CHAPTER IX

SEXUAL EDUCATION

In view of the dangers to which children are exposed from the side of

the sexual life, the question presses whether and how it is possible to

prevent these dangers arising, or, if prevention has failed, to minimise

them. To enable us to answer this question, the general question of

sexual education will have to be considered. In so far as sexual

manifestations in the child may arise from hereditary taint, the

sociologist will endeavour to prevent them by hindering marriage or

procreation on the part of those likely to give birth to such children

(eugenics). Our present knowledge, however, does not enable us to say,

when an individual exhibits some particular tendency to sexual

aberration, whether this same tendency will appear as a concrete symptom

in the descendants. Apart, indeed, from certain cases of very severe

taint, we are hardly in a position even to predict with any high degree

of probability that the offspring will exhibit morbid endowments. There

are marriages which we expect to result in the birth of congenitally

defective children, and in spite of this the offspring are healthy; and

conversely, we sometimes meet with affections which we are in the habit

of regarding as dependent upon hereditary transmission, and yet we fail,

in these cases, to find any evidence of such affections in the

progenitors. And, apart from these theoretical considerations, the

physician's advice is not of much importance, for experience teaches us

that in questions of marriage his advice is very rarely followed.

The less power we have to operate by control of the congenital factors,

the more necessary shall we feel it to be to minimise the dangers

threatening the child by influencing its environment. It is true that in

this department, as in others, there is much diversity of opinion

regarding the limits of educability. Some contend that we can mould the

child like wax, a view which prevailed especially during the "period of

enlightenment" in the eighteenth century; others maintain that organic

development is predetermined at the time of procreation, and that

subsequent influences can have no effect. Although we must be careful

not to overestimate the power of education, it would be no less

erroneous to assume that development is inalterably predetermined at the

time of procreation. This applies to the efficacy of educational

influences in general, and to educational influences affecting the

sexual life in particular. The following consideration must be given due

weight. The power of the educator is limited, not merely by the child's

hereditary dispositions, but also by the nature of its environment.

Rudolf Lehmann, in his work on Education and the Educator (_Erziehung

und Erzieher_), rightly points out that Rousseau, in his _Émile_, when

discussing the problems of education, neglects too much the influences

of environment. If we wish our reasoning to furnish us with results of

practical value, and not to remain confined to the purely theoretical

plane, we must give due weight to this consideration. This applies with

equal force to the matter of sexual education. We know that the sexual

impulse may be excited by innumerable external stimuli. Such stimuli are

continuously in operation, and the best educator has no power to exclude

their influence. The mere association of the child with persons of the

opposite sex provides such stimuli. But a separation of the sexes will

not do away with them, as is proved, not only by the homosexual

manifestations of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, but also by those

that arise transiently, at any rate, when the members of one sex are

completely segregated from those of the other--as in boarding-schools,

on board ship, and in prisons. The educator cannot even count on being

at all times able to safeguard the child from the sight of sexual acts.

In the country, but also in the town, children have opportunities for

this; not only when the members of a large family sleep in a single

room, and the children can watch their parents and others in the act of

sexual intercourse; but in various other ways. The mere kissing of

affianced lovers must in this sense be regarded as a sexual act, and how

is it possible so to bring up a child that it will never have an

opportunity of seeing anything of the kind? If we go further, and

recognise that through the association of ideas such a sexual stimulus

may arise from witnessing the coupling of animals--of dogs, for

instance, in the street--we shall understand how the educator's powers

are limited by the milieu in which he has to work. _We have, therefore,

to recognise clearly from the first, that in the education of the child

the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli is impossible._

Obviously, when the external noxious influences exceed a certain

measure, we may endeavour to effect an improvement by measures of

general hygiene, through the activities of the central government, the

municipality, or the community at large. In this connexion, we think of

better housing conditions, of the separation of children from

night-lodgers, and the like measures. But, even here, we must guard

against making Utopian demands, after the manner of many fanatics on the

subject of social hygiene, whose proposals are often quite incompatible

with the maintenance of human intercourse. Independently of such

impracticable demands for future reforms, the educationalist of to-day

seeks to protect the child from unduly frequent sexual excitement. But

sometimes the result is other than he expects. Sport is recommended to

divert the mind from sexual ideas, and yet I have known cases in which

marked sexual excitement has been induced in this way. I am not now

referring to mechanical stimulation through bicycling or

horseback-riding, of which I shall speak later; but many a child has

been sexually excited through playing tennis with a girl-companion, and

many a boy has been sexually excited through rowing with another. Still,

the fact that here and there a child may have been sexually excited in

such a way, is no reason for condemning what is invaluable to the

enormous majority of children.

This is all that need be said regarding the manner in which general

influences may counteract the efforts of the educationalist. But

experience shows that the good effects of education are also seriously

impaired by individual factors, especially by congenital

predisposition, or by a tendency acquired very early in life. Although

we no longer assume that human impulses, emotions, and sentiments take

their course quite independently of the influence of other psychical

powers, such as the reason and the will, still, unprejudiced observation

shows that the power of the reason and the will is less than many

persons imagine. In very many cases we are able to see how difficult it

is, in a child of ten or less, to exert any notable influence upon the

impulses, the emotions, and the sentiments. This is no less true in the

positive than it is in the negative aspect. In one child it may be just

as difficult to induce a fondness for music or reading, as it is in

another to break it of an inclination for romping or other games. The

same is true of the emotions--fear, for instance. In many cases,

logically planned efforts may be altogether out of relationship to the

result. Above all, great weight must be laid upon the consideration that

there is a tendency to overrate the effect of education in the form of

precept as compared with the effect of example. A child may receive the

best of instruction without result, if in its own environment it is

continually seeing something precisely the opposite of that which it is

being told. _This applies with equal force to the sexual life, which can

be influenced far more readily by example than by good teaching, if the

latter, though daily repeated, conflicts with what the child sees every

day in the conduct of its relatives and companions._

Although, for this reason, we must avoid forming an exaggerated idea of

the utility of individual sexual education, this is not meant to imply

that we should assume a perfectly passive attitude, and leave everything

to the uncontrolled course of development, in order to allow the child,

as the modern phrase goes, "to live its own life."

Before passing to consider details, we must consider the elementary

bases of all matters connected with the education of children--namely,

morality and custom. These two words are connected by their inner

significance, and not merely by etymological meaning;[127] but they

represent different standards for passing judgment upon our actions.

Certain things conflict with established custom, without its being

permissible for us to speak of them as immoral. If at a social gathering

for which evening dress is the rule, a gentleman turns up in light

tweeds, he is guilty of a breach of custom, but not of an immoral

action. If an officer in the army, having impregnated a young girl of

the working class, marries her, his action is a moral one in the

positive sense, but in spite of this he commits an offence against the

customs of his class. Moreover, we have to remember that an act which is

immoral or opposed to custom at a certain time and among a certain

people, may at another time, or among another people, be neither the one

nor the other. In such matters, opinions change; and this applies also

to the case of actions connected with the sexual life. Herodotus relates

that in Babylon the virgins had, for a money payment, and in honour of

the Goddess of Love, to give themselves to a strange man; and similar

customs are reported of other peoples of antiquity.[128] In providing

for the sexual education of the child, we have to take into account such

changes of view; but we have also to consider the matter in relation to

the present condition of our civilisation, for the child is to be a

citizen of a real, not of an imaginary State.

Intimately related to custom and morality are certain psychical

processes, especially the sentiment of shame. This is aroused by actions

which are considered immoral by ourselves or by members of our

environment, and by actions which conflict with established custom. The

child detected in a lie is ashamed, either because the act is immoral,

or more often because the act is by others regarded as immoral; for the

opinion of others plays a great part in the causation of shame. The man

who has forgotten to put on his necktie, and in that condition appears

in public, is ashamed, because he has committed a breach of custom. This

dependence of the sense of shame upon morality and custom is true above

all in matters of sex. A girl who is undressing in a hotel room, and has

forgotten to bolt the door, so that a strange man suddenly enters by

mistake, is ashamed; equally ashamed is a girl who encounters an

exhibitionist with his penis exposed. These examples suffice to show

that the sentiment of shame, which is associated with great discomfort,

is a safeguard against immorality and against breaches of custom.

Similar relations exist for the sense of disgust, which is allied to the

sense of shame. Shame is felt in the performance of an action disgusting

to others, if against one's will one is watched in the process.

Defæcation is usually effected in some retired place: in the onlooker,

defæcation arouses disgust; whilst by the person defæcating, if he knows

that he is being observed, shame is felt. Normal sexual intercourse

between a man and a woman, objectively regarded, is a no less unæsthetic

act than pseudo-coitus between two men. None the less, in most persons,

the sight of the former act arouses less disgust than that of the

latter. This difference depends upon the fact that by most persons

homosexual intercourse is also felt to be immoral. In this relationship

between the sense of disgust and immorality, it is often impossible to

determine what is primary and what is secondary. A mutual retroaction

occurs: the sense of disgust is increased, because the act is regarded

as immoral; and, on the other hand, a strong sense of disgust may

increase the perception of immorality. The same mutual relationships

with the ideas of morality are found in connexion with the sense of

shame. Beyond question, the sentiments of shame and of disgust are

closely connected with the ideas of custom and morality; for shame and

disgust arise especially in connexion with matters which conflict with

our ideas of morality. It will, therefore, readily be understood that in

moral education it is of the greatest importance what are the processes

in connexion with which the instructor seeks to arouse the sentiments of

shame and disgust; and, on the other hand, it is obvious that the ideas

of morality induced by education, favour the development, in certain

specific relationships, of the sentiments of shame and disgust.

It is a disputed question whether the sentiments of shame and disgust

are inborn. In this controversy, two matters are confused, between which

it is necessary to distinguish: the general disposition to experience

such sentiments, and the special disposition to react with these

sentiments to _specific_ occurrences. The fact is incontestable, that

the general disposition to these sentiments is inborn. Inborn, also, is

the association of specific bodily processes with the corresponding

mental states: blushing, with the sentiment of shame; retching and

vomiting, with the sentiment of disgust; these associations are

certainly not chance products of education. The only point in doubt is,

to what extent the tendency is inborn to experience these sentiments as

a result of certain specific stimuli. By some it is assumed, that when

we experience disgust at the sight of certain animals--a worm, for

instance--such concrete reactions depend upon inborn dispositions;

whereupon the further problem emerges, how did our ancestors acquire the

disposition they have transmitted to us, their descendants. Others

believe that influences operating after birth have led to the

association with the sight or idea of the worm of the tendency to feel

disgust. Very early in life, the child has seen others exhibit disgust

at a worm; doubtless he has often been told how disgusting this animal

is; and thus gradually the sentiment of disgust has become associated

with the sight or the idea of the worm.[129] With the sentiment of

shame, similar conditions obtain. If a human being feels shame in

connexion with certain matters, and therefore avoids them, this may

depend upon influences operating in the individual life (imitation,

education, suggestion, &c.), by which the feeling of shame has been

associated with certain perceptions. On the other hand, it is possible

that shame may be dependent upon a special inborn disposition. Certain

processes in the animal world--for example, the fact that many animals

deposit their excrement in hidden places, and the fact that bitches and

other female animals sometimes behave in a way which is interpreted as

the exhibition of shame--may be regarded as the result of an inborn

disposition. But others refer to the slight degree in which little girls

appear to feel shame, as an indication that this sentiment is acquired

during the individual life. Undoubtedly, we sometimes find

manifestations of shame in very early childhood. Sikorsky[130] reports

that his son exhibited typical shame at the early age of three and a

half years. The boy was washing himself, having for this purpose taken

off his coat and bared the upper part of the body. When his father

unexpectedly entered the room, the boy was ashamed and startled, and

said pleadingly, as he endeavoured to cover himself by crossing his

hands over the breast, "Please don't come in, for I haven't got my shirt

on." Sikorsky rightly points out that this position of the arms is

typical of the sentiment of shame. Still, such cases are comparatively

rare; and in contrast with them we may often note that older children,

even girls of eight or a little more, will in play raise their

petticoats so high that it is necessary to turn away if we wish to avoid

seeing the genital organs, and often a word of reproof is needed from

the mother or nurse to indicate to the child that it is doing something

improper. The fact that in little children the sense of shame is so

little developed, but that subsequently this sentiment becomes clearly

manifest, has been used as an argument against the theory that it is

inborn; but this argument cannot be accepted without reserve, for an

inborn quality may not manifest itself until a certain definite age is

reached--as we see clearly in the case of the sexual impulse--and this

apart from the consideration that the development of an inborn quality

may be inhibited by influences acting during the individual life.

