Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Turgut Dincer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF
THE CHILD
By
Dr. Albert Moll
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY
DR. EDEN PAUL
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1919
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1912,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1912.
NORWOOD PRESS
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Moll is a gifted physician of long experience whose work with those
problems of medicine and hygiene which demand scientific acquaintance
with human nature has made him well known to experts in these fields. In
this book he has undertaken to describe the origin and development, in
childhood and youth, of the acts and feelings due to sex; to explain the
forces by which sex-responses are directed and misdirected; and to judge
the wisdom of existing and proposed methods of preventing the
degradation of a child's sexual life.
This difficult task is carried out, as it should be, with dignity and
frankness. In spite of the best intentions, a scientific book on
sex-psychology is likely to appear, at least in spots, to gratify a low
curiosity; but in Dr. Moll's book there is no such taint. Popular books
on sex-hygiene, on the other hand, are likely to suffer from a
pardonable but harmful delicacy whereby the facts of anatomy,
physiology, and psychology which are necessary to make their principles
comprehensible and useful, are omitted, veiled, or even distorted. Dr.
Moll honors his readers by a frankness which may seem brutal to some of
them. It is necessary.
With dignity and frankness Dr. Moll combines notable good sense. In the
case of any exciting movement in advance of traditional custom, the
forerunners are likely to combine a certain one-sidedness and lack of
balance with their really valuable progressive ideas. The greater
sagacity and critical power are more often found amongst the men of
science who avoid public discussion of exciting social or moral reforms,
and are suspicious of startling and revolutionary doctrines or
practices. It is therefore fortunate that a book on the sexual life
during childhood should have been written by a man of critical,
matter-of-fact mind, of long experience as a medical specialist, and of
wide scholarship, who has no private interest in any exciting
psychological doctrine or educational panacea.
The translation of this book will be welcomed by men and women from many
different professions, but alike in the need of preparation to guide the
sex-life of boys and girls and to meet emergencies caused by its
corruption by weakness within or attack from without. Of the clergymen
in this country who are in real touch with the lives of their charges,
there is hardly a one who does not, every so often, have to minister to
a mind whose moral and religious distress depends on an unfortunate sex
history. Conscientious and observant teachers realize, in a dim way,
that they cannot do justice to even the purely intellectual needs of
pupils without understanding the natural history of those instinctive
impulses, which, concealed and falsified as they are under our
traditional taboos, nevertheless retain enormous potency. The facts, so
clearly shown in the present volume, that the life of sex begins long
before its obvious manifestations at puberty, and that the direction of
its vaguer and less differentiated habits in these earlier years is as
important as its hygiene at the more noticeable climax of the early
'teens, increase the teacher's responsibility. Moreover, there is
probably not a teacher of ten years' standing who has not faced--or by
ignorance neglected--some emergency where moderate insight into the laws
whereby the vague instincts of sex are turned into healthy and unhealthy
habits, and form right and wrong attitudes, could have rescued a boy or
girl from years of wretched anxiety, or degraded conduct, or both.
The social worker, still more emphatically, knows his or her need of a
surer equipment for the wise direction of the life of sex in childhood
and its protection from the abominable suggestions of those who are
themselves sexually diseased or depraved. The casual questioning of
medical or legal friends, reminiscences of vague references in the Bible
or classic literature, and the miscellaneous experiences which life
itself throws in one's way, are hopelessly inadequate.
The conscientious practitioner of medicine, too, will gladly add to the
scanty, though accurate, knowledge of the sex-instinct and its pathology
which is all that even the best medical course can compass, the facts
presented by a specialist in this field. The easiest way for those
parents who accept the responsibility for rational guidance of their
children in matters of sex-behavior to discharge this responsibility is
by the aid of the family physician. For the physician in such cases to
gain the child's confidence, understand his individual dangers and
possible false attitudes, and give more than perfunctory general
counsel, knowledge of the psychology of sex-behavior, as well as its
physiology, is necessary. In general, also, modern medical practice must
look after the _prevention_ of bad habits and unnecessary anxieties in
respect to the sex-life as well as their cure; and the science of
preventive medicine in this field receives a substantial contribution
from this summary of the sex-life of childhood.
There are now many men and women who are dissatisfied with doing for
their children merely what outgrown customs decree, who are willing to
give time and study, as well as money and affection, in their service,
and who are eager to see or hear or read anything pertinent to their
welfare. For many such parents, if they are of the scientific,
matter-of-fact type, Dr. Moll's book may prove the means of answering
many troublesome questions and of prompting to a wiser coöperation with
church, school, and the medical profession in safeguarding their
own--and, we may hope, all other--children against blunders and
contaminations.
One word of caution is perhaps necessary for those readers who are
unused to descriptions of symptoms of diseases, abnormalities, and
defects. Such readers are likely to interpret perfectly ordinary facts
as the symptoms which they have been studying. So the medical student at
the beginning of his reading, fears appendicitis when he has slight
indigestion, and sees incipient tuberculosis in every household! So the
embryonic psychologist finds 'degenerates' in every crowd of boys,
'hypnotic suggestion' in every popular preacher, and 'aphasia' in any
friend who forgets names and faces! Dr. Moll gives more protection
against such exaggerated inferences than is commonly given in books on
pathology, but many of his readers will do well to be on their guard
lest they interpret perfectly innocent behavior as a symptom of
abnormality. The mischief done by our present ignorance and neglect of
important features of sex-behavior should be prevented without the
incidence of mischief from exaggerated expectations and unwise meddling.
