Our diagnosis will, naturally, be greatly facilitated in those cases in which the phenomena of contrectation are plainly reflected to the reproductive organs. I, at any rate, believe that in practice such an association suffices completely to establish the diagnosis. We can, indeed, recognise this also in the dream life, at least as soon as the first nocturnal emissions have occurred. In the first edition of my work on _Contrary Sexuality_ (Berlin, 1891), I drew attention to the fact that those affected with perverse sexuality commonly have perverse dreams; and Naecke has further discussed the significance of sexual dreams for the diagnosis of sexual perversions. In children also we shall find in their sexual dreams, especially when these dreams have begun to be accompanied with seminal emissions, a certain assistance in the delimitation of their sexual sentiments from other manifestations of sympathetic sentiment. But this aid in diagnosis is not available till comparatively late in childhood, _i.e._ not until ejaculation has already begun. Even before this epoch dreams may have a sexual character, and may be conditioned by sexual processes. But practically, before the occurrence of ejaculation and orgasm in dreams, an exact diagnosis is opposed by so many difficulties, that little of value can in this way be gained. In this chapter we have examined the considerations that must guide us in our study and diagnosis of the sexual life of the child. It is, naturally, an important question, whether signs exist pointing to an abnormal development of the sexual life, and more especially to the growth of a sexual perversion. This matter has been discussed with considerable detail, and I need not, in conclusion, add anything to the emphatic warning previously given, against making apparently perverse manifestations in childhood the basis of a definite diagnosis or prognosis. CHAPTER VII IMPORTANCE OF THE SEXUAL LIFE OF THE CHILD The problem of the significance of sexual phenomena in the child is naturally one of great importance. We have here, in fact, two problems to consider: first, whether the appearance of sexual phenomena in childhood indicates a morbid or in other ways abnormal state; and, secondly, what are the consequences of the occurrence of sexual phenomena in the child. An example will help to illustrate the need for drawing this distinction. Certain malformations of the external ear are indications of the existence of a morbid degenerative condition; but from the malformation itself there is nothing to fear. Similarly with the sexual life of the child, it may happen that a manifestation indicates the existence of morbidity, although the manifestation does not by itself entail upon the child any serious consequences. On the other hand, sexual phenomena in the child deserve in some cases the most attentive study, owing to the dangers likely to result from their occurrence.