Whatever view we take of this problem, there can be no doubt as to the

possibility of exerting a marked influence upon both qualities, the

sentiment of disgust and the sentiment of shame, by means of influences

operating during the lifetime of the individual. Thus, by education and

habituation, it is possible to learn to repress disgust towards certain

animals or certain excreta, as is done by the physician, and by nurses,

male and female. The sentiment of disgust also depends largely upon

general customs. The civilised European makes a mock of the fact that

other races, certain oriental races, for instance, eat foods which to us

are disgusting. A European invited as a guest at certain foreign

banquets, is thoroughly disgusted when he sees food put into the mouth

with the fingers instead of with knife and fork. And yet there is no

great difference in respect of our own practice, when we put a piece of

chocolate, a grape, or the like, into our own mouths. If, in Europe, we

saw someone eating a pigeon in the same way as that in which we are

accustomed to eat a crayfish, many persons would experience disgust. And

yet, objectively considered, there is no reason to be less disgusted at

the eating of crayfishes than when some other kind of animal is eaten in

the same manner. Such modification of the sentiment of disgust by habit

and custom applies also to sexual matters. A girl who experiences

disgust at the sight of semen or the act of its ejaculation, may,

through habituation, cease to feel such disgust.

Similarly with the sentiment of shame, we find that in some persons it

is aroused by matters to which others are more or less completely

indifferent--and this is true no less of the sexual sense of shame than

of shame in general. We note the way in which habit or other influences

may diminish or even entirely suppress the sentiment of sexual shame,

from the fact that prostitutes willingly undress in the presence of a

strange man without any sense of shame (although it must be admitted

that some remnants of shame may remain even in many prostitutes).

Finally, the experience of the marriage-bed shows how rapidly the

sentiment of shame in respect of certain situations may disappear or

largely diminish. Although a refined woman may long, and in some cases

permanently, manifest a certain reserve towards her husband, still,

there is an enormous degree of difference between the intensity of the

sentiment of shame which a young bride experiences when undressing on

her bridal night and that which she experiences in the like situation

after a year of married life.

Other circumstances show that these sentiments are influenced, not

merely by individual habituation, but also by the nature of general

customs. A lady of the nobility, president, perhaps, of a Ladies'

Society for the Promotion of Public Morals, may regard the short skirts

of a music-hall dancer as the acme of impropriety, and yet will not

hesitate for a moment to go into society in the evening in a low dress,

with her breasts plainly visible to anyone standing by her when she is

seated. The same lady would probably be furious at the suggestion that

she should show herself to men in the dress of a ballet-dancer, but with

a high corsage. And yet, experience shows that in other circumstances

the short skirt is quite acceptable, inasmuch as when bicycling first

obtained a vogue among the upper classes, ladies of high standing were

to be seen in the streets with short skirts and visible calves. In

Germany, and in many other countries, it was for long regarded as

improper for men and women to bathe in common. The Americans, however,

saw no impropriety in mixed bathing, and of late years even the Germans

find it possible for the sexes to mix in bathing without any offence to

the sense of shame. Here we have nothing more than the revival of an old

custom, for in former centuries mixed bathing was practised in

Germany.[131]

From the examples just given, we see clearly the way in which the

objects and situations with which are associated manifestations of shame

and disgust, depend upon habituation and general custom. But just

because this is so, both these sentiments are in the highest degree

adapted to furnish protection against actions which are opposed to

dominant custom, or are condemned by the prevailing moral code. By the

sense of shame, the young girl is prevented from surrendering her person

to any man who desires her. Shame interferes with the very preparations

for the sexual act; for example, with the act of undressing in the

presence of a man. The sentiment of disgust may also exert a protective

influence, for disgust is aroused in women by the semen and its

ejaculation, and by many other things connected with the sexual act.

All these considerations combine to show how important it is that proper

care should be taken to promote in the child the proper development of

the sentiments of shame and disgust, and also of the moral ideas. It

need hardly be said, that the sentiments of shame and disgust are not

the only psychical aids in the sexual education of children. There are

others, such as the fear of disagreeable consequences, which deters

human beings from many immoral actions, and often enough at the outset

greatly furthers the development of moral ideas; also there is direct

instruction, the influence of which will be considered later.

But in the moral education of children, and also in the disquisitions of

adults upon morality, mistakes are made. In particular, no distinction

is made whether anything is to be regarded as immoral _per se_, or

whether it is only considered immoral in certain circumstances. This is

shown very clearly in the formation of opinions, from the standpoint of

sexual morality, regarding nakedness and the sexual life. Because, in

particular situations, nakedness is immoral, the child is often taught

to regard nakedness as being _per se_ disgraceful. Similarly with the

sexual life. Instead of aiming at its proper control, the idea instilled

is that the mere mention of sexuality, and even its very existence, are

things gravely immoral. The very same persons who teach the child to

repeat the commandment, Honour thy father and thy mother, educate it

also in such a way that it is forced to regard the act to which it owes

its own existence as something which must have rendered its parents

unclean. It has to be admitted that at times it is by no means easy, in

these matters, to find the right way; its discovery demands, not

interest merely, but also intelligence; it is, perhaps, an art. But

often the right course is not so very difficult to find; and if we only

exercise reasonable care in the repression of hypocrisy and of perverse

moral ideas, we shall be able to educate the child in such a way that he

will come to understand that exposure of his person is not a matter of

pure indifference, and yet will not regard nakedness as something

unclean. The little girl who draws her petticoats too high, will stop

doing so when her mother forbids it. A child will not always ask the

reason for such a prohibition; and if it does ask, all the mother need

answer in this case, as in so many others in which the child is not yet

competent to understand the reason, is that it will understand well

enough when it is older. When the child is older, and when its

understanding has enlarged, the mother need make no difficulty about

explaining the true reason in a suitable manner.

In respect also of the sentiment of disgust, exaggerations must

carefully be avoided. From a feeling of shame, and for fear of arousing

disgust in others, many young girls refrain, when in the company of

other persons, from retiring to satisfy the calls of nature. The

physician knows that this may result not merely in discomfort, but in

consequences by no means indifferent to health. In this respect also, a

just mean must be the aim of education. The child has to be taught that,

alike for æsthetic and for hygienic reasons, the evacuation of the

excreta must be effected in a retired place. But it is necessary to

avoid going to the extreme of producing in the child the impression that

there is something disgusting in the faintest intimation of such a

physical need, or of making it feel that there is something essentially

shameful in the fulfilment of these natural functions. The same

considerations apply also to the sentiment of disgust in relation to the

sexual life. In this also overstatement must be avoided. The education

of young girls aims to a large extent at inducing them to regard the

sexual act, not merely as something of which they should be ashamed, but

as something in itself disgusting. It is well known that quite a number

of women are altogether unable to give themselves up to the sexual act

in such a way as to derive from it real enjoyment and satisfaction. A

part of the severe disillusionment following marriage, depends upon the

lack of normal sexual sensibility in the wife; and it is by no means

improbable that this state depends in some cases upon the education

received in girlhood. If it is impressed on anyone from childhood

upwards that a particular act is disgusting and shameful, ultimately

inhibitions may arise, owing to which the natural impulse to the

performance of that act, and its natural course and natural enjoyment,

may be prevented. And although the widely prevalent lack of sexual

sensibility in women has additional causes, nevertheless I regard it as

probable that in some of the cases, at any rate, this insensibility

directly results from educational influences. In this matter, too, we

must guard against exaggeration. We must educate children, boys as well

as girls, in the belief that to mishandle the genital organs is

forbidden alike by divine and by human law. But we must not teach them

to regard the sexual act as in itself disgusting; more especially in

view of the fact that such an idea conflicts with the lofty ethical

significance of the act to which we all owe our existence.

What has been said about nakedness, has bearings also upon the

relationships of the education of children to the matter of the nude in

art. No intelligent person will deny the importance to art of the

representation of the nude. A clothed Venus is a thing with which the

connoisseur would prefer to dispense. Although I am not myself an

enthusiastic adherent of the movement started a few years back with a

great flourish of trumpets for the introduction of art into the

education of children--a movement which has already perceptibly

slackened--I do not wish to deny the important bearings of art upon the

education of the child. Children who are still comparatively young, have

not as a rule much understanding of art. None the less, we must not

withhold from the child possibilities of appreciating the beauties of

the nude. Apart from this purely educational aim, we have to remember

that it is impossible to preserve children completely from the sight of

the nude in art. We might, of course, exclude them from our museums; but

our own houses also often contain nude statuary, and books with

illustrations of the nude figure; and nude statues are to be seen also

in places of public resort. A demand for the removal of such

nude figures is so stupid, that it hardly deserves serious

discussion--outside of the columns of the comic papers. A classical

education, too, gives so many opportunities for the sight or the mention

of the nude--for instance, delineations of the gods of the ancient

mythology that the demands of the "morality-fanatics" could be met only

by cutting off the child from the most beautiful sources of culture. But

now, let those who, in the lower classes of our schools, have seen in

the text-books of mythology pictures of unclad gods and goddesses,

seriously ask themselves whether in this connexion they ever experienced

even the faintest uncleanness of thought! If in one among thousands of

such children, the sight of such a picture is followed by an undesired

result, we have further to remember that this fact does not give us the

right to deprive thousands of other children of the spiritual

nourishment requisite for their emotional and æsthetic development, and

for their general culture. There is no need for any anxiety about this

question of the nude in art; and we must avoid suggesting to children

that there is anything peculiar about the nakedness of statuary. We are,

indeed, justified in asking whether the replacement or concealment of

the genital organs by a fig-leaf--a practice supposed to have been

initiated by the influence of the Jesuits about the middle of the

eighteenth century--is a sound one; or whether this is not the very way

to lead to objectionable conversations between children. The child

compares the work of art with its own body and with the bodies of others

which it has seen, notes the difference at once, and is thereby incited

to improper conversation.

Those who wish to prevent children seeing artistic representations of

the nude are influenced by two very different motives, although by the

morality-fanatics themselves these motives are not clearly

distinguished. Sometimes we are told that the sight of the nude in art

may awaken the child's sexual impulse, sometimes that morality forbids

such representations of the nude. These two reasons must not be

confused; for even if well-developed moral ideas may repress sexual

acts, it does not follow that everything which is immoral is also

sexually exciting. A great many pictures are immoral, and yet do not

tend in the very least to induce sexual excitement--it suffices to

mention illustrations of scatological scenes. Another source of error

lies in the fact that things which appear sexual to the adult, may to

the child be entirely devoid of sexual colouring. There is an amusing

anecdote of a little girl who had been bathing with other children, and

on her return home was asked whether boys had been bathing as well as

girls; "I don't know," said the little one, "for they were all naked!"