It would be evasive to shirk mention of the fact that many of the most
devoted servants of health and morals object to public discussion of the
facts of sex. They discard enlightenment about sex as relatively
unimportant because a clean ancestry, decency in the family and
neighborhood, and noble needs in friendship, love, and marriage must, in
any case, be the main roots of healthy direction and ideal restraint of
the sex-instinct. Or they fear enlightenment as a possible stimulus to
undesirable imagination and experimentation. Or they dislike, even
abhor, it as esthetically repulsive--shocking to an unreasoned but
cherished craving for silence about these things--a craving which the
customs of our land and time have made an unwritten law of society.
Of the first of these three attitudes, it may be said briefly that the
relative unimportance of enlightenment is a fact, but no argument
against it. Modesty, austerity, and clean living on the part of parents
will counterbalance much negligence in direct guidance or protection.
But the former need be in no wise lessened by improving the latter. Of
the second, I dare affirm that if the men and women in America should
stop whatever they are doing for an evening and read this book, there
would be less harmful imagination as a result than from the occupations
which its reading would replace. Of all the causes of sexual disorder,
the reading of scientific books by reputable men is surely the least!
The third--that is, the esthetic--repulsion toward publicity in respect
to the natural history of sex, I will not pretend to judge. Only we must
not strain at gnats and swallow camels. It is no sign of true esthetic
or moral sensitiveness for a person to be shocked by 'Ghosts,' 'Mrs.
Warren's Profession,' or 'The Sexual Life of the Child,' who finds
pleasant diversion in the treatment of sex-behavior in the ordinary
novel, newspaper, or play.
On the whole, the gain from giving earnest men and women the facts they
need, seems likely to outweigh by much the harm done to such light minds
as will be misled, or to such sentimental minds as will be wounded, by
enlightenment about sex. No harm will be done to those men and women
whose interest in the welfare of children makes them eager to face every
problem that it involves, and whose faith in the ideal possibilities of
love between the sexes is too well-grounded to be disturbed by the facts
of its natural history.
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE.
MAY, 1912.
PREFACE
The number of books and essays dealing with sexual topics published
during recent years is by no means small; but although some of the works
in question have added considerably to our knowledge, the advance of
sexual science as a whole has not been proportionate to the extent of
these contributions. The reason is that insufficient attention has been
paid to special problems; and the majority of writers have either
repeated what has already been said by another, in identical or
equivalent words, or else they have published comprehensive treatises on
the sexual life, which may, perhaps, be of interest to the laity, but do
not in any way enrich our science. Further advances in our knowledge of
the sexual life can be effected only by the investigation of special
problems. Such work is, indeed, laborious; but that it is also fruitful,
has been clearly shown, not only in the first instance by von
Krafft-Ebing, but more recently, above all, by Havelock Ellis, whose
special studies have contributed more to the advance of sexual science
than the work of dozens of other writers.
The recognition of the need for specialised investigations has led me,
in this province of scientific work as in other departments, to devote
myself to the elucidation of certain definite problems. For several
reasons I determined to study the sexual life of the child. In the first
place, I believe that an advance in our knowledge of the sexual life of
the child will indirectly enrich our knowledge also of the sexual life
of the adult. In order to understand the sexual life, the gradual
development of that life must be recognised, and for this purpose it is
essential that we should study the sexual life of the child. Moreover,
the modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment of young
persons renders indispensable the possession of precise knowledge of the
sexuality of the child; and such knowledge is no less necessary to all
instructors of youth, especially to those to whom the psychical life of
children is a matter of concern. Judges and magistrates also, as we
shall see in the seventh chapter, are very greatly interested in this
matter: it is, in fact, hardly open to question that erroneous legal
decisions and the unjust condemnation of reputed criminals can only be
avoided by giving our judicial authorities the opportunity of obtaining
sound knowledge concerning the sexual life of children in all its modes
of manifestation. By all these considerations I have been induced to
study the problem of the sexuality of children from the most widely
different points of view. Although other writers, such as Freud, Bell,
and Kötscher, have contributed certain data towards the solution of
these questions, no comprehensive study of the subject has hitherto been
attempted. My material does not consist only of the reports of patients.
In addition, in order to avoid a one-sided dependence upon pathological
considerations, I have accepted with greater confidence the reports
concerning the sexual life of children which I have received from
healthy individuals, both men and women. I take this opportunity of
tendering my most heartfelt thanks to all those who have assisted me in
this manner.
ALBERT MOLL.
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION v
PREFACE xi
CONTENTS xiii
CHAP.
I. INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL 1
Subdivisions of the Period of Childhood--The Notion of
Puberty--Methods of Investigation.
Rousseau and Tissot--The Philanthropes--Medical
Literature--The Older Psychology--History of
Civilisation--Studies of Prostitution--Works on
Zoology--Biographies--Belletristic Literature--Erotic
Literature--Studies of Sexual Perversions--Recent Special
Researches--Diaries.
