A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
The difference of these two destinies, arising from the same experience,
is due to the fact that one ego has experienced development while the
other has not. The janitor's daughter in later years looks upon sexual
intercourse as the same natural and harmless thing it had seemed in her
childhood. The owner's daughter had experienced the influence of
education and had recognized its claims. Thus stimulated, her ego had
forged its ideals of womanly purity and lack of desire which, however,
could not agree with any sexual activity; her intellectual development
had made unworthy her interest in the woman's part she was to play. This
higher moral and intellectual evolution of her ego was in conflict with
the claims of her sexuality.
I should like to consider today one more point in the development of the
ego, partly because it opens wide vistas, partly because it will justify
the sharp, perhaps unnatural line of division we are wont to draw
between sexual and ego impulses. In estimating the several developments
of ego and of libido, we must emphasize an aspect which has not
frequently been appreciated heretofore. Both the ego and the libido are
fundamentally heritages, abbreviated repetitions of an evolution which
mankind has, in the course of long periods of time, traversed from
primeval ages. The libido shows its phylogenetic origin most readily, I
should say. Recall, if you please, that in one class of animals the
genital apparatus is closely connected with the mouth, that in another
it cannot be separated from the excretory apparatus, and in others it is
attached to organs of locomotion. Of all these things you will find a
most fascinating description in the valuable book of W. Bölsche. Animals
portray, so to speak, all kinds of perversions which have become set as
their permanent sexual organizations. In man this phylogenetic aspect is
partly clouded by the circumstance that these activities, although
fundamentally inherited, are achieved anew in individual development,
presumably because the same conditions still prevail and still continue
to exert their influence on each personality. I should say that
originally they served to call forth an activity, where they now serve
only as a stimulus for recollection. There is no doubt that in addition
the course of development in each individual, which has been innately
determined, may be disturbed or altered from without by recent
influences. That power which has forced this development upon mankind,
and which today maintains the identical pressure, is indeed known to us:
it is the same self-denial enforced by the realities--or, given its big
and actual name, _Necessity_, the struggle for existence, the ’Ανἁγχη.
This has been a severe teacher, but under him we have become potent. The
neurotics are those children upon whom this severity has had a bad
effect--but there is risk in all education. This appreciation of the
struggle of life as the moving force of development need not prejudice
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