This story is based upon a profound insight into the nature of the

child, for children in general do not regard nakedness as sexually

important--though a few exceptions to this rule may be encountered. Just

because the child is so often taught that nakedness is in itself

immoral, we are apt also to teach it to experience sexual excitement at

the sight of a nude statue; whereas if the child had simply been taught

that nakedness at unsuitable times and places was wrong, no such

reaction would ensue. I remember the time in which the strong agitation

took place which led to the passing of the _Lex Heinze;_[132] and I was

acquainted with a gentleman--he was a patient of mine--who was a member

of the party by which the new law was so strongly demanded. When one day

he came to see me, bringing with him his little boy, the latter noticed

in my waiting-room a nude statue of a woman, but which the little boy

took for a man. The child, who was obviously attempting to repeat

something he had often heard said, asked his father naïvely: "Papa, if

that were a woman, it would be improper, wouldn't it?" This remark is at

once natural and characteristic; the child would never have felt the

possibility that the statue was in any way improper, unless his

education had led him to regard nakedness as disgraceful, or as immoral

and improper. There is no doubt that our clothing is intimately

connected with the development of the sentiment of shame and with the

formation of our ideas of morality. But the more we learn so to form the

mind of the child that it will not regard nakedness as being _per se_

immoral, the sooner shall we be able, not only to instil into children

truly moral ideas, but also to safeguard them against the risks of

premature sexual excitement.

The considerations just stated apply _mutatis mutandis_ to the question

of what children should be allowed to read. Although we should give to

children neither obscene or erotic books, still, we should not withhold

from them every poem which deals with love. If such were our rule, we

should have to forbid the most beautiful works in our literature, and

also our folk-tales. Read, for example, Grimm's tales, and you will find

many passages which our morality-fanatics would reject as improper; for

instance, the story of the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and many others,

telling of beauty, love, and kisses. The same remark applies to the

folk-songs. There are persons, indeed, who would like to edit such songs

and stories especially for the use of children. The case will be

remembered in which the song, _In einem kühlen Grunde_, was so modified

for the use of children that they were told, not of the "beloved maiden"

who dwelt there, but of an "uncle" instead! Now, either the child that

hears this song for the first time has as yet no understanding of the

idea of love, and in that case there will be no danger in singing in its

original form this song whose full beauty will not until later become

manifest to the child; or else it has some understanding, and then the

replacement of the girl by an uncle will certainly do nothing to

safeguard the child's morality, but will merely corrupt its taste. The

assumption that by hearing such a song, the awakening of sexuality can

possibly be antedated, is almost ridiculous; and little or no proof has

been offered that anything of the sort ever occurs. One who in such a

song sees the least suspicion of immorality, and who thinks that the

hearing of it entails danger to a child, not only betrays the corruption

of his own taste, but lays himself open to the countercharge that his

own moral endowments are somewhat defective. Similar conditions apply to

the theatre, and to the other factors in the mental development of

children, and of human beings in general. It is quite impossible to

isolate children from every intimation of the erotic or the sexual. Let

us remember the wide diffusion of the newspapers of our day. We cannot

prevent children from reading newspapers; a statement that applies not

to large towns merely, but to small towns and to the country districts

as well. I speak here, not only of newspapers which are known to be

sensational, but of others as well. The more serious periodicals are

to-day often inclined to devote a good deal of space to many sexual

occurrences; they even err in transforming many non-sexual matters into

sexual ones, giving them a superfluous erotic background. They miss no

chance of converting an ordinary murder into a lust-murder; of

describing a common assault as the outcome of sadism; and of writing of

any woman of whom mention has to be made in connexion with some public

occurrence, as a young lady of surpassing beauty. But apart from all

this, the newspapers are to-day so full of sexual matters (the question

of sexual enlightenment, the prevention of the venereal diseases, the

suppression of prostitution, the protection of motherhood, &c.), that

with the best will in the world it is impossible to keep children from

reading about such things. Nor can this be regarded as unfortunate, so

long as these questions are treated in a moderate manner.

It is altogether different as regards erotic and obscene books and

pictures. Unfortunately such products obtain a wide currency in schools,

in part as printed pornographica, and in part passed from hand to hand

in the written form. Thus, from a number of girls' schools come reports

of the circulation of thoroughly obscene writings among girls from

twelve to fourteen years of age. Especial favourites are descriptions of

the wedding-night, mostly in manuscript form; also an obscene version of

the story of Faust and Gretchen; and quite a number of other improper

poems pass from hand to hand in girls' schools. In boys' schools, the

circulating matter consists rather of obscene printed books and

pictures. It is evident that the advertisements in many newspapers

indicate the chief source of such articles. There is a trade in obscene

pictures advertised under the harmless title of "Parisian Landscapes."

For the most part these advertisements originate in Paris; to a lesser

extent they come from Hungary, Austria, Italy, and Spain. The German

traders in such commodities do not venture to advertise their wares in

the German newspapers; nor is there any evidence in foreign newspapers

of such advertisements proceeding from Germany. Through the meritorious

activity of the _Volksbund zur Bekämpfung des Schmutzes in Wort und

Bild_ (The Popular League for the Suppression of Obscene Writings and

Pictures), these advertisements have of late almost disappeared from

our newspapers. But it can hardly be doubted that formerly immeasurable

harm was done to children in this way. This is shown by the fact that

half-grown boys often buy such things and circulate them among their

school-fellows, all the more in view of the comparatively low price at

which they can be obtained. The wide diffusion of the evil is proved by

the frequency with which such things are confiscated in boys' schools,

and with which obscene photographs are found even in girls'

schools.[133] For the suppression of such pornographica in recent days

we have certainly in great part to thank the League above named, whose

efforts for good must not be confounded with the obscurantist aims of

the pious and hypocritical individuals to whom every nude statue is an

improper object.

The frequency with which such pornographica are circulated in schools is

subject to very great variations; but in the production of these

differences, certain factors which are sometimes given great weight,

really play a comparatively small part. Thus, it is commonly supposed

that there is a great difference in this respect between large towns and

small; but in the schools of small towns, pornographic writings and

pictures are at least as common as in those of large towns; and, indeed,

the addresses to which pornographic photographs are despatched from

Paris are usually in the small towns. Thus the determining influence is

not the difference between the large town and the small; and the

character of the school depends, not only upon the moral level of its

pupils, but above all upon the moral level and the _personal influence_

of the head of the school and the assistant teachers. I know certain

schools, and some of these in large towns, in which hardly a single

improper word is spoken by the pupils, and where no sexual improprieties

take place among the children, even though it has to be assumed that

many of them indulge, at any rate from time to time, in solitary

masturbation. But, on the whole, the spirit of such schools is an

admirable one, in contrast to others, in which extremely loose manners

prevail. Above all, therefore, we must avoid thinking that we state the

truth of this matter by using the catch-word of "the corruption of the

great towns."

It cannot be contested that the diffusion of these things among children

involves serious dangers alike to their morals and to their health.

Speaking generally, upon adults pornographic objects have rather a

repellent than a sexually exciting effect. In the case of children in

whom no sexual sensibility has as yet developed, they exercise no sexual

stimulation, but may later give rise to ill effects. But it is to

ripening children and young persons, who do not yet understand the

sexual life, but to whom it is first displayed in this form, that such

pornographic objects are especially dangerous. Thus we find that many

offenders against sexual morality show children obscene pictures, in

order to excite them sexually, and render them compliant. Such sexual

excitement is _per se_ bad for the child's health; but the moral dangers

are even more important. Children who have become familiar with such

obscene objects may perhaps suffer in consequence from an inadequate

development or even from a complete inhibition of the higher psychical

elements of the sexual life. The grave injury inflicted on children by

these pornographica cannot possibly be doubted. What has been said above

should, however, suffice to show that the nude in art has no necessary

connexion with this danger from pornographic objects; although

unfortunately, for business reasons, many persons hypocritically attempt

to justify by false reference to the interests of art, drawings of the

nude really intended to furnish erotic stimulus.

The much-discussed question of the common education of the sexes

(coeducation) is related to the mental hygiene of the sexual life of the

child. I shall deal with this question only in so far as it bears upon

our subject; and shall not consider whether other reasons, such as the

different endowments of the sexes, are decisively opposed to

coeducation. But coeducation has been opposed also for reasons of sexual

education, on two grounds: that it leads to a premature awakening of the

sexual life, and that it gives rise to immoral practices between the

children.

It is true that when boys and girls associate freely together the first

sexual feelings of boys are directed towards girls. But a separation of

boys and girls at school would here be of little use. Not only would

some other person of the female sex be apt to take the place of a girl

school-fellow, some person the boy often sees, it may be a grown woman,

it may be a child (a school-friend of the boy's sister or of the family,

a girl-cousin, or some girl employed about the house); but in many

cases, if the sexes are separated in youth, both in boys and in girls

the sexual impulse, when it awakens, may perhaps be directed towards a

member of the same sex. I may refer, in this connexion, to what was said

on page 60 about the undifferentiated sexual impulse.

A further problem is that of the sexual practices which may result from

the sexual impulse. It is an indisputable fact that many boys, when the

contrectation impulse is intermingled with the detumescence impulse,

readily take to sexual practices with others. Examples of this

constantly occur in boarding-schools, and in all other kinds of

educational institutions; even in day-schools, where the children live

apart from one another, we may observe that occasionally they begin

sexual practices very early in life (mutual masturbation, and intimate

physical contact, especially contact involving the genital organs). We

must always bear in mind the possibility that coeducation may lead to

the more frequent occurrence of such practices between boys and girls.

But we must avoid over-estimating this danger. In the first place, there

are many institutions, higher schools and others, attended only by

pupils of one sex, in which mutual sexual practices never take place,

and in which neither boys nor girls, even though sexual inclinations

arise in them, ever effect sexual intimacies with other children.

Although mutual masturbation is fairly common in schools, it cannot be

regarded as the general rule. Further, it may be pointed out that when

boys and girls are educated in common, the girls' natural instincts of

self-defence will in many cases lead them to repel improper sexual

advances. This is proved by the actual experience of coeducation.

Finck[134] gives reports regarding coeducation in the schools of the

western states of the American Union, and informs us that there every

girl has her beau of fourteen to seventeen years of age. Notwithstanding

the fact that these are boys of a fair age, undesirable consequences

have not been observed. This view is substantiated by the reports made

to me personally by American men and women, in whose truthfulness and

judgment I have complete confidence. During a lengthy American tour, and

on other occasions, I have elaborately questioned American physicians,

ministers of religion, school-teachers, and fathers and mothers of

families, regarding this matter. Their universal opinion was that no

such undesirable results of coeducation were ever observed. Indeed, I

received numerous assurances regarding the customary sexual abstinence

of American young men who had been educated in common with American

girls. In many of these circles, a young man known to indulge in sexual

intercourse, whether with a prostitute or in a so-called "intimacy," was

immediately ostracised; and this shows that as far as the question of

sexual chastity is concerned, the results of the coeducation of the

sexes are at least not more unfavourable than those of the separate

education of the sexes. I am well aware that many doubt the harmlessness

of these conditions in America, and declare the account given of them

hypocritical.[135] My own information, however, leads me to contest

this for numerous cases. Of course we have to remember that the

population of the United States of America is an extremely composite

one, made up of numerous nationalities, whose customs differ as much as

do those of the different social strata. The above remarks refer chiefly

to the old Anglo-American circles. It is indisputable that even in these

circles certain changes have recently taken place. The Americans refer

this to their more extensive relations with Europe, in consequence of

which European customs and opinions, by which sexual abstinence is not

demanded of young men, have been gradually introduced into those circles

of American life in which formerly other views obtained.