II. THE REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS--THE SEXUAL IMPULSE 17
The Male Reproductive Organs--Erection--Ejaculation--The
Voluptuous Sensation--Female Reproductive
Organs--Menstruation and Ovulation--Peripheral Processes,
Erection, Ejaculation, and Voluptuous Sensation, in the
Female--The Reproductive Organs in Children.
Components of the Sexual Impulse--Excitement of the Sexual
Impulse--The Sexual Impulse and the Voluptuous Sensation.
III. SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION IN CHILDHOOD 33
Secondary Sexual Characters--First Period of
Childhood--Second Period of Childhood--Psychical Differences
in Children--The Teachings of Experimental Psychology--The
Teachings of Empirical Psychology
(_Erfahrungspsychologie_)--Inborn Character of Sexual
Differences--Pathological Experiences--Criminological
Experiences.
IV. SYMPTOMATOLOGY 50
Erections in the Child--Ejaculation--Origin of
Ejaculation--Voluptuous Sensation.
The Undifferentiated Sexual Impulse--Examples--Phenomena of
Contrectation in the Child--The Object of
Desire--Romanticism--Manifestations of
Love--Jealousy--Love-Letters and
Love-Poems--Vanity--Shame--Differences between Boys and
Girls--Changes in the Object of Desire.
Interdependence of the Processes of Contrectation and
Detumescence--Temporal Relationship between these respective
Processes.
Masturbation--The Voluptuous Sensation--Modes of
Masturbation--Erogenic Zones--Comparison between Boys and
Girls.
Ejaculation as a Consequence of Feelings of
Anxiety--Pollutions--Madame Roland's Description--Individual
Differences--Sexual Phenomena in the Youth of the Lower
Animals.
The Teachings of Castration--Significance of the
Reproductive Glands--Theories.
The Years of Ripening--Retardation of Sexual Development.
V. PATHOLOGY 114
Pathologically Premature Menarche in Girls--Premature
Puberty in Boys--Conditions met with in Dwarfs--Sexual
Parodoxy--Examples.
Sexual Perversions--Premature Development--Congenital
Character of Perversions--Illusions of Memory--Disappearance
of the Perversions of Childhood--The Association
Theory--Criticism of this Theory--Instances in which
Perversions could be traced back to a very early Age--Origin
of Sexual Perversions in Non-Sexual
Dispositions--Homosexuality and Friendship--Sexual Cruelty
and Cruelty of other Kinds--Diagnostic
Difficulties--Exhibitionism--Skatophilia--Hermaphroditism.
VI. ETIOLOGY AND DIAGNOSIS 146
Family Tendencies--Abnormal Nervous
System--Race--Climate--Position in Life--Town and
Country--Modern Civilisation--Importance of Congenital
Predisposition--Seduction--Local Stimulation--Chemical
Stimuli--Psychical Stimuli.
Diagnostic Difficulties--Recognition by means of
Observation--Erroneous Diagnoses of Masturbation--The Value
of Physical Signs--Value of a Confidant--Misleading
Statements and Conduct on the part of Children.
Non-Sexual Erections--Non-Sexual Manipulations--Sucking
Movements--Nail-Biting--Imitativeness--Impossibility of any
Definite Demarcation of Sexual Feelings.
VII. IMPORTANCE OF THE SEXUAL LIFE OF THE CHILD 179
The Sexual Life and Morbid Hereditary
Predisposition--Hygienic Dangers--The Dangers of
Masturbation in General--Of Masturbation in the
Child--Masturbation without Ejaculation--Exaggerated Views
to be Avoided--Amatory Passion and Suicide--Freud's
Theory--Infectious Diseases.
Ethical Dangers--Masturbation and Ethics--Social
Dangers--Social Degradation of Girls--Seduction of
Girls--Forensic Importance of the Sexual Life--Children's
Evidence--Circumstances affecting Culpability--Penal
Responsibility of Children--Intellectual Dangers--Sexuality
and Altruism.
Sexual Perversions and the Choice of a
Profession--Punishments and Masochism--Curiosity of
Children--Sexuality and Art--The Question of the Offspring.
Importance of Tardy Sexual Development.
VIII. THE CHILD AS AN OBJECT OF SEXUAL PRACTICES 219
Pædophilia Erotica--Other Sexual Offences against
Children--Sexual Acts Performed on Children--Significance of
each Acts to the Child--Artificial Production of Sexual
Perversions--False Accusations--Statistics of Accusations by
Children--Reasons for Protecting Children----Injuries
effected on Children by the Law--Responsibility of
Pædophiles.
Exhibitionism--Sadism--Newspaper Advertisement.
IX. SEXUAL EDUCATION 246
Limits of Educability--General Hygiene--Custom and
Morality--Inculcation of the Sentiments of Shame and
Disgust--Influence upon these Sentiments of Habit and
Example--Morality and Nakedness--Excessive Sentiments of
Shame and Disgust--The Nude in Art--Morality in
Fanatics--Erotic Books and Pictures.
Co-Education of the Sexes--Children's Balls--Diversion of
the Sexual Impulse--Religious Education--The Bible--The
Confessional--Hypnotism--Psycho-Analysis--Counteraction of
Psychical Contagion.
