A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
I am under the impression that I did not succeed in convincing you of
the significance of perversions for our conception of sexuality. I
should therefore like to clarify and add as much as I can.
It was not only perversions that necessitated an alteration of our
conception of sexuality, which aroused such vehement contradiction. The
study of infantile sexuality did a great deal more along that line, and
its close correspondence to the perversions became decisive for us. But
the origin of the expressions of infantile sexuality, unmistakable as
they are in later years of childhood, seem to be lost in obscurity.
Those who disregard the history of evolution and analytic coherence,
will dispute the potency of the sexual factor and will infer the agency
of generalized forces. Do not forget that as yet we have no generally
acknowledged criterion for identifying the sexual nature of an
occurrence, unless we assume that we can find it in a relation to the
functions of reproduction, and this we must reject as too narrow. The
biological criteria, such as the periodicities of twenty-three and
twenty-eight days, suggested by W. Fliess, are by no means established;
the specific chemical nature which we can possibly assume for sexual
occurrences is still to be discovered. The sexual perversions of adults,
on the other hand, are tangible and unambiguous. As their generally
accepted nomenclature shows, they are undoubtedly sexual in character;
whether we designate them as signs of degeneration, or otherwise, no one
has yet had the courage to place them outside the phenomena of sex. They
alone justify the assertion that sexuality and reproduction are not
coincident, for it is clear that all of them disavow the goal of
reproduction.
This brings me to an interesting parallel. While "conscious" and
"psychic" were generally considered to be identical, we had to make an
essay to widen our conception of the "psychic" to recognize as psychic
something that was not conscious. Analogously, when "sexual" and
"related to reproduction" (or, in shorter form, "genital") has been
generally considered identical, psychoanalysis must admit as "sexual"
such things as are not "genital," things which have nothing to do with
reproduction. It is only a formal analogy, but it does not lack a deeper
basis.
But if the existence of sexual perversions is such a compelling
argument, why has it not long ago had its effect, and settled the
question? I really am unable to say. It appears to be because the sexual
perversions are subject to a peculiar ban that extends even into theory,
and stands in the way of their scientific appreciation. It seems as if
no one could forget that they are not only revolting, but even
unnatural, dangerous; as if they had a seductive influence and that at
bottom one had to stifle a secret envy of those who enjoyed them. As the
count who passes judgment in the famous Tannhauser parody admits:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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