But even if we believe that in isolated instances coeducation may lead

to unfortunate results in the way of sexual practice, we have to

remember the objections which may be adduced from the standpoint of

sexual education against the separate education of the sexes. Especially

we have to think of the fact that by the separation of the sexes during

childhood we may favour the development of homosexuality. Apart from

this consideration, I believe that in girls the capacity for

self-protection arises much earlier in life when frequent association of

boys and girls is permitted--a method of education which in Europe of

late, at any rate outside the school, has become far more common than in

former days, and one which is greatly favoured by the joint playing of

games and other joint sports.

If the question be asked whether the sexual life awakens earlier in

children who mix freely with those of the opposite sex, or in those

whose companionship is confined to members of their own sex, we find it

difficult to detect any notable difference in this respect. As regards

boys in boarding-schools, the information available certainly suffices

to lead us to this conclusion; and from such information as I have

received from girls' schools, and from the behaviour of schoolgirls

(some of these quite young), I infer that no notable difference in the

age at which sexual sensibility first makes its appearance, results from

the coeducation or the separate education of the sexes.

One condition has to be imposed, if coeducation is not to entail any

dangers. The child must not be allowed to regard such education as

experimental, and as possibly dangerous. If the child were to be

enlightened with all sorts of warnings, dangers might ensue. It is

necessary that the child should regard coeducation as something

perfectly natural. In this connexion, the matter assumes a different

aspect, according as coeducation is undertaken from the outset, or only

after the children are already half-grown. From the latter course,

perils might sometimes arise, as Gertrud Bäumer rightly insists.[136]

From the earliest days of childhood onwards, coeducation should appear

to the child as a matter of course; only if this is not the case, may

the practice prove dangerous from the sexual standpoint, and especially

from the standpoint of sexual morality.

Here, of course, I make no attempt to offer a decisive opinion one way

or the other upon the disputed question of coeducation of the sexes. My

sole aim has been to show that certain of the objections commonly made

to coeducation, on the grounds with which we are especially concerned in

this book, do not bear examination.

Better reasons can be found for objecting to some other modes of

association on the part of children of the two sexes. The most important

of these are common dancing lessons and children's balls. These are not

so recent a development as is often assumed. More than a century ago,

Pockels,[137] the distinguished psychologist and educationalist,

objected strongly to dancing parties for children, which commonly

lasted, he tells us, from five o'clock in the afternoon till midnight,

and sometimes even on into the small hours of the morning. Beyond

question, the association of children in dances can by no means be

regarded as more innocuous than coeducation, all the more in view of the

fact that the children at such dances are often fairly old--towards the

end of the second period of childhood, or in the early years of the

period of youth. For my own part, the danger of children's balls appears

to me to affect, not so much the sphere of sexual morality, as that of

hygiene and general morality. As regards the danger to health, I have

known parents who were always complaining of the way in which their

children were overworked at school, and yet saw nothing wrong in these

same children going to dancing lessons on two evenings every week.

In conclusion, I will report a case which proves that when children are

inclined to sexual practices, they will find sufficient opportunity,

even in the absence of coeducation. This was the case of a boy of eight

and a girl of seven years, who stripped quite naked and got into bed

together; from the fact that spots of blood were found on the

bed-clothing, it appeared that very definite sexual malpractice had

taken place. The girl's sexual history was followed up for three years

after this. She showed herself much inclined to make sexual advances

towards adults, pressing herself up against them in a way which innocent

persons interpreted as manifesting the caressive inclinations of the

child.

Having given this illustrative case, I must not omit to state that

similar incidents may, of course, occur from time to time in connexion

with the coeducation of children. But we must avoid the error of

attributing to external chance-influences, such as coeducation,

occurrences which are dependent upon the very nature of human beings;

for such things happen whatever method of education be adopted.

Naturally, the difference between the sexes must not be ignored; but in

children the existence of sexual differentiation must not be incessantly

and anxiously emphasised. Brothers and sisters, when they have reached a

certain age, should certainly not be placed naked together in a bath.

But this is to be avoided, not for fear lest thereby sexual excitement

might result in the children, but because to do so would be in

opposition to the customs of our time, and it is precisely by such

contrasts with generally accepted customs, that the attention of

children is aroused. Further, we may approve of the fact that in

consequence of the movement for child-protection (_Kinderschutz_), the

misuse of children in various ways--in the theatre, for example--has

undergone a notable diminution. But in this matter also, the decisive

factor is not exclusively the interest of sexual morality, but rather

the rights of the children themselves. The same consideration applies,

in part, to an earlier movement. In France, in the year 1848, the

appearance of children on the stage was legally prohibited, one reason

alleged for this enactment being the moral dangers resulting from the

mixing of the sexes in such conditions, but reference was also made more

particularly to the need for the better protection of the physical and

mental powers of the children.[138]

I come now to the description of certain other mental influences

necessary for the child. A very important point is that we should use

our utmost endeavours to divert the child from the sexual impulse. The

more the awakening of this impulse threatens to force itself upon the

child's attention, the more necessary is it to bring into play the

measured activity of other faculties and interests. We think here as

much of methods of æsthetic culture, reading, and the theatre, as of

bodily sports and games. At the same time, it must be our aim to

cultivate the general strength of the will, since this is needed alike

for the control of the sexual impulse, and for the overcoming of other

temptations and passions. The general moral education of the child, the

formation of its character, and the encouragement of a pursuit of ideal

aims, are all also of the greatest possible importance in relation to

sexual education. Nothing is better adapted to ensure personal happiness

and a high moral standard, than the inculcation of idealism, which must

on no account be confused with aloofness from the everyday affairs of

the world.

By many persons, an especial stress is laid upon the value of religious

education, for the purpose of directing in proper paths the sexual life

of the child, and of giving help in the mastery of its temptations. But

notwithstanding the fact that I value most highly a _genuinely_

religious education, I feel that for the purposes just mentioned we

cannot place much reliance upon _that which in our schools of to-day

passes by the name of religious education_. I have been personally

acquainted with too many persons brought up on "strictly religious"

lines, adherents of the most diverse creeds, but chiefly Protestants,

Catholics, and Jews, whose religious education has been of remarkably

little use to them in this respect. Among children, I have known some

who masturbated immoderately, and yet their progress in their religious

studies was extraordinary. I have known of serious epidemics of

masturbation, in some cases of mutual masturbation, in boarding-schools

in which the day's work was always begun with prayers and hymns. Quite

recently, another case has been reported to me, of a so-called exemplary

school, where the educational methods had a strong religious trend, and

yet seduction to mutual masturbation played a great part. In spite of

these experiences, I do not dispute the fact that even in association

with the modern methods of religious instruction--but not always in

consequence of these--many have been withheld from masturbatory and

other sexual acts. These cases fall into three groups. The first group

consists of cases in which the sexual impulse is very weak, so that very

little is requisite to prevent the occurrence of sexual practices. To

the second group belong the cases of those who are kept in check by the

fear of God's anger, which will be visited, they are taught in their

lessons on religion, upon all unrighteous acts. The third group is

comprised of those rare natures who are really profoundly inspired by

religious ethical sentiments, and in whom even the ordinary unpractical

methods of religious instruction have not been able to inhibit the

development of genuinely religious feelings. These three groups may

readily be recognised among adults as well as among children. But when I

compare the number of the children and young persons making up these

three groups with the number of those to whom religious instruction has

been quite useless, I feel justified in a certain scepticism. I do not

pretend to assert that those who have received religious instruction

have become more immoral than the others; but I am certainly entitled to

contest the assertion that religious instruction induces a loftier

sexual morality. Indeed, a further limitation is needed here, and one to

the discredit of religious instruction. A portion, even, of those

persons comprising the exceptional cases just enumerated, have not

thereby attained to spiritual peace. Tormented, and at times almost

mastered, by the sexual impulse, they struggle unceasingly under the

influence of terror lest they should commit a deadly sin by yielding to

this impulse. The mental condition[139] of such persons--I speak chiefly

of young men--is in some cases such that a doctor may well doubt if he

be not justified in advising them to indulge in illegitimate sexual

intercourse. I have myself never given such advice in these cases, nor

do I intend to give it in similar cases in the future. I refrain from

doing so on ethical grounds, which I have discussed in great detail in

connexion with the sexual question in my work on Medical Ethics.[140]

The physician has no right to advise his patient to the performance of

an act which is regarded by the latter as a deadly sin. But all the more

because I have felt unable to give such advice, do I feel it my duty to

insist here upon the seamy side of the education by which this state of

mind is induced.

My view that what is commonly called religious education does not as a

rule help the subject to master the sexual impulse, has been forced upon

me by the numerous confessions entrusted to me by persons who have

received such an education. Very recently, I was shown a diary in which

a young man, obviously very religious and pious, to whom God was the

source of all hope, and who thanked God for His grace on every page,

refers again and again to the fact that he has found himself unable to

overcome the lower forms of sensuality. He writes: "In resisting this

powerful sensual impulse, religion was of some help, but unfortunately

not very much. When I was only twelve years of age, the impulse towards

the lower forms of sensuality made its appearance, and speedily attained

great intensity. Again and again I believed myself to be strong enough

to withstand it, only to pass from a weak and inefficient resistance, to

a profound fall." And later he writes: "But the lower sensuality

persisted, however much and however often I resisted it. My imagination

continually produced the horrible pictures. And though in desperate

rage I clenched my teeth to drive them away, they always left traces in

my soul, and from time to time I fell. How I have struggled, how I have

fought! How often with tears have I sought God's protection and help,

praising God with holy zeal and faith. In my room I knelt, praying for

grace and strength. I write this, not for self-glorification, but to

show you, dear reader, how terrible, how gigantic is the struggle for

virtue."

Notwithstanding all that I have written, I do not for a moment dispute

the fact that a religious education may effect admirable results, both

in respect of sexual matters, and of others. _Indeed, I am firmly

convinced of this._ But the religious education competent to do this

does not consist merely of learning Bible texts by heart; nor is its

chief aim the inculcation of precepts which are to-day impossible of

fulfilment--as the child sees at every turn in the conduct of the

members of its own environment. I refer to the religious education which

has an internal reality, and arises spontaneously out of the demands of

morality. I do not mean the sort of education which regards it as almost

a disgrace that we come naked into the world; not the religious

education which regards man as soiled by the fact that he is born from

his mother's womb; nor that which considers every sexual act as

essentially sinful, and asceticism as man's salvation. It is not

religious education of such a kind that will have any good effect in the

matter of sexual education; but that religious education only which is

in complete accord with our ideas of morality, and which is based, not

so much upon the historical and material contents of the Bible, as upon

the internal and everlasting truths of religion.

The sexual dangers of the Bible have often been pointed out. But this

work would be incomplete, if I omitted making a fresh reference to the

matter. In the Bible, sexual processes are repeatedly mentioned. In the

mind of the child a conflict inevitably arises when, on the one hand, he

finds that everything of a sexual nature is diligently concealed from

him, and, on the other, in the Holy Book which is put before him as the

basis of his moral instruction, he finds that so much attention is paid

to sexual things. It is not the actual accounts of sexual things in the

Bible which constitute the danger, but the contrast between the plain

speaking of the Bible in these matters, and the general affectation of

secrecy outside its pages. An additional point of importance is the fact

that in the Bible sexual topics are handled in a way which is by no

means always delicate. I may recall the frequency with which the idea of

the _whore_ is employed for purposes of comparison; and I may refer also

to the occasional use of strongly erotic language, as, for example, in

the Song of Solomon. A further danger lies in the fact that the Bible

contains descriptions of customs which are no longer in harmony with

modern ideas; it suffices to mention the accounts of polygamy in the Old

Testament. Unless the distinction between what is historical and what is

truly religious is carefully explained to the child, the latter's moral

ideas will very readily become confused.