Sexual Enlightenment--General Educational
Interests--Hygienic Reasons for Enlightenment--The Dangers
of Venereal Infection--Of Masturbation--Ethical
Reasons--Forensic Reasons--Social Reasons--Age at which
Enlightenment is Desirable--Place of Enlightenment; School
or Home--The School Physician--Importance of the
Mother--Individualisation--Mode of Enlightenment.--Reasons
urged against Enlightenment--Need that the Instructor should
be an Enlightened Person--Exaggerated Views regarding the
Importance of Sexual Enlightenment.
Physical Hygienic Measures--Stimulation by Means of the
Bed--Local Stimulation--Mechanical
Measures--Hydrotherapeutic Measures--Dirt--Sport and
Games--Féré's Method.
Pedagogy and Sexual Perversions--Dangers from
Pædophiles--Necessity for Heterosexual Influences--Dangers
of Corporal Punishment--The Right of the Teacher to Inflict
Punishment--Conclusion.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS 325
INDEX OF NAMES 337
THE SEXUAL LIFE OF
THE CHILD
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL
To speak of "the sexual life of the child" seems at first sight to
involve a contradiction in terms. It is generally assumed that the
sexual life first awakens at the on-coming of puberty (the attainment of
sexual maturity of manhood or womanhood); the on-coming of puberty is
regarded as the termination of childhood; in fact the term _child_ is
usually defined as the human being from the time of birth to the
on-coming of puberty. But this contradiction is apparent merely, and
depends on the assumption that the on-coming of puberty is indicated by
certain outward signs (more especially the first menstruation and the
first seminal emission), insufficient attention being paid to the long
period of development which usually precedes these occurrences. And yet,
during this period of preliminary development, the occurrence of certain
manifestations of the sexual life is plainly demonstrable.
The period of childhood is subdivided into several sub-epochs, but the
delimitation and nomenclature of these varies so much with different
investigators, that to avoid misunderstanding I must first define the
subdivisions which I myself propose to employ. If we regard the
beginning of the fifteenth year as the termination of childhood, we may
divide childhood into two equal periods, the first extending from birth
to the completion of the seventh year, the second from the beginning of
the eighth to the end of the fourteenth year. I shall in this work
designate these two periods as the _first_ and the _second period of
childhood_ respectively. In the first period of childhood, the first
year of life may be further distinguished as the _period of infancy_.[1]
The first and second periods of childhood comprise childhood in the
narrower sense of the term. The years that immediately follow the
beginning of the fifteenth year I shall denote as the _period of youth_.
Inasmuch as the symptoms of this latter come to differ from those of
childhood proper, not abruptly, but gradually, the first years, at
least, of youth will often come under our consideration, and I shall
speak of this period of life as the _third period of childhood_.
Although childhood in the narrower sense comprises the first and second
periods only, childhood in the wider sense includes also the third
period. It is hardly possible that any misunderstanding can arise if the
reader will bear in mind that whenever I speak of childhood without
qualification, I allude only to the period of life before the beginning
of the fifteenth year. For all these periods of childhood, first,
second, and third, I shall for practical convenience when speaking of
males use the word _boy_, and when speaking of females, the word _girl_.
The use of this terminology must not be regarded as implying that the
distinctions indicated correspond in any way to fixed natural lines of
demarcation; on the contrary, individual variations are numerous and
manifold. Not only does the rate of development differ in different
races (in the Caucasian race, more especially, the age of puberty comes
comparatively late, so that among the members of this race childhood is
prolonged); but further, within the limits of one and the same race,
notable differences occur. More than all have we to take into account
the differences between the sexes, childhood terminating earlier in the
female sex than in the male--among our own people [the Germans] this
difference is commonly estimated at as much as two years. In addition,
in this respect, there are marked differences between different classes
of the population, a matter to which we shall return in Chapter VI.
It is also necessary to point out here in what sense I employ the term
_puberty_ (nubility, sexual ripeness, or maturity), and the associated
terms, _nubile_ and _sexually mature_. Much confusion exists in respect
of the application of these terms. Some use _puberty_ to denote a period
of time, others, a point of time, and in various other ways the word is
differently used by different authors. Similarly as regards the term
_nubile_; some consider an individual to be nubile as soon as he or she
is competent for procreation, others speak of anyone as nubile only when
the development of the sexual life is completed. Obviously, these two
notions are very different; for instance, a girl of thirteen who has
begun to menstruate may be competent for the act of procreation, and yet
her sexual development may still be far from complete. The confusion as
regards the use of the substantive _puberty_ is no less perplexing. One
writer uses it to denote the time at which procreative capacity begins,
and believes he is right in assuming that in the male this time is
indicated by the occurrence of the first involuntary sexual orgasm.[2] I
may point out in passing that there is a confusion here between
procreative capacity and competence for sexual intercourse, for as a
rule the first seminal emissions contain no spermatozoa. But, apart from
such confusions, the term puberty is used in various senses. Thus, a
second writer denotes by puberty the point of time at which the sexual
development is completed; a third means by puberty the period which
elapses between the occurrence of the first involuntary orgasm and the
completion of sexual development; a fourth uses the word to denote the
entire period of life during which procreative capacity endures; and
finally, a fifth includes under the notion of puberty the whole course
of life after the completion of sexual development. In this work I shall
mean by _puberty_ the period of life between the completion of sexual
development and the extinction of the sexual life. The period during
which the state of puberty is being attained will be spoken of as the
_period of puberal development_, and I shall therefore speak of the
_beginning_ and the _end_ of the puberal development. The terms
_nubility_, _sexual maturity_, _nubile_, and _sexually mature_, will be
used with a similar signification. As regards the puberal development,
let me at the outset draw attention to the fact that it takes place very
gradually; and further, as we shall see, that it begins much earlier
than is commonly believed. In the young girl, from the date of the first
menstruation to the time at which she has become fitted for marriage,
the average lapse of time is assumed by Ribbing[3] to be two years. This
is a fair estimate, but it does not correspond to the totality of the
period of the puberal development. If we estimate that period from its
true beginning its duration greatly exceeds two years, for the first
indications of the puberal development are manifest in the girl long
before the first menstruation, and in the boy long before the first
discharge of semen. The approach of puberty is indicated by numerous
symptoms, some of which are psychical and some physical in character. In
perfectly healthy children, as will be shown in the sequel, individual
symptoms may make their appearance as early as the age of seven or
eight, and further symptoms successively appear during succeeding years,
until the puberal development is completed.
