Part 8

Could psychoanalysis, under such circumstances, do anything else than adapt itself to this state of affairs? The analyst never persuades his patient to venture into the realm of sex. He will never tell a patient in advance: intimacies of your sex life are involved here! The analyst permits the patient to start where he feels inclined to start, encouraging him to roam in any fashion that suits his fancy, waiting calmly for the patient himself to touch upon sex matters.

It is one of my strictest rules to remind my disciples time and again: Our opponents are reiterating continuously that we shall run across cases in which the sexual moment does not play any part whatever. Therefore, beware of introducing it into the analysis! Do not let us spoil the possibility of really discovering cases, in which there is no sexual moment. To be sure, up to now, we have never been fortunate enough to detect such a case.

Of course, I know very well that the recognition we give sex life is—admitted or not—the strongest argument of those who oppose the analysis. But is this fact liable to make us waver in our scientific convictions? An argument of this kind only proves how widespread neurosis is in civilized life, when allegedly normal people behave so very much like nervous people.

At a time when learned societies, with much pomp and circumstance, used to sit in judgment on psychoanalysis—they are not doing it so frequently today!—one of the speakers once commanded special attention as an authority because, according to his statement, he permitted his patients to talk about their ailments. Apparently, he indulged in such tolerance for reasons of diagnosis, and for the purpose of checking up analytical claims. But, this great authority added, as soon as patients start to discuss sex matters, I shut them up!

How does such a procedure strike you?

I regret to report that the learned audience applauded the great authority fervently, instead of denouncing him, which would have been more fitting. That loose logic in which the aforementioned authority permitted himself to revel, I can only explain by assuming that he was all puffed up with that strength which the knowledge of mutual prejudice lent him.

In the course of years, some of my disciples, following a popular trend, undertook to liberate the world from the bonds of sex which psychoanalysis is supposed to force upon it. One of them came out with the pronunciamento that sex, in the broad meaning of the term, does not mean sexuality as such, but rather something abstract, something quite mysterious. Another even emphatically declared that sex life was just one of the different phases in which man manifests his inherent driving force for power and rule. These new doctrines received public acclaim—at least for a time.

“I strongly feel like taking sides in this issue. It seems somewhat far-fetched to me to insist that sexuality is not a natural, innate necessity for all living beings, but rather the expression for something else. Just look upon the animal world!”

That does not matter! There is nothing absurd enough that society would not gleefully swallow, if it only pretends to be an antidote against the overpowering might of sex.

By the way, may I not tell you that, to my mind, your present status as an impartial listener, a lay arbitrator, as it were, should not permit you to betray the strong prejudice you yourself are manifesting, in regard to the great part the sexual moment plays in the development of neurotic conditions! Do you not think that such a strongly emphasized prejudice may make it impossible for you to render a just verdict?

“I am very sorry to hear you say that! Apparently, you have lost confidence in me. But, pray, tell me, why did you not appeal to some other impartial referee?”

For the simple reason that this other impartial referee would not have thought any differently from you. And in case he would have been ready to admit at once the importance of sex life, everybody would have howled: He is no impartial referee at all! He is one of your own camp followers!

No, I am not the least discouraged and I am not abandoning hope that I shall ultimately succeed in influencing your views. I will admit, however, that the present case is different from the one I have previously alluded to. As far as orthodox psychological argumentation was concerned, it did not matter much for me whether you believed what I said or not. It was merely important to impress you with the fact that purely psychological problems were being dealt with. However, when the question of sex is raised, it seems important to prove to you that the strongest reason for your opposition is nothing but a general animosity toward sex, which you have in common with many others.

“Do not forget that I lack the experiences upon which your firm convictions are based.”

Very well, then. I shall proceed.

Sex life is not only something piquant, but also a very serious scientific problem. Many new facts had to be ascertained in this phase of life, many peculiarities. I have already explained to you that it is necessary for the analysis to go back to the years of early childhood because at this time, with an immature “I,” still weak, the essential repressions of a patient are incepted. But childhood has no sex life;—sex life enters with puberty only, is the general claim.

Wrong!

We have discovered that sexual tendencies permeate life from very birth. We also ascertained that it is to combat these urges that the infantile “I” resorts to repressions. It is indeed remarkable, is it not, that even the wee babe fights against the very same sexuality against which that learned great authority talked before an equally learned audience;—and later on, those of my own disciples, even, who compiled some new theories!

How is that possible?

The most platitudinous explanation would be that our whole civilization unfolded at the expense of sexuality. However, there is much more to be said about this.

That only now the sexuality of the child has been discovered, ought to drive the blush of shame into our faces. Of course, there were always some specialists of children’s diseases, some baby-wise nurses who knew about it. On the other hand, men, calling themselves “child psychologists,” in the face of these findings, raised a hue and cry and, wringing their hands in desperation, spoke reproachfully of the “Defloration of Childhood!”

Again and again, sentiment instead of argument! Such tactics are generally resorted to in the course of political discussions.

Of course, the sex life of the child is different from that of the adult. Sexual functions, from the very beginning until they assume those ultimate forms which are well known to us, undergo a process of complicated development. Many component urges, each driving in a different direction, eventually consolidate, ultimately to serve the purpose of propagation.

Not all of the individual component urges prove of equal value, in view of the ultimate task they are called upon to serve. Many of them have to be “re-routed,” refashioned, partially subdued. Such a protracted process of development cannot always be pursued smoothly, without obstacles arising here and there and without engendering partial fixations in the course of the earlier stages. Wherever, in later life, sexual functions are blocked by obstacles of some kind, sexuality—the libido, as we call it—will show a decided tendency to gravitate towards such early fixations.

The study of the sex life of the child and its transformations, until full maturity, has also yielded to us the key for the understanding of so-called sexual perversions. These, while generally spoken of with profound disgust, up to then had remained obscure as to their origin. Although this phase of sex life is extraordinarily interesting, it does not serve our present purpose to dwell upon it in detail. To understand all these ramifications of sex life, it is not only necessary to possess sufficient anatomical and physiological information, but also that knowledge which cannot be acquired in medical schools, i. e., a thorough acquaintance with the history of civilization and mythology.

“Up to now, I am still unable to gain a clear conception of the sex life of the child.”

I shall, then, dwell on this phase further. To be perfectly frank with you, I should really hate not to go into it further.

The most remarkable thing in the sex life of the child, to my mind, is the fact that its whole, extensive development is completed in the course of the first five years of life. From then, until the beginning of puberty, there is a time when sex remains latent, a time during which—normally—sexuality is not progressing but rather losing in intensity. During these years, the child is liable to abandon and forget much that he has practised and known before.