In this connexion, I must also refer to the Catholic confessional, about

which of late years a good deal has been written. I may recall the

disquisitions on the moral teaching of Liguori. The father confessors

have to read books in which are discussed the questions of casuistry

with which they have to deal, in order to learn what authoritative

decisions have been given regarding the concrete cases on which they are

asked to pass judgment. In these books, sexual misconduct plays a

leading part. This is also true of the confessional manuals written to

assist the penitents in the discovery of their sins, in which sexual

errors also find a place. Opinions as to the wisdom of giving such

manuals to penitents are certainly very divergent. When we read the

authoritative decisions, for the use of confessors, pronounced by

Catholic theologians upon sexual faults, we are sometimes astonished at

the practical insight displayed in these decisions; the opinions

expressed must, indeed, often appear dubious to the strict moralist, and

yet they are occasionally marvellously well adapted to the practical

requirements of the case. In many instances, however, even this cannot

be admitted; and however right from the practical point of view the

decisions may sometimes be, we must not overlook the dangers of the

confessional. Cases have been personally known to me in which, at the

confessional, penitents have been cross-questioned in such a way about

sexual details that unfavourable consequences were, in my opinion,

extremely likely to ensue. This statement applies with equal force to

the case of children, who have to go to confession as soon as they

arrive at the "age of reason."[141] No one will dispute the assertion

that the father-confessors gather much experience in the exercise of

their profession, and that most of them possess sufficient tact to avoid

asking improper questions. But to assert this of all of them would be to

rush to the other extreme; and for the same reason that in the latter

part of this chapter I shall express myself as opposed, at any rate in

part, to sexual instruction in schools, do I think that to ask such

questions of children as are sometimes asked in confession, may in

certain circumstances lead to very undesirable results. When the child

penitent describes to the confessor sexual faults (masturbation, &c.),

however well intentioned the words of the confessor may be, it is

impossible that they should be so individually adapted as is really

necessary in such cases; and the detailed discussion of these matters

which sometimes follows is open to grave objection. In what I have just

said, it is far from my intention to attack one of the sacraments of the

Catholic Church; but the matter is one to which it was necessary to

allude, and I will merely add that the error must be avoided of taking

as a basis for criticism much that is written with a party bias against

the Catholic Church, and much also of the mockery of the confessional

which abounds in erotic literature. For example, when Michelet[142]

asserts that, in matters concerning love and the sexual life, a French

girl of fifteen is as far advanced as an English girl of eighteen, and

when he refers this to the effect of a Catholic education in

accelerating the process of human development, it is necessary to

observe that these far-reaching generalisations are not supported by

any jot of proof.

In the earlier parts of this chapter, I have discussed certain questions

belonging to the psychical sphere in their bearings upon sexual

education. I have now to refer to two specialised methods of treatment:

first of all, the one which has initiated the whole of the newer

psychotherapy, namely, hypnotism; and, secondly, the psycho-analytic

method. Hypnotism has been employed against all kinds of sexual

processes, both in adults and in children. As far as children are

concerned, it is masturbation, in especial, for the prevention of which

hypnotic suggestion has been tried. When the child is old enough to be

hypnotised, good results will occasionally be obtained; but in many

other cases the desired end can unquestionably be attained without the

induction of the hypnotic state, either by suggestion in the waking

state, or else by the other methods to be described in the present

chapter.

Here are brief notes of a case in which hypnotic suggestion was employed

with beneficial results.

CASE 17.--X., a boy eleven years of age, was diligent at school. For

some time past he had withdrawn from the companionship of all his

school-fellows, and his parents had noticed that he was continually in

the company of a schoolgirl two years older than himself. He availed

himself of every opportunity to play with this girl. When they sat

together at table, it was noticed that they endeavoured to secure

physical contact by bringing their knees together. In addition, they

were often seen kissing one another. It was obvious that the two had a

mutual inclination each for the other. If anyone gave the boy a present

of money, he shared it with the girl. The two wrote letters to one

another, and some of these letters fell into the parents' hands.

Thereafter the two were watched, so that this exchange of letters became

impossible. At first, the matter was not regarded seriously; on the

contrary, the two were teased about it, especially the boy. The latter

became very unhappy, and for a time it was believed that the intimacy

had been broken off. In reality, the rupture was apparent merely, and

was simulated to escape the teasing. In secret, they continued to meet.

Whereas regarding the girl few details were at my disposal, I had a good

deal of information about the boy. It was astonishing how many excuses

he made to deceive his relatives. Sometimes he was supposed to be

writing his home-lessons, sometimes to be at a gymnastic lesson or at

church, when in reality he was with his girl friend. It had been

observed before that the boy occasionally played with his genital

organs. Since a complete separation from the girl gave rise in the boy

to a state of profound depression, followed by his paying attentions to

a somewhat older girl living in his house, his parents now sought my

advice. The boy proved to be extremely susceptible to hypnotism and to

hypnotic suggestion, and it was remarkable how rapidly a complete change

in his demeanour was effected. Since then I have seen the boy

occasionally, the last time being when he was about fifteen and a half

years of age. There had been no return of the sexual tendencies

previously observed. Quite recently, indeed, he had been known to

masturbate occasionally; and it was for this reason that he was again

brought to consult me. But for four years previously, notwithstanding

the fact that he had been very carefully watched, no improper conduct

had been detected. Undoubtedly, the recent practice of masturbation

would have escaped notice, had not the parents been made very anxious by

the earlier experiences. No special treatment was now undertaken, since

it appeared that there was nothing more amiss than is observed in

average boys of his age; symptoms which in most cases disappear

spontaneously, and without treatment.

A short account must also be given here of the method of Breuer and

Freud, or the psycho-analytic method. It is true that this method is

applicable to adults only, but its aim is to relieve the ill effects of

sexual experiences during childhood. I have before pointed out that in

Freud's view four neuroses always result from previous sexual

experiences; and two of these, hysteria and compulsion-neuroses

(_Zwangsneurose_) are considered by him to depend upon sexual

experiences during childhood. Freud, who originally worked out this

method in co-operation with Breuer, but subsequently further developed

it by himself, assumes that the hysterical symptoms which result from

the noxious influences of sexual experiences during childhood, are

always permanently allayed if we succeed in making the subject once more

actively conscious of them, and enable the emotions thereby again

aroused in the mind of the patient to obtain an efficient outlet (_sie

zum abreagieren zu bringen_). If we are able, either with or without the

aid of hypnotism, to reawaken the effect which was originally

experienced as a result of the sexual trauma, the hysterical symptoms

will be permanently relieved. Originally, he endeavoured to reawaken the

memory of the sexual trauma by means of the induction of profound

hypnosis. Later, however, he was able to do this, without the aid of

hypnotism, by conversing with the patient, and by awaking his memory by

means of questions. This method, to which formerly Freud gave the name

of the cathartic method, but which is now generally known as the

psycho-analytic method, has to some extent been further developed by

Freud's pupils. Freud's view is that by means of psycho-analysis he is

enabled, from the sphere of the unconscious, or rather of the

subconscious, to restore to the supra-consciousness the lost sexual

experiences of childhood or of later life; and by this means to effect a

permanent cure of the most diverse diseases. No detailed criticism of

this method of treatment will here be attempted, but my views on the

matter will to some extent have become apparent from what has been said

in earlier parts of this book. The value of Freud's work appears to me

to consist chiefly in this, that he has insisted more definitely than

other writers upon the reality of subconscious processes. But I believe

that the general sexual etiology which he assumes to exist can from no

point of view be regarded as sound, even with the limitation which he

later imposed upon his own doctrine, namely, that it is not the sexual

experience itself, but the reaction against this experience, which is

etiologically significant. Recently, I have several times tried to treat

by the psycho-analytic method some of the cases for which that method is

supposed to be suitable, and as a result of my experience I have been

forced more and more to the conclusion that, notwithstanding all the

other advantages of the psycho-analytic method, _the importance of the

factor of sexual experiences in the causation of disease has been

greatly over-estimated by Freud_. Moreover, I believe that the cures

effected by Freud (as to the permanence of which, in view of the

insufficiency of the published materials, no decisive opinion can as yet

be given), are explicable in another way. A large proportion of the good

results are certainly fully explicable as the results of suggestion. The

patient's confidence in his physician, and the fact that the treatment

requires much time and patience, are two such powerful factors of

suggestion, that provisionally it is necessary to regard it as possible

that suggestion explains the whole matter.

There are, of course, many other psychological influences to which

attention must also be directed. One of the most important of these is

the avoidance of psychical contagion. A boy who is sexually premature,

or in whom some other striking sexual manifestations have occurred, may

exercise an extremely harmful influence upon other children. We must

endeavour to remove such a boy from the companionship of others, and in

this country this often can be effected through the instrumentality of

the Law of Guardianship (_Fürsorgegesetz_). But it will by no means

always be easy to find the guilty person. It is extremely common for

such an abnormal child to set the tone for the others; and such a child

may be making remarkable progress in study, although its sexual and

moral level is a very low one. A number of other measures will be

inferred from what has been said in the section on etiology. These are

social rather than medical problems. We must avoid letting children have

the chance of seeing others engaged in sexual intercourse; they must not

live in too close and intimate an association with other children; they

must not grow up in the society of prostitutes; children who are past

infancy should not share a common bed. As regards school-life, it is

supposed to be a matter of great importance that there should be

separate closets for the two sexes. I am myself doubtful if this last

matter is one of much moment.

In any case, we can interfere for the special protection of children who

have been exposed to peculiar risks, and have for this reason been led

astray sexually. I have seen children who have been taught sexual

misconduct, either by a nursemaid or by other children, and have

practised such misconduct for a time; but in whom a complete cure has

resulted from separation from the seducer. In some cases, of course, it

will be necessary to do more than this, and to subject the child to some

special treatment; and in rare instances, in which the sphere of the

sexual is already markedly developed, it may be necessary that this

treatment should be institutional. But such cases are certainly very

uncommon. A matter of importance is that the parents or other persons

responsible for the care and guidance of the child, should understand

the psychical management of children; for example, that they should not

fall into the common error of regarding the love-affairs of children as

a joke, and that they should not, by this attitude, actually encourage

the children in their course of conduct.

One part of sexual education is made up by the question of the purposive

sexual enlightenment of children--a matter much discussed at the present

day. I have shown, on page 8, that this question is not, as many

suppose, a new one. Those who have written on the subject of sexual

enlightenment use this term with somewhat various meanings. As regards

the extension of the term, it may be applied to either (or both) of two

fields, which we may term the objective and the subjective aspects of

the sexual life. To the objective side belong the physiological

processes by means of which is effected the reproduction of organisms,

whether plants, animals, or human beings. In explanation of these it is

necessary to describe the reproductive organs, and the processes of

conjugation, fertilisation, and fructification, as they have long been

customarily taught in the botany class; and the nourishment of the

nursing infant from the breast of the mother may also be described. To

the subjective side, belong the relationships of the sexual processes to

the individual organism, the good and the bad effects of the sexual

impulse, &c. In this connexion, reference will be made to the dangers of

masturbation, sexual excesses, pregnancy, venereal infection, and so on.