What methods are available for the study of the sexual life of the
child? Three methods have to be considered: first, the observation of
children; secondly, experiment; and thirdly, reports made by individuals
regarding their own experiences. As regards the last mentioned, we must
distinguish clearly between accounts reproduced from memory long after
the incidents to which they relate, and accounts given by children of
their state at the time of narration. But both varieties of clinical
history are defective. The child is often incompetent to describe his
sensations--think, for instance, of the processes of the earliest years
of life. Even when the child is able to make reports, a sense of shame
will often interfere with the truthfulness of his account. Whilst as
regards the memory-pictures of adults, recourse to this method often
fails us because the experiences are so remote as to have been largely,
if not entirely, forgotten. The autobiographies of sexually perverse
individuals have drawn my attention to the fallacious nature of memory.
Its records are uncertain, but that especially is recorded which has
aroused interest. Not only the interest felt in the experiences at the
time determines what shall be recorded, but also the interest felt later
when reviving these experiences in memory. Childish experiences are very
readily forgotten, either if they were uninteresting at the time, or if
subsequently they have become uninteresting. During childhood, a
homosexual woman has experienced sexual feeling, directed now towards
boys, now towards girls. Later in life, when the homosexuality has
developed fully, the memory of the inclination towards boys fades away,
and her homosexual sentiments only are remembered. As a result, we often
find that the homosexual woman--and the converse is equally true of the
homosexual man--declares at first, when inquiries are made, that she has
never experienced any inclination for members of the other sex; whereas,
at any rate in a large proportion of cases, a stricter examination of
her memory, or the reports of other individuals, will reveal beyond
dispute that in childhood heterosexual inclinations were not lacking.
A further defect of memory has been made manifest to me by the study of
perversions. Processes which in childhood were entirely devoid of any
sexual tinge, but which later became associated with sex-feelings, very
readily acquire false sexual associations also when they are revived in
memory. Consider, for instance, the case of a homosexual man. He
remembers that, as a small boy, he was very fond of sitting on his
uncle's knees, and he believes that the pleasure he formerly experienced
was tinged by sexual feeling. In reality this was by no means the case.
His uncle took the boy on his knee in order to tell him a story.
Possibly, also, the riding movements which the uncle imitated by jogging
his knees up and down gave the child pleasure, which, however, was
entirely devoid of any admixture of sexual feeling. But in the
consciousness of the full-grown man, in whom homosexual feeling has
later undergone full development, all this becomes distorted. The
non-sexual motives are forgotten; he believes that even in early
childhood he had homosexual inclinations, and that for _this_ reason it
gave him pleasure to ride on his uncle's knees.
Nor is observation in any way adapted to furnish us with a clear picture
of the sexual life of the child. So little can be directly observed,
that in the absence of reports much would remain entirely unknown. From
the moment when the children gain a consciousness, however obscure, of
the nature of sexual processes, they almost invariably endeavour to
conceal their knowledge as much as possible, so that we shall discover
its existence only by a rare chance. None the less, the results of
direct observation are often important; sometimes because we are able to
watch children when they are unaware of our attention, and sometimes
because they do not as yet fully understand the nature of the processes
under observation, and for this reason are less secretive.
The third method, that of experiment, is available to us only in the
form of castration. I need not dilate on the inadequacy of this
application of the experimental method, even apart from the fact that it
subserves our purposes almost exclusively in respect of the male
sex--for in the case of young girls, castration (oöphorectomy) is almost
entirely unknown.
Thus we see that all our methods of investigation exhibit extensive
lacunæ, and further, that they are all in many respects fallacious; we
shall therefore endeavour to supplement each by the others, in order to
arrive at results which shall be as free from error as possible. Thus
guided, we learn that sexual incidents occur in childhood far more
frequently than is usually supposed. So common are they, that they
cannot possibly escape the notice of any practising physician or
educationalist who pays attention to the question, provided, of course,
that he enjoys the confidence of the parents. These latter have often
been aware of such sexual manifestations in their children for a long
time, but a false shame has prevented them from asking the advice of the
physician. They have been afraid lest he should regard the child as
intellectually or morally deficient, or as the offspring of a degenerate
family. In addition, we have to take into account self-deception on the
part of the parents, who, indeed, often deceive themselves willingly,
saying to themselves that the matter is of no importance, and that the
symptoms will disappear spontaneously.
