period in the development of the sexual life. One
single observer cannot fill the gap which has been thus produced in our
knowledge. As early as 1896 I had already emphasized the significance of
childhood for the origin of certain important phenomena connected with
the sexual life, and since then I have not ceased to put into the
foreground the importance of the infantile factor for sexuality.
THE SEXUAL LATENCY PERIOD OF CHILDHOOD AND ITS INTERRUPTIONS
The extraordinary frequent discoveries of apparently abnormal and
exceptional sexual manifestations in childhood, as well as the
discovery of infantile reminiscences in neurotics, which were hitherto
unconscious, allow us to sketch the following picture of the sexual
behavior of childhood.[5]
It seems certain that the newborn child brings with it the germs of
sexual feelings which continue to develop for some time and then succumb
to a progressive suppression, which is in turn broken through by the
proper advances of the sexual development and which can be checked by
individual idiosyncrasies. Nothing is known concerning the laws and
periodicity of this oscillating course of development. It seems,
however, that the sexual life of the child mostly manifests itself in
the third or fourth year in some form accessible to observation.[6]
*The Sexual Inhibition.*--It is during this period of total or at least
partial latency that the psychic forces develop which later act as
inhibitions on the sexual life, and narrow its direction like dams.
These psychic forces are loathing, shame, and moral and esthetic ideal
demands. We may gain the impression that the erection of these dams in
the civilized child is the work of education; and surely education
contributes much to it. In reality, however, this development is
organically determined and can occasionally be produced without the help
of education. Indeed education remains properly within its assigned
realm only if it strictly follows the path of the organic determinant
and impresses it somewhat cleaner and deeper.