By many writers, these two fields are not distinguished each from the

other with sufficient clearness. The question, whether children should

be taught about the methods of reproduction in plants, animals, and

human beings, must not be confused with the question whether they should

be taught about masturbation or the venereal diseases. It is possible to

teach children that self-abuse is a harmful practice, without giving

them any account of the physiological processes of reproduction; and,

conversely, these processes may be described, without any special

reference to the bearings of the matter on the individual life. Of

course, the two fields are interconnected; and some writers suggest that

in teaching children and young persons a proper respect for the genital

organs, such teaching should be based upon a knowledge of the subsequent

function of these organs in the work of reproduction. The individual

processes cannot at once be referred to one field or the other;

involuntary sexual orgasm, menstruation, the puberal development,

inasmuch as they exhibit both a subjective and an objective aspect,

belong to both fields. This is also true of the sexual act itself, in

connexion with which, moreover, the principal difficulties of sexual

enlightenment arise.

Having thus considered the general significance of sexual enlightenment,

we have next to ask what are the grounds on which such enlightenment is

thought to be desirable. These will have become partly apparent from

what has been said regarding the importance of the sexual life of the

child; but this does not exhaust the matter, for the sexual

enlightenment of the child may also comprise instruction concerning the

entire subsequent development of the sexual life. The reasons for sexual

enlightenment may be classified under various heads; the chief of these

are reasons of health, of social life, of law, morality, education, and

the intellectual development.

To consider first the matter of intellectual development, we have here

to think, not so much of a limitation of the intellectual growth in

consequence of the sexual thoughts of the child, as of the fact that

instruction in the nature of sexual processes, at least as far as the

objective field is concerned, promotes the general culture. The degree

to which even adults are ignorant about such matters, is hardly

credible. There are persons who believe that every egg laid by a hen

will develop into a chicken if incubated by the mother, or if kept for

the proper time in an artificial incubator; there are persons who do

not know what the hard roe and soft roe of fishes are, who do not

understand the nature of the spawning process, and are, in fact, quite

uninstructed concerning the process of reproduction in fishes. I have

conversed with adults who did not know wherein a wether differs from a

ram, or a bullock from a bull; and who were even ignorant, as regards

great groups of the animal kingdom, whether they reproduced their kind

by means of eggs or living young. But on such matters as these, every

cultured person should be sufficiently informed, and should not be

capable of being shamed by the superior knowledge of an uneducated child

from the country. On one occasion, I even saw a married woman, actually

twenty-eight years of age, who had been examined by a gynecologist, and

for whom the latter had recommended the operative division of the hymen;

but the lady confused this operation with oöphorectomy, and it was by no

means an easy matter to make her understand the difference between the

two. It will readily be understood that every grown man and woman ought

ultimately to be fully informed concerning all such matters. In part,

such instruction will take place at school, and more especially in the

case of processes in the vegetable and lower animal world; these things

will be explained in connexion with instruction in natural history and

biology. But information about the human reproductive organs cannot be

given in the school, unless to children of a considerable age; for these

matters, direct personal instruction at home is more suitable.

Apart from the demands of general culture there are other reasons why

sexual enlightenment is desirable. These chiefly concern the subjective

aspects of the sexual life, whilst the objective processes serve

principally for preparatory instruction.

First of all, grounds of health have to be considered. It may be

desirable to enlighten the child regarding the dangers of masturbation,

those of ordinary illegitimate sexual intercourse, and those of sexual

excesses. No detailed discussion of these points is here necessary,

since they have been dealt with before at considerable length,

especially on p. 180 _et seq._ Here I will merely point out that this

aspect of enlightenment affects the entire future of the child and the

family it will one day have. The first consideration here is the danger

of venereal infection, and it is this danger, in close association with

the other prophylactic efforts of our time, which has given rise to the

recent movement in favour of sexual enlightenment. In this connexion the

dangers may be explained that threaten the male from gonorrhoeal

infection, not only in his own person, but also in the persons of his

future wife and children. The wife may be infected by the husband, and

the visual powers of the new-born child may also be endangered.

Ophthalmia of the new-born, which often leads to blindness, commonly

depends upon conjunctival infection received during the act of

parturition. Syphilis was referred to on p. 192. Here it may be added

that still-births and abortion and miscarriage may result from

syphilitic infection either of the mother or of the embryo. Or the child

may be born alive, but suffering from syphilitic infection. Even when no

actual infection of the offspring results, syphilis favours the

occurrence of a general degeneration of the progeny. If we desire to

safeguard human beings against such dangers as these, we shall feel it

necessary to enlighten them before it is too late; and in view of the

fact that from a single act of intercourse infection may result by which

the health may be permanently injured, such enlightenment is no less

necessary for girls than for boys.

I need not describe the dangers to health resulting from masturbation

and sexual excesses, for these have previously been considered in

detail; but it is necessary to allude to the exaggerated statements

which are sometimes encountered regarding the dangers of masturbation,

especially in popular works on the subject, so that the physician may be

on his guard about this matter. A child who during and after the act of

masturbation has a keen sense of wrong-doing, and consequently suffers

much from self-reproach, may, if the fear is superadded of having done

serious permanent injury to health, be affected with grave

hypochondriacal manifestations. Many instances of this have come under

my notice, in young men and young women of sixteen or thereabouts. Even

when the practice of masturbation has long been discontinued, and the

patient is quite grown up, such symptoms may arise, owing to the

persistence of the fear of disastrous results, and the auto-suggestive

influence of this fear. Nowhere is more tact required by the physician

than in his dealings with those who masturbate or have masturbated.

There is even a real danger that a moral lecture may cause a shock to

the system; in the case of some young men it may sometimes be better to

acquiesce in masturbation, rather than to alarm them by talking about

the disastrous consequences of the indulgence. I refer to those

unfortunate creatures who suffer from severe hyperæsthesia of the sexual

impulse, and who for social reasons are not in a position to satisfy the

impulse in any other way than by masturbation, or who refrain from

illicit intercourse in the well-grounded fear of venereal infection. The

physician who has seen a number of such cases, who has learned how they

continually relapse into the practice of masturbation, notwithstanding

all their good resolutions and their conviction that masturbation is at

once dangerous and immoral, will be likely to feel that it is better,

not indeed to recommend masturbation, but from time to time tacitly to

permit it. To do in these cases what it is well to do in certain others,

namely, to describe the bad effects of masturbation, may give rise to

grave conditions of depression, and even to suicide. Certainly, in such

cases, we must carefully avoid alarming the patients too seriously about

the consequences of masturbation.

In undertaking the sexual enlightenment of the child, those phenomena of

the sexual life should not be forgotten which are shown by experience to

arouse in the ripening child, now curiosity, and now anxiety--and the

chief among these are involuntary sexual orgasm and menstruation.

Imagine the state of mind of the girl who has never heard a word about

menstruation, and awakens one morning with blood flowing from the

genital organs; or that of the boy, who has his first nocturnal seminal

emission, without having received any information as to its

significance. Similar considerations apply to some of the other signs of

puberty; and especially to the growth of the pubic hair, which has made

many a child extremely anxious. Although, by the time this age is

reached, a child has commonly been sufficiently informed about these

things by his playfellows, we meet with instances in which nothing of

the kind has occurred.

Hitherto I have been considering the hygienic grounds for effecting

sexual enlightenment; but there are also important ethical reasons for

such enlightenment. It is not possible in our life to speak the truth

always and unconditionally; but this fact does not give us the right to

lie to children without good cause. Especially dangerous is it to relate

to children fables about the stork or the cabbage-garden, at a time when

they have long been enlightened about sex from other sources. I recall

the case of a girl seven years of age, whose mother was still in the

habit of telling her that babies were brought by the storks; but this

child was accustomed to join with other girls and boys in playing at

"father, mother, and midwife," wherein they displayed a comparatively

exact knowledge of the processes of reproduction and birth. We are not

surprised when a woman tells us that as a child her confidence in her

mother was seriously shaken from the moment when she was enlightened by

others concerning the sexual life, and she recognised that what her

mother had told her about the matter was quite untrue. I do not mean to

imply that stories of the stork and cabbage-garden variety are to be

altogether excluded. It would be as reasonable to prohibit all kinds of

fairy tales. Some tell us that we should tell children fairy stories

only so long as they regard the whole of life as a fairy tale. But in

view of the vivid imagination of childhood, no such sharp distinction is

practicable. Let the reader recall his own childhood. Does the child

regard the fairy tale as a lie, even after he has began to doubt if the

world of fairy stories has any actual existence? Certainly not.

Similarly with regard to the stork fable. I consider that the complete

suppression of this fable, unless we replace it with some like poetical

fancy, can do nothing but harm to the child's nature. All that we must

ask is that such a story shall not for too long be put before the child

as fact. When the child's development has gone far enough, it will be

well to dispense with the stork story. This is suggested by

considerations both of prudence and of morals, and the like

considerations urge us to describe to the child, tactfully and at the

proper time, the true nature of the reproductive processes.

Such a course is desirable, if merely for the reason that when a child

is sexually enlightened by other children, this is usually effected in

so coarse a manner as very readily to undermine the bases of respect for

the sexual life of humanity. A child who has been instructed regarding

this grave and important matter by his parents and in a proper manner,

is in a position to reject offers of a coarse method of enlightenment;

but by the customary--too long customary--plan, as far as children are

concerned, of altogether ignoring the sexual life, children are deprived

of the power of repelling obscene methods of enlightenment.

The legal dangers to which reference was made on p. 201 _et seq._ are

additional reasons for undertaking the sexual enlightenment of the

child. I pointed out that, in certain circumstances, a boy of thirteen

who undertook sexual practices with a girl of twelve was committing a

punishable offence. But sexual enlightenment is desirable, not merely

for those of this age, but also for those who are somewhat older. A

large number of people are completely ignorant of our penal code in

these relationships. I recall the case of a sexually perverse young man

of twenty who on a number of occasions performed the following acts with

boys of about thirteen years of age. He would go to a public bath,

induce a boy of thirteen or so to enter his dressing cubicle, and, as if

in joke, tie the boy's hands together. In reality, as he did this, he

experienced sexual excitement to the point of ejaculation. This latter

occurred especially when he touched the boy's body--not his genital

organs. He had absolutely no idea that such acts were punishable with

imprisonment, in accordance with the third paragraph of Section 176 of

the Criminal Code; and it gave him a terrible shock when I explained to

him that he had rendered himself liable to imprisonment. Some persons

even believe that they may handle children's genital organs, for the

purpose of exciting themselves sexually, without rendering themselves

liable to punishment. It is obvious that on these grounds also

enlightenment on sexual matters may be extremely desirable.

Finally, there are certain social and economic reasons for sexual

enlightenment. These reasons are closely connected with those bearing

upon health, but they may in part be separated from the latter. No one

will deny that illegitimate sexual intercourse may entail grave social

consequences. For women these dangers are much greater than they are for

men; but for men, even, they are by no means inconsiderable. As far as

women are concerned, the danger of extra-marital impregnation occupies

the first place. The importance of this of course varies greatly in

various regions and in different social strata. In the servant-class in

the country, for instance, pre-marital sexual intercourse, and even

pre-marital motherhood, is far from having the seriousness which

attaches to these things among the old peasant families firmly rooted to

the soil. Among the servant-class in towns, the matter has a more

serious aspect than among the same class in the country. On the other

hand, in many artistic circles in the Metropolis, pre-marital

intercourse, even on the part of women, is regarded far more

indifferently than in other strata of society. None the less, for a girl

of the upper ranks, extra-marital pregnancy is for the most part

tantamount to social annihilation. Even here exceptions occur, and we

shall find good families of the aristocracy and the upper bourgeoisie in

which a woman who has given birth to an illegitimate child, or even one

who is manifestly a cocotte, will be socially recognised, provided she

has attained some great position, such as that of a great artist, for

instance. In such cases we may even find that women who on other

occasions are unable adequately to express their hatred and contempt for

prostitutes and similar unfortunate beings, will yet be proud of their

friendship with such a woman, and will boast of it in public. But such

opportunities of social recovery are open to very few; most women of the

upper classes sink rapidly and far in the social scale as soon as it is

publicly known that they have experience of illegitimate intercourse.