Having given this brief account of the terminology to be employed and of
the methods of investigation, I propose to sketch no less briefly the
history of the subject.
Casual references to the sexual life of the child are to be found even
in the older scientific literature. In the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth, interest in the subject
became more general. Two works, in especial, published almost
simultaneously, attracted the attention of physicians and
educationalists. One of these, Rousseau's _Émile_, discusses the proper
conduct of parents and elders in relation to the awakening sexual life,
and what they should do in order to delay that awakening as much as
possible. The other, the celebrated work of Tissot, depicts the dangers
of masturbation, but deals chiefly with persons who have attained sexual
maturity. None the less, in consequence of this book, much attention was
directed to the sexual life of the child. Earlier works on masturbation,
such as that of Sarganeck, for instance, had not succeeded in arousing
any enduring interest in this question. But Rousseau's and Tissot's
books induced a large number of physicians and educationalists to occupy
themselves in this province of study. Thus at this early day many
authorities were led to advocate the sexual enlightenment of children,
in order to guide them in the avoidance of the dangers of the sexual
life. An excellent historical and critical study of this movement,
written by Thalhofer, has recently been published.[4] Among the
educationalists who took part in it may be mentioned Basedow, Salzmann,
Campe, and Niemeyer. The modern movement in favour of sexual
enlightenment originated chiefly in the endeavour to prevent the
diffusion of venereal diseases; but the earlier movement, occurring at a
time when much less was known about venereal diseases, had a different
aim. This was rather to prevent masturbation and other sexual excesses,
on account of their direct effect upon the organism; an aim not
neglected by the modern movement for sexual enlightenment, though
subsidiary to the object of the prevention of the venereal diseases.
Teachers of that day touched, of course, upon the subject of the sexual
life of the child. But this was done cursorily, for when instruction was
given on the sexual life, not the actual experience of children, but the
sexual life of mature persons, was the subject of discourse. This must
be said also of the works of those physicians who, like Hufeland in his
_Makrobiotik_ (written as a sequel to the work of Tissot), spoke of the
dangers of masturbation.
A few of the numerous medical books dealing with the puberal development
deserve mention in this place; for instance, Marro, _La Pubertà_ (first
edition, published in 1897), and Bacqué, _La Puberté_ (Argenteuil,
1876). A number of recent works on masturbation have also touched on the
topic of the sexual life of the child.
Apart from these recent special investigations, the older and the more
recent medical and anthropological literature contains numerous
observations which concern the subject of this book. More especially do
we find reports of cases in which the external manifestations of sexual
maturity appeared in very early childhood. Now we find an account of a
girl menstruating at four years of age, now an account of a
three-year-old boy who exhibited many of the external signs of sexual
maturity. Even in the older, purely psychological works we find
occasional references to the sexual life of the child--a fact that will
surprise no one who is acquainted with the high development of the
empirical psychology (_Erfahrungspsychologie_) of that day (1800). The
_Venus Urania_ of Ramdohr, for instance, a work on the psychology of
love, emphasises the frequency of amatory sentiments in children.
In works dealing with the history of civilisation, we also encounter
occasional references to our subject. Take, for instance, the knightly
_Code of Love_ (_Liebeskodex_), a work highly esteemed in the days of
chivalry, and legendarily supposed to have originated in King Arthur's
Court. Paragraph 6 of this _Code_ runs: "A man shall not practise love
until he is fully grown." According to Rudeck,[5] from whom I quote this
instance, the aim of the admonition was to protect the youth of the
nobility from unwholesome consequences. Obviously, the love affairs of
immature persons must have been the determining cause of any allusion to
the matter. We may also draw attention in this connexion to many
marriage laws, which show that the subject has come under consideration,
either because they expressly sanction the marriages of children, or,
conversely, because they forbid such unions. At the present day, among
many peoples (as, for instance, the Hindus), child-marriages are
frequent; and in many countries in which such marriages are now illegal,
they were sanctioned in former ages. Many works on prostitution also
touch on our chosen subject. Parent-Duchâtelet, in his great book,
refers to girls who had become prostitutes at the ages of twelve or even
ten years. I shall show later that in individual instances such early
prostitution is directly dependent upon the sexuality of the children
concerned. Many ethnological works also contribute to our knowledge of
the sexual life of the child, describing, as they do, in certain races,
the early awakening of sexual activity.
Remarkably little material do we find, however, in many works in which
we might have expected to find a great deal. I refer to works on
education and on the psychology of the child. In exceptional instances,
indeed, as I have already indicated, the educationalists have taken part
in the movement in favour of sexual enlightenment. But when we consider
the enormous importance and great frequency of the sexual processes of
the child, we are positively astounded at the manner in which this
department of knowledge has been ignored by those who have written on
the science and art of education, and by those psychologists who have
occupied themselves in the study of the mind of the child. Has it been a
false notion of morality by which these investigators have been withheld
from the elucidation of the sexual life of the child? Or has the reason
merely been their defective powers of observation? As a matter of fact,
I suppose that both these causes have operated in producing this
remarkable gap in our knowledge.
A certain amount of material is to be found in a number of books on
zoology, and also in a few quite recent works on comparative psychology.
