Simultaneously with this latter change there goes on a continuance of the process of liberation of the love impulse from its original object. This would seem to take place by a further use of the mechanisms of Repression and Displacement. The love as redirected to the first parent-substitutes after a time itself begins to meet with opposition from other psychic tendencies on account of the too great similarity or the too firm associative connection between the original object and its substitutes. Thus the existence of anything like erotic feeling towards brothers, sisters, or other members of the family or towards persons resembling the parents in age or appearance ceases to be tolerated and at each fresh choice of object the associative link becomes less marked, so that finally it may cease altogether to be traceable. Thus at maturity the individual should, for practical purposes, be free to direct his love towards those who show no resemblance of any kind to the first object of his dawning affection. This may be looked upon as the normal goal of the development of the love impulse in relation to its objects. Any failure to attain this goal must, it would seem, be regarded as constituting to some extent a failure or arrest of development with respect to this highly important aspect of the individual's mental growth. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 15: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 215.] [Footnote 16: The earliest manifestation of the disapproval of sexual activities is of course encountered in the autoerotic stage of the child's development and in relation to the autoerotic activities. It is in connection with these activities that the sexual inhibitions in their more general and primitive forms at first arise.] [Footnote 17: _Cp._ Trotter, "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War."] [Footnote 18: For a more thorough treatment of the mechanisms of Repression, Displacement and Sublimation by the present writer, see "Freudian Mechanisms as Factors in Moral Development," _British Journal of Psychology_, 1915, vol. VIII, 477.] [Footnote 19: "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex."]