For this reason, such consequences must be taken into the reckoning. The

objection need not be raised that the sexual enlightenment would not

safeguard a girl, since, when she gives herself to a man, a girl knows

well enough that children are the result of sexual intercourse. The

objection is unsound, if we only have a right understanding of what we

mean by sexual enlightenment, and if at the same time we do not neglect

the general sexual education. Enlightenment should not be limited to

merely making the person concerned aware of the consequences of sexual

acts; it should, as it were, become ingrained in the flesh and blood, so

as to influence the actions, even unconsciously. A girl brought up in

this way will defend herself instinctively against the wiles of a

seducer. But only by such an education, by one which is not confined to

the mere imparting of information, can we produce in the girl greater

powers of self-protection and a more enduring self-consciousness, and so

save her from the far too common fate of behaving like a stupid unripe

creature, and believing all the asseverations of the first man who makes

love to her--asseverations which the man himself, in the moment of

passion, very probably believes. Let me, then, repeat that all that

appertains to the sexual enlightenment must became part of the flesh and

blood of the subject; only from this can we expect good results, whereas

a sexual education which consists merely in the acquirement of

information, is altogether valueless. But by a true sexual

enlightenment, in the sense above defined, it is probable that many a

girl may be safeguarded from prostitution; and many a child, boys as

well as girls, may be better protected against the attempts of

pædophiles. And these considerations apply, not merely to childhood, but

also to subsequent life--especially as regards girls. How many girls

enter upon marriage quite ignorant and altogether inexperienced. They

commit themselves to the keeping of a man of whom they know hardly

anything at all. The parents are often satisfied with the most meagre

information. It is considered improper to ask for detailed information

regarding the husband's past life, and hence it often happens that a

girl is delivered up to an unscrupulous man suffering from venereal

infection, simply because she has never been adequately informed

regarding the serious step she is undertaking, regarding the completely

new mode of life upon which she is so suddenly entering. We thus see

that there are ample grounds for explaining to a girl in good time

precisely what she will undertake in entering the married state.

A question of importance is at what _age_ the sexual enlightenment can

most wisely be effected. Some advise that enlightenment should begin

with our answers to the first questions the child propounds upon the

subject; others contend that it is better to wait till it is somewhat

older than this. There is truth in both these views; but the matter and

manner of our communications must be appropriate to the age of the child

with which we are dealing. When a young man is being sent to the

university, it is wise to instruct him concerning the dangers of

venereal infection; but to inform him that human beings come into the

world as the result of an act of sexual intercourse would be altogether

superfluous. Conversely, if a child asks its parents where its little

brother has come from, we do not need to say anything about syphilis and

gonorrhoea; but none the less we can give such a child an account

suitable for one of its age of the way in which human beings come into

the world. Speaking generally, it may be said that the biology and

physiology of reproduction--that is to say, the objective processes--may

be described at a comparatively early age; but that cautions regarding

masturbation should not, _in average cases_, be given before the age of

thirteen or fourteen; and that instruction about the risks of venereal

infection should be deferred until even later than this. In the case of

boys, in so far as enlightenment in the school is concerned, information

about venereal infection may, for practical reasons, best be given about

the time the boys are preparing to leave for a higher school. In the

case of girls, for whom a caution against risks of impregnation and

against prostitution are especially in question, we have also, as far as

sexual enlightenment in the school is under consideration, to recommend

the time when they are about to leave school. But if we prefer that

sexual enlightenment, or at any rate a part of such enlightenment,

should be effected at home rather than in the school (a course which I

regard as essentially preferable), it will be impossible to lay down a

fixed rule as to the age at which this should take place. To a lively

girl of twelve or thirteen years, a great deal can be said far better by

the mother, than can be said to a girl considerably older, say at

fifteen, by the school physician, schoolmaster, or schoolmistress.

Speaking generally, in the case of girls, the enlightenment may well

begin at a somewhat earlier age than in the case of boys--at any rate as

regards the subjective processes of the sexual life.

On the whole, it may be regarded as definitely established that the

child may well receive information about the objective processes at a

very early age, and this long before the time commonly regarded as

marking the commencement of puberty. But as regards the subjective

processes, it is better that there should be some delay. It may, indeed,

be asked whether it would not be preferable that in the case also of the

subjective processes, the child should be instructed before they

actually make their appearance in the child's own consciousness, to

render possible the adoption on the child's part of a more objective

attitude towards these phenomena. But in reality such a course offers no

advantages. The child is quite unable to understand the dangers of the

sexual life, as long as it has no actual experience of sexual feelings.

For this reason, it is better to accept the view of those who contend

that, as far as the subjective processes of the sexual life are

concerned, we should wait till near the end of the second period of

childhood before beginning the enlightenment. But we must not forget

what has previously been pointed out, that the puberal development may

begin at a time when nothing of the sort is apparent to the eye of the

observer; and we must also bear in mind that the first seminal emission

and the first menstruation are by no means so important, as marks of the

puberal development, as is commonly believed. For the fulfilment of the

aims of the sexual enlightenment, however, it does not so much matter

when the first physical manifestations of the puberal development make

their appearance, but when the first sexual feelings and sentiments,

which must be distinguished from the unconscious and purely physical

symptoms, are experienced. The important matter is, not whether

follicles have already matured in the ovary, but what influence such a

process has exercised upon the mental life of the child. For this

reason, in our study of the individual case, we must have some knowledge

of the psyche of the child with which we are concerned.

A matter also within the scope of our subject is the question by whom

the sexual enlightenment may best be effected. This question is

connected with the questions for what reason and at what age

enlightenment should take place. As regards these points, it lies

between the school and the home. Some writers contend that so far as

possible every thing, others, that, at any rate, a great deal, should be

imparted at school. The latter view is also my own.

In so far as the enlightenment has to do with purely biological

processes, and especially in so far as it relates to processes in the

vegetable and lower animal world, it can be effected in the school, and

in the first years of the second period of childhood; but of course the

giving of such instruction at school does not prevent a father who goes

out walking with his son, or a mother with her daughter, from seizing

opportunities of giving information about the sexual processes of

plant-life. At school, education regarding such biological processes

will form a part of the lessons in botany and zoology; or will be

imparted in the class on general biology, if such a class exists.

Instruction in hygiene, such as is often advised, has little to do with

the matters we are now considering; and at any rate could merely involve

an elementary account of such processes. The school may even be the best

place for sexual enlightenment regarding the sexual life of human

beings, at least in the case of the older pupils. There is no adequate

reason for objecting to boys about to leave school being warned by a

schoolmaster or a physician about the dangers of venereal disease; and

at the same time a plea may be put forward against the view that it is

incumbent upon every young man to prove his strength by the maximum

indulgence in sexual intercourse.

But the matter is very different as regards the enlightenment concerning

the subjective processes of the sexual life of those who are still quite

young. It is impossible to approve of the suggestion that a girl of

twelve or a boy of fourteen should receive instruction in school as to

the dangers of masturbation. Enlightenment of this sort must be given in

a purely individual manner, and for this reason the school is here out

of the question. It may be objected to this that we now and again

encounter a schoolmaster who is able to establish between himself and

his pupils a relationship of complete personal confidence, and that such

a man is just as well able as the father to instruct his boys about

these matters; _mutatis mutandis_, the same considerations apply to the

exceptional schoolmistress as compared with the mother. But although it

must be admitted that such cases really exist, they are--and this is no

fault of master or mistress--such rare exceptions, that it is out of the

question to base upon their existence a general rule that enlightenment

upon these particular points should be given in the school.

Enlightenment regarding the earliest manifestations of the sexual life,

whether about the feelings or about the peripheral processes, demands

such a degree of individualisation, that a schoolmaster or a

schoolmistress, who has to teach from thirty to fifty pupils at once, or

even a larger number than this, is quite unable to undertake anything of

the kind. Such enlightenment can be properly effected only by an

individual confidant, and by one who makes the fullest possible

allowance for the child's own individuality. Such a confidant is most

suitable, if only for the reason that enlightenment on these questions

can best be effected, above all in the case of little children, as far

as possible in response to spontaneous inquiries, or at least when an

opportunity is afforded by some chance occurrence. The express

manufacture of an opportunity, such as would be necessary in the school,

might entail very unfortunate consequences; and even if, in response to

a wide demand of our day, instruction in hygiene is given in school,

either by a schoolmaster or a medical man, the anticipation of such

topics might have undesirable results. In the German Medical Congress of

the year 1908, it was evident that even the advocates of hygienic

instruction in the school were not all prepared to answer with an

unqualified affirmative the question whether the school was the best

place for effecting sexual enlightenment; and a resolution proposed by

Scheyer was adopted, to the effect "that this Congress considers that

the question of the school taking part in the work of sexual

enlightenment is one which it would at present be premature to

discuss."

Those who are inclined to assume to-day that we have left the older

authorities far in the rear, would do well sometimes to study the works

they despise. Basedow in his _Elementarbuch für die Jugend und für ihre

Lehrer und Freunde_ (_Handbook for Young Persons, their Teachers, and

their Friends_), gives some ideas as to how a mother may best enlighten

her children regarding sex-differences. Looking at a chest of drawers,

one of the children says to the mother that the purpose of clothing is

to protect the body from cold and heat, and to cover the private parts.

The mother replies that the last-named use of clothing is indeed very

important, and that it is very naughty to allow these parts of the body

to be seen, unless in cases of the greatest need. But the child goes on

to say that an additional use of clothing is to help us to know one

person from another, and to distinguish the female sex from the male;

and her little brother remarks that he knows of no difference between

the sexes other than that shown by the clothing: "If I were dressed like

my sister, I should be a girl." "No, no, my child," answers the mother,

"as time goes on, a girl's form becomes very different from that of a

young man. In men, a beard grows; but not in women. Men cannot give

birth to a child, nor can they suckle a child; they can only procreate

children, or become fathers. For this reason, even from the time they

are born, their bodies are different from those of little girls. And not

only are their bodies different; their inclinations are different also;

&c. &c." Although we may be disinclined to accept everything that

Basedow and other early educationalists have said about such matters,

none the less, in these old writings the modern educationalist will find

much that is suggestive.

Of late years, now that the school physician has gained a higher

position, the suggestion is sometimes made that it is by him that the

sexual enlightenment may best be undertaken. As far as children of a

fair age are concerned, and in the matter of imparting warnings against

the dangers of venereal infection, I share this view. But as regards

enlightenment as to the personal sexual life in the case of a child of

thirteen or so, I am compelled to differ. My reasons will be obvious

from what has been said before. The principal reason is that the

enlightenment ought to be effected by someone who enjoys the child's

personal confidence. Undoubtedly there are certain school physicians who

fulfil this condition; and to such persons this task may, of course, be

entrusted. The very fact that they enjoy the children's confidence

suffices to show that they possess certain special qualifications for

such a task, and further, that they have the faculty of coming to a real

understanding with children. But the fact that a man is appointed to the

position of school physician, does not by itself prove that he possesses

to an adequate degree the fine perceptions and the tact that are needed

in effecting the sexual enlightenment; nor does it prove that he is the

person best fitted to enlighten the children with whom he has to deal.