Among works of the former class I mention especially that of Brehm, who
has reported a considerable number of individual details; of books on
comparative psychology, one of the most useful for our purposes is that
of Groos,[6] who gives us much valuable information regarding love-games
of young animals.
I may also point out that in the autobiographies, biographies, memoirs,
&c., of celebrated persons, we find much information regarding premature
amatory sentiments. Goethe, in his _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, relates that
as a boy of ten or so he fell in love with a young Frenchwoman, the
sister of his friend Derones. Of Alfred de Musset, his brother and
biographer, Paul Musset, records that at the early age of four he was
passionately in love with a girl cousin. It is on record that Dante fell
in love at the age of nine, Canova at five, and Alfieri at ten. Well
known also is the story of Byron's love, at eight years of age, for Mary
Duff. Möbius tells us of himself that when a boy of ten he was
desperately enamoured of a young married woman. We are told of Napoleon
I. that when a boy of nine he fell in love with his father's cousin, a
handsome woman of thirty, then on a visit to his home, and that he
caressed her in the most passionate manner. Belonging to an earlier day
was Felix Platter, the celebrated Swiss physician of the sixteenth
century, who tells us in his autobiography that when he was a child he
loved to be kissed by a certain young married woman. In _Un Coeur
Simple_, Flaubert describes the development of the love-sentiments. "For
mankind there is so much love in life. At the age of four we love
horses, the sun, flowers, shining weapons, uniforms; at ten we love a
little girl, our playmate; at thirteen we love a buxom, full-necked
woman. The first time I saw the two breasts of a woman, entirely
unclothed, I almost fainted. Finally, at the age of fourteen or fifteen,
we love a young girl, who is a little more to us than a sister and a
little less than a mistress; and then, at sixteen, we love a woman once
more, and marry her."
Most charmingly Hebbel describes his first experience of love, when but
four years old. "It was in Susanna's dull schoolroom, also, that I
learned the meaning of love; it was, indeed, in the very hour when I
first entered it, at the age of four. First love! Who is there who will
not smile as he reads these words? Who will fail to recall memories of
some Anne or Margaret, who once seemed to him to wear a crown of stars,
and to be clad in the blue of heaven and the gold of dawn; and now--but
it would be malicious to depict the contrast! Who will fail to admit
that it seemed to him then as if he passed on the wing through the
garden of the earth, flitting from flower to flower, sipping from their
honey-cups; passing too swiftly, indeed, to become intoxicated, but
pausing long enough at each to inhale its divine perfume!... It was some
time before I ventured to raise my eyes, for I felt that I was under
inspection, and this embarrassed me. But at length I looked up, and my
first glance fell upon a pale and slender girl who sat opposite me: her
name was Emily, and she was the daughter of the parish-clerk. A
passionate trembling seized me, the blood rushed to my heart; but a
sentiment of shame was also intermingled with my first sensations, and I
lowered my eyes to the ground once more, as rapidly as if I had caught
sight of something horrible. From that moment Emily was ever in my
thoughts; and the school, so greatly dreaded in anticipation, became a
joy to me, because it was there only that I could see her. The Sundays
and holidays which separated me from her were as greatly detested by me
as in other circumstances they would have been greatly desired; one day
when she stayed away from school, I felt utterly miserable. In
imagination she was always before my eyes, wherever I went; when alone,
I was never weary of repeating her name; above all, her black eyebrows
and intensely red lips were ever before my eyes, whereas I do not
remember that at this time her voice had made any impression on me,
although later this became all-important."
In belletristic literature, also, we find occasional references to the
love-sentiment in childhood. Groos refers to an instance which he thinks
perhaps the most delicate known to him, and one in which the erotic
element is but faintly emphasised, namely, Gottfried Keller's _Romeo und
Julia_. "In a spot entirely covered with green undergrowth the girl
stretched herself on her back, for she was tired, and began in a
monotonous tone to sing a few words, repeating the same ones over and
over again; the boy crouched close beside her, half inclined, he also,
to stretch himself at full length on the ground, so lethargic did he
feel. The sun shone into the girl's open mouth as she sang, lighting up
her glistening white teeth, and gleaming on her full red lips. The boy
caught sight of her teeth, and, holding the girl's head and eagerly
examining her teeth, said, 'Tell me, how many teeth has one?' The girl
paused for a moment, as if thinking the matter carefully over, but then
answered at random, 'A hundred.' 'No!' he cried; 'thirty-two is the
proper number; wait a moment, I'll count yours.' He counted them, but
could not get the tale right to thirty-two, and so counted them again,
and again, and again. The girl let him go on for some time, but as he
did not come to an end of his eager counting, she suddenly interrupted
him, and said, 'Now, let me count yours.' The boy lay down in his turn
on the undergrowth; the girl leaned over him, with her arm round his
head; he opened his mouth, and she began counting: 'One, two, seven,
five, two, one,' for the little beauty did not yet know how to count.
The boy corrected her, and explained to her how to count properly; so
she, in her turn, attempted to count his teeth over and over again: and
this game seemed to please them more than any they had played together
that day. At last, however, the girl sank down on her youthful
instructor's breast, and the two children fell asleep in the bright
midday sunshine."
In erotic literature we also occasionally find descriptions belonging to
our province, as, for instance, in the _Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter.