In this difficult matter, we cannot be too careful in formulating any

general rule. The person who is to effect the sexual enlightenment must

possess, not merely a theoretical knowledge of the processes of sex, but

also the faculty of making these processes intelligible at the right

moment and in the right way. But how is the school physician or the

schoolmaster to know, in individual cases, the degree to which the

sexual life has developed? _He must have definitely abandoned the old

view that either the child's age in years or the external physical signs

of puberty can be regarded as indicating with any degree of precision

the progress of psychosexual puberty._ But since this latter, the

psychosexual development, should most often guide us in the choice of

the right moment for effecting the sexual enlightenment, we are

compelled to depend upon an individual consideration of the child, such

as will be possible only to a person who is fully in its confidence. We

learn from everyday experience that even very near relatives, if they

have failed to penetrate the child's intimate psyche, may have utterly

erroneous conceptions of its mental life. They completely ignore the

extent to which the sexual imaginative activity has already developed;

they know nothing as to whether the originally obscure sensibility of

the child has now become focussed in a particular direction, so that its

feelings are stimulated by definite individuals; they are ignorant of

the degree to which the child's genital organs have become subject to

the peripheral changes characteristic of sex. In the fourth chapter of

this work I have discussed the wide individual differences which

children exhibit in these various respects; and a mere reference to the

matter here should suffice to show that the most careful and detailed

individual examination of the child-soul is indispensable, and that the

observance of a mechanical routine in the process of sexual

enlightenment would be even worse than no enlightenment at all.

It is a question of great importance, who, outside the school, is the

person best fitted to undertake the sexual enlightenment; and I have

repeatedly expressed my preference for the selection of the mother. But

a mother who is unable to superintend the general education of her

children, because she is compelled to spend most of her time away from

home engaged in earning a livelihood, is not fitted to undertake the

sexual enlightenment of her children; equally unfitted for this is the

mother who leaves the education of her children in the hands of hired

assistants, whilst herself occupied in attending public meetings,

perhaps on behalf of the woman's movement, of the education of children,

of the promotion of the sexual enlightenment, of rational dress, or the

like, whilst her children at home are abandoned to moral corruption; and

the same considerations apply to the mother whose nights are so much

occupied in dancing and feasting, that the greater part of her days have

to be spent in bed. Fortunately, however, there are many mothers who

have very different conceptions of their duties to home and children. We

find such mothers very often among the class of skilled artisans, but

also among the cultured middle class,[143] although among these latter

the desire to ape the manners of the so-called upper classes is

unfortunately far too general. I have seen cases in which the mother was

still the confidant of her sons after they had entered the period of

early manhood; and thus I have known a mother who in the case of a son

of sixteen and even of eighteen years, was in a position to allay the

grave anxiety awakened by the first occurrence of nocturnal emissions.

But where the mother is not the confidant, some other person must take

this place, as, for instance, a governess or a near relative. In the

case of boys, the father is often the person best able to undertake the

sexual enlightenment; or it may be a physician who enjoys the lad's

confidence, and especially a family physician in the old and excellent

sense of the term; in other cases it may be an elder brother, or an old

family friend. Much good in such cases may be done by a friend, older,

indeed, than the child who is to receive enlightenment; and yet not so

much older as to make the child feel that a mutual understanding is

hardly possible. In any case, next to the possession of a cultivated

intelligence by the person who undertakes to effect the sexual

enlightenment, the point of greatest importance is that this latter

person should receive the full confidence of the child. Only when the

child has such perfect trust, will it accept as true what it is told,

and not suspect that, as has so often been the case, it is being put off

with hypocritical phrases--for children recognise the hypocritical

character of much of what they are told about sexual matters at an age

far earlier than most elders are willing to believe. But another reason

why the person who undertakes the enlightenment must be one who has the

child's fullest confidence, is that in that case only can the child be

expected to be absolutely straightforward. A very frequent mistake in

dealing with children is to mistrust them needlessly. Let us suppose

that a child has been discovered to masturbate, and that it is spoken to

very earnestly in order to break it off the habit. I have known cases in

which, although everything pointed to the fact that the child had

abandoned its bad habit, yet, when it denied masturbating any longer, it

was accused of lying. A child will naturally never give its confidence

again to one who has once unjustly reproached it in this manner. On the

other hand, a child is far more likely to acknowledge its faults to one

in whom it has perfect confidence. The child's confidence can be gained

only by an individual confidant. In the presence of such a confidant, a

child loses all sense of false shame, and this is an indispensable

precondition for effecting a really valuable enlightenment. Where no

individual is forthcoming who fulfils the requirements just specified,

it is usually better to dispense with the enlightenment; and above all,

in this matter, a mechanical routine must be avoided.

I will now briefly report a case in which a younger brother made a

confidant of his elder brother, and will show how unwise it would be to

lay down any general rule as to who is the person best fitted to

undertake the sexual enlightenment of a child.

CASE 18.--One day a student of medicine came to me to ask my advice

about his younger brother, a lad of thirteen. This latter, an

intelligent boy, was attending the upper third class of the higher

school. The boy confessed to his brother that he masturbated to excess,

and that he found that scenes of cruelty especially aroused sexual

stimulation. I asked the student to bring his young brother to see me,

and the latter made on me a very favourable impression, especially in

the matter of his frankness. He spoke to me quite openly, and attended

most carefully to all my advice. I explained to him truthfully that his

future was endangered, not only by the masturbation, but also by the

perverse ideas; I told him that the danger of a combination of

masturbation with perverse ideas was especially serious; and I assured

him that he was still at an age when it remained possible for him to

develop into a normal man. Some years later, I saw the young man once

more. His subsequent development had been excellent, and he was almost

free from perverse sexual sensibility.

In this case it would have been utterly wrong to insist on the lad's

being enlightened by his father, his mother, his guardian, or his

schoolmaster. The particular circumstances of the life often point out

the right way. In this instance, it was his older brother in whom the

lad had complete confidence. Now, if the elder brother had consulted the

parents in this difficulty, such a course would not merely have

destroyed the younger's confidence in his elder brother's silence and

discretion, but would have undermined the lad's confidence in general.

Especially towards the parents, but also towards other relatives, a

feeling of shame commonly exists--perhaps a mistaken feeling, but one

with which we have to reckon. Often it is the parents' own fault, when

they fail to gain the confidence of their children.

The question has also been mooted whether the sexual enlightenment of

girls should not be entrusted to some companion of the same sex, more

especially in cases in which the mother is for one reason or another

unfitted for this task. This view is altogether erroneous. Sex has

comparatively little to do with the question. For example, Heidenhain,

whose practical experience in these matters is most extensive, has shown

that the enlightenment of girls may be effected most admirably by a male

physician endowed with the requisite qualities.[144] The thing that

matters is not the sex of the person who effects the enlightenment, but

the manner in which the enlightenment is effected.

To sum up. _The sexual enlightenment of the child is advisable. The

biological processes of sex in the vegetable and lower animal world may

be taught in school as early as the second period of childhood. A

warning against the dangers of venereal infection may be given at school

to the senior pupils shortly before they leave, or at some similar

suitable opportunity. But for effecting enlightenment regarding the

processes of the individual sexual life, the school is unsuitable; this

matter can best be undertaken by some private person, and above all by

the mother. Choice of the time for this last phase of the sexual

enlightenment must be guided, in part by the questions of the child, in

part by the child's physical maturity, but more especially by the

indications of psychosexual development._

Deliberately I avoid discussing the question as to the precise words and

phrases with which the child's enlightenment is to be effected.

Moreover, this question is subordinate to another, namely, to what

extent instruction in natural science has prepared the way, in the

child's mind, for such enlightenment. Both in Germany and in Austria,

schemata have been drawn up for systematic preparation of this

kind.[145] Speaking generally, we may draw the following conclusions. We

have to distinguish according to the age of the child with which we have

to deal. Where we have to caution a young man about to leave one of the

higher schools, about the dangers of venereal infection, our

difficulties are inconsiderable. But where we have to do with a girl of

eight, who has asked her mother where her baby brother has come from; or

with a boy of fourteen, whom we wish to protect because he has taken to

sexual malpractices with his school-fellows, our difficulties are great.

In such cases, tact, which cannot always be taught, and a desire for the

best interests of the child, must show us the right path. It is obvious

that each case will require individual consideration and treatment. An

intelligent mother, who constitutes half the child's world and more, can

describe these matters to her child, can even describe the sexual act,

whose existence most persons prefer to conceal from children. It is by

no means impossible to present even this act to the child's mind in a

tactful way. It can be done in a poetical manner, and yet without

departing from the strict truth. The same considerations apply to the

act of birth. In a book dealing with this subject, a mother is asked by

her child where children come from, and she answers as follows: "You

see, little one, how fruit grows upon a tree; in just the same way,

little children grow within the body of the mother." Beyond question,

there is no justification for the assumption that sexual enlightenment

can be effected only in a repulsive manner; and this view depends merely

upon the fact that through a perversion of moral ideas certain persons

regard as unclean things which are essentially clean. Everything depends

upon the person who effects the enlightenment, upon finding a suitable

opportunity, and upon choosing words and phrases adapted to the child's

intelligence. Success will often follow upon replying in an illuminating

way to some chance question of the child. In other cases, there may be

indications for making the enlightenment part of a festival occasion--a

method described in an old book, in which the father effects the

enlightenment of his children to the accompaniment of public

prayers.[146] The description shows a truly religious spirit, and a

genuine love for children; it shows, further, that natural processes may

be described truthfully to children without wounding in any way their

sense of shame. There is no ground whatever for the belief that to a

fairly advanced child a serious person cannot suitably describe all the

natural processes of the human body, including sexual intercourse. The

child to whom these things are described in a well-considered way, will

receive no kind of injury to its moral sentiments; nor will such a

description, once more, if it is couched in well-chosen words, provoke

in the child any tendency to laughter. The secrecy with which the sexual

life is surrounded, confused by many with the sentiment of shame, often

gives rise to the belief that the child has the same feelings about the

sexual life as the adult. But the unspoiled child has absolutely no

feeling that the sexual life is in any way unclean; and for this very

reason, no great difficulty arises in the sexual enlightenment of such

an unspoiled child--an enlightenment which includes a description of the

sexual act. I have myself on several occasions been asked by parents

with a proper care for the future morality and health of their children,

to undertake the necessary enlightenment of these latter. I am

absolutely convinced that when the child has complete trust in the

person who effects the enlightenment, the explanation of _everything_ is

fully possible. In this book, I have more than once proved that a

description of sexual intercourse, appealing as it does rather to the

intellectual side of the child's mind, need have no bad influence at all

upon its emotional life; and in the further course of this chapter I

shall have to speak of the matter once again. I may add here that there

are books written specially for the purpose of assisting parents in the

instruction of their children in these matters.[147]

From what I have written it will have been obvious that I regard the

sexual enlightenment of the child as very desirable; but it does not

follow from this that I regard it as something that _must_ be

undertaken. Not everything is practicable which may seem desirable. We

must not forget that there are dangers associated with the sexual

enlightenment. It will not be right simply to ignore a reason often

alleged against the desirability of sexual enlightenment, namely, that

in this way it is possible that the child's thoughts will be turned in

the sexual direction. This is unquestionably possible, and the danger

can only be avoided by great adroitness. But when we remember that such

adroitness is not found everywhere, we shall have to admit, however much

we may wish that the sexual enlightenment of children should invariably

be effected, that it will often be necessary to dispense with it,

because the person suitable to undertake the enlightenment of a

particular child is not forthcoming.