Indeed, a certain kind of erotic literature, more especially
pornographic literature, selects this subject by preference. Thus, I may
allude to the _Anti-Justine_ of Rétif de la Bretonne. In a certain
section of such literature, improper practices between children and
their parents and other blood relatives play a part.
Recently, in connexion with two different fields of study, attention has
been directed to the sexual life of the child. The first of these is
concerned with the abnormal, and especially the perverse, manifestations
of the sexual life, a study of which Westphal, and above all von
Krafft-Ebing, have been the founders. The other is the modern movement
in favour of the sexual enlightenment of children. As regards the
latter, the literature to which it has given rise has not, indeed,
contributed much, beyond a few casual references, in the way of positive
material concerning the sexual life of the child. But none the less, it
is this movement which has made it of prime importance that our subject
should be carefully investigated. As regards studies of the
abnormalities of the sexual impulse, under the name of _paradoxical
sexual impulse_ cases have been published in which that impulse
manifested itself at an age of life in which it is normally
non-existent--old age and childhood. Recent research has brought to
light a large number of cases of this nature. Among those who have
reported such cases, we must mention first of all von Krafft-Ebing, and
in addition, Féré, Fuchs, Pélofi, and Lombroso.
In addition to these various works, others must be mentioned which have
arisen mainly out of the recently awakened interest in the sexual life;
for example, works on puberty, the psychology of love, and similar
topics. In his _Fisiologia del Amore_ (_Physiology of Love_), Mantegazza
emphasises the love-manifestations of childhood. The same may be said of
many other general works on the sexual life, and more especially, as
previously mentioned, of works on prostitution. Certain works on
offences against morality have also enriched our knowledge in this
province.
It might at first sight appear from what has been said that the
literature of the sexual life of the child was extremely voluminous, but
this is not in reality the case. Almost always, this important question
is handled in a casual or cursory manner. A thorough presentation of the
subject has not, as far as my knowledge extends, hitherto been
attempted. Freud rightly insists that even in all, or nearly all, the
works on the psychology of the child, this important department is
ignored. Quite recently, indeed, special works have appeared upon the
sexual life of the child, among which I must first of all mention
Freud's own contribution to the subject, forming part of his _Drei
Abhandlungen zur sexuellen Theorie_ (_Three Essays on the Sexual
Theory_, Leipzig and Vienna, 1905).[7] But what this writer describes as
an indication of infantile sexuality, viz., certain sucking movements,
has, in my opinion, nothing to do with the sexual life of the child--as
little to do with sexuality as have the functions of the stomach or any
other non-genital organ. A number of other processes occurring in
childhood, which Freud and his followers have recently described as
sexual in nature, and as playing a great part later in life in connexion
with hysteria, neurasthenia, compulsion-neuroses, the anxiety-neurosis,
and dementia præcox, have very little true relationship to the sexual
life of the child. In any case, Freud has not systematically studied the
individual manifestations of the sexual life of the child. I must also
mention a small work by Kötscher, _Das Erwachen des Geschlechtsbewusstseins
und seine Anomalien_ (_The Awakening of the Consciousness of Sex and its
Anomalies_, Wiesbaden, 1907). Kötscher, however, does not give any
detailed account of the sexual life of the child; he starts, rather,
from the sexual life of the adult, and only as a supplement to his
account of this does he give a few data regarding the awakening of the
consciousness of sex. In the _American Journal of Psychology_, July
1902, we find an elaborate study of the sexual life of the child. In
this paper, _A Preliminary Study of the Emotion of Love between the
Sexes_, the writer, Sanford Bell, devotes much attention to the
love-sentiments in childhood. He discusses, indeed, only heterosexual,
qualitatively normal inclinations, and his essay deals only with the
psychological aspects of the question. The processes taking place in the
genital organs do not come within the scope of the writer's
observations, and, indeed, are outside the limits of his chosen theme. A
great many other points connected with the question are also left
untouched. None the less, the paper is full of matter. The same must be
said of the works of the English investigator, Havelock Ellis, who is,
in my opinion, the leader of all those at present engaged in the study
of sexual psychology and pathology. Unfortunately his writings are not
so well known in Germany as they deserve to be, the reason being that
owing to their strictly scientific character they are not so noisily
obtruded on the public notice as are certain other widely advertised and
reputedly scientific works. In his various books, and above all in his
six volumes entitled _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_ (F. A. Davies
Company, Philadelphia, Pa.), as a part of his general contributions to
our knowledge of the sexual life, Havelock Ellis records numerous
observations relating to the years of childhood; especially valuable in
this connexion are the biographies given in the third volume of the
above-mentioned _Studies_.
A valuable source of data for our field of inquiry exists in the form of
unpublished diaries, autobiographies, and albums, which are not
accessible to the general public. I have myself had the opportunity of
studying a number of records of this nature, and have formed the opinion
that a quantity of invaluable material lies hidden in these recesses. I
may add that the records I have been able to use have not only related
to living persons; in addition, I have been able to study a number of
albums and diaries dating from an earlier day. These have remained
unpublished, in part because they appeared to be of interest only to the
families of the writers, and in part because many of them were in
intention purely private memoranda, a written record for the sole use of
the writer.
Speaking generally, however, this province of research has received but
little scientific attention; and of comprehensive studies, intended to
throw light on every aspect of the sexual life of the child, not a
single one is known to me.