THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS The sexual instinct of psychoneurotics exhibits all the aberra medium of this connection libido and cruelty that the tions which we have studied as variations of normal, and as manifestations of abnormal, sexual life transformation of love into es place, the transformation of affectionate into hostile which is characteristi (a) The unconscious mental life of all neurotics(without great number of cases of neurosis, and indeed, it would seem persons of their own sex. It would be impossible without deep in general. discussion to give any adequate appreciation of the importance The interest of these findings is still further increased by of this factor in determining the form taken by the symptoms of certain special facts. the illness. I can only insist that an unconscious tendency to (a)Whenever we find in the unconscious an instinct of this inversion is never absent and is of parti sort which is capable of being paired off with an opposite one value in throwing this second instinct will regularly be found in operation as w n hysteria in men. Ey ed by its passive It is possible to trace in the unconscious of psycho- neurotics tendencies to every kind of anatomical extension of counterpart: anyone who is an exhibitionist in his unconscious exual activity and to show that those tendencies are factors in is at the same time a voyeur; in anyone who suffers from the the formation of symptoms. Among them we find occurring consequences of repressed sadistic impulses there is sure to be another determinant of his symptoms which has its source in with particular frequency those in which the mucous membrane masochistic inclinations. The complete agreement which is here of the mouth and anus are assigned the role of genitals. shown with what we have found to exist in the corresponding (c)An especially prominent part is played as factors in the ormation of symptoms in psychoneuroses by the component positive perversions is most remarkable, though in the actual instincts, 2 which emerge for the most part as pairs of opposites symptoms one or other of the opposing tendencies plays the and which we have met with as introducing new sexual aims- predominant part. the scopophilic instinct and exhibitionism and the active and (a)In any fairly marked case of psychoneurosis it passive forms of the instinct for cruelty. The contribution made or only a single one of these perverse instincts to be We usually find a considerable number and as a of them all. The degree of development of each that symptoms involve suffering, and it almost invariably domin nstinct is, however, independent of that of the others ates a part of the patient's social behaviour. It is also through the he study of the positive perversions provides counterpart. avourable ansformed into manifest behaviour), of the del tances can be (5)COMPONENT INSTINCTS AND EROTOGENIC behind their symptoms)-all of these coincide with one another even If we put together what we have learned from our investiga ion of positive and negative perversions, it seems plausible to suppression. It is only fair to say that my attention was frst drawn to the a [In the editions before 1920 three such 'special facts were numer. ated, The first, which was s he unconscious trains of stance which throws ht on the psychological peculiarity of this well-understood perversion rs to be the first published occurrence of the term letter to Fliess or Freud 's published works, though the concept has already been introduced per 6, 1896(Freud, 1950a, Letter 52). It also occurs in a passag onp.28.] n Section I of the case history of Dora(1905e)
THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS trace them back to a number of component instincts', which however,are not of a primary nature, but are susceptible The part played by the erotogenic zones is immediately further analysis. I By an ' instinct' is provisionally to be under- bvious in the case of those perversions which assign a sexual stood the psychical representative of an endosomatic, continu- significance to the oral and anal orifices. These behave in every ously flowing source of stimulation, as contrasted with a respect like a portion of the sexual apparatus. In hysteria these stimulus, which is set up by single excitations coming from arts of the body and the neighbouring tracts of mucous mem- wuithout. The concept of instinct is thus one of those lying on the brane become the seat of new sensations and of changes in frontier between the mental and the physical. The sim innervation-indeed, of processes that can be compared est assumption as to the nature of instincts would seem to erection I-in just the same way as do the actual genitalia under be that in itself an instinct is without quality, and, so far as the excitations of the normal sexual processes. mental life is concerned, is only to be regarded as a measure The significance of the erotogenic zones as apparatuses of the demand made upon the mind for work. What distin- ordinate to the genitals and as substitutes for them is, among guishes the instincts from one another and endows them with all the psychoneuroses, most clearly to be seen in hysteria; but specific qualities is their relation to their somatic sources and to this does not imply that that significance is any the less in the their aims. The source of an instinct is a process of excitation other forms of illness. It, is only that in them it is less recogniz- occurring in an organ and the immediate aim of the instinct ble, because in their case(obsessional neurosis and paranoia lies in the removal of this organic stimulus. 2 the formation of the symptoms takes place in regions of the re is a further provisional assumption that we cannot mental apparatus which are more remote from the particular the theory of the instincts. It is to the effect that centres concerned with somatic control. In obsessional neuro excitations of two kinds arise from the somatic organs, based what is more striking is the significance of those impulses which upon differences of a chemical nature. One of these create new sexual aims and seem independent of erotogenic excitation we describe as being specifically zones. Nevertheless, in scopophilia and exhibitionism the eye sexual, and of the organ concerned as the 'erotogenic zone of the corresponds to an erotogenic zone; while in the case of those component instinct arisi ng from it. components of the sexual instinct which involve pain and cruelty the same role is assumed by the skin-the skin, which n in 1901. It was alogy of the ter onstructed on the in particular parts of the body has become differentiated into was already in common sense organs or modified into mucous membrane, and is thus the erotogenic zone par excellence. om 1915. In th editions(1905 and 1910 agraph dates class of neurotic illness. But on the other hand, if i omitted all addition to an instinct which is not itself sexual and which has its source in motor impulses)a contribution from an organ able of receiving stimuli(e.g. the skin, the mucous membrane or a 1 [The phrase in parenthesis was added in 1920. nse organ). An organ of this kind will be described in this connection a We are reminded at this point of Molls analysis tinct into an instinct of contrectation'and an instinct ts a need for co tinct of detu e was described by Moll(1898) for the spasmodic relief of tension of the sexual organs, and portant but at the same time the least of the instincts is the most im- mhw上 the individual's develo nt.(See also bel lowing additional sentence appeared at the end of this footnote in 1905 a Footnote added 1915: It is not easy in the present place to justify Id 1910, but was afterwards omitted: 'Strohmayer has very rightly these assumptions, derived as they are from the study of a particular ferred from a case under his observation that obsessive self-reproaches
THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS (6)REASONS FOR THE APPARENT PREPONDERANCE me direction. where the constitution is a marked one it will OF PERⅤERSE ALITY IN THE perhaps not require the support of actual experiences; while a SYCH eat shock in real life will perhaps bring about a neurosis even The preceding discussion may perhaps have placed the in an average constitution. (Incidentally, this view of the rela- tive ae logical importance of what is innate and what the impression that, owing to their disposition, psychoneurotics accidentally experienced applies equally in other fields. approximate closely to perverts in their sexual behaviour and If we prefer to suppose, nevertheless, that a particularly are proportionately remote from normal people. It may indeed strongly developed tendency very well be that the constitutional disposition of these patients haracteristics of psychoneurotic constitutions, we have before apart from their exaggerated degree of sexual repression and us the prospect of being able to distinguish a number of such the excessive intensity of their sexual instinct) includes an un- constitutions according to the innate preponderance of one or sual tendency to perversion, using that word in its widest sense. the other of the erotogenic zones or of one or the other of Nevertheless, investigation of comparatively slight cases shows component instincts. The question whether a special rlan os that this last assumption is not absolutely necessary, or at least holds between the perverse disposition and the particular form of illness adopted, has, like so much else in this field, not there is a factor to be considered which weighs in the other been puberty as a result of the demands made upon them by norma (7) INTIMATION OF THE INFANTILE CHARACTER sexual life.(It is most particularly against the latter that repres- sion is directed. Or else illnesses of this kind set in later, when the libido fails to obtain satisfaction along normal lines. In both these cases the libido behaves like a stream whose main By diem os trains the pa t e archon curves. we have quite bed has become blocked. It proceeds to fill up collateral emarkably increased the number of people who might be channels which may hitherto have been empty. Thus, in the regarded as perverts. It is not only that neurotics in themselves same way, what appears to be the strong tendency(though, it is true, a negative one)of psychoneurotics to perversion ma that an unbroken chain bridges the gap bs also be considered constitute a very numerous class, but it mus be collaterally determined, and must, in any case, be collate all their manifestations and normality. After all, Moebius ally intensified. The fact is that we must put sexual repression could say with justice that we are all to some extent hysterics as an internal factor alongside such external factors as limitation Thus the extraordinarily wide dissemination of the perversion of freedom, inaccessibility of a normal sexual object, the dangers forces us to suppose that the disposition to perversions is itself of the normal sexual act, etc, which bring about perversions in of no great rarity but must form a part of what passes as the persons who might perhaps otherwise have remained normal. in this respect different cases of neurosis may behave differ- It is, as we have seen, debatable whether the perversions back to innate determinants or arise, as bi ed was the ently: in one case the preponderating factor may be the innate strength of the tendency to perversion, in another it may be the case with fetishism [p 20], owing to chance experiences. The collateral increase of that tendency owing to the libido being on now presents lf to us that there is indeed some- forced away from a normal sexual aim and sexual object. It thing innate lying behind the perversions but that it is some would be wrong to represent as opposition what is in fact a thing innate in everyone, though as a disposition it may vary in co-operative relation. Neurosis will always produce its greatest its intensity and may be increased by the influences of actual effects when constitution and experience work together in the life. What is in question are the innate constitutional roots of the sexual instinct. In one class of cas
THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY roots may grow into the actual vehicles of sexual activity; in may be submitted to be able in a considerable proportion of sexual energy to themselves as symptoms; while in the most favourable cases, which lie between extremes, they may by means of effective restriction INFANTILE SEXUALITY and other kinds of modification bring about what is known as normal sexual life GLECT OF One feature of the popular view of the sexual We have, however, a further reflection to make. This postu- THE InFanTILE instinct is that it is absent in childhood and lated constitution, containing the germs of all the perversi only awakens in the period of life described as will only be demonstrable in children, even though in them it is uberty. This, however, is not merely a simpl only with modest degrees of intensity that any of the instincts error but one that has had grave consequences, for it is mainl can emerge. A formula begins to take shape which lays it down to this idea that we owe our present ignorance of the funda that the sexuality of neurotics I remained in, or been brought mental conditions of sexual life. A thorough study of the sexual back to, an infantile state Thus our interest turns to the sexual manifestations of childhood would probably reveal the essential life of children, and we will now proceed to trace the characters of the sexual instinct and would show us the course e play ot influences which govern the evolution of infantile sexuality till of its development and the way in which it is put together from its outcome in perversion, neurosis or normal sexual life. various sources It is noticeable that writers who concern themselves with plaining the characteristics and reactions of the adult have devoted much more attention to the primaeval period which is comprised in the life of the individuals ancestors-have, that is, ascribed much more influence to heredity-than to the other rimaeval period, which falls within the lifetime of the individual imself-that is, to childhood One would surely have supposed ter pe Id be ea stand and could claim to be considered before that of hered It is true that in the literature of the subject one occasionall comes across remarks upon precocious sexual activity in small hildren-upon erections, masturbation and even activities re sembling coitus. But these are always quoted only as exceptional events,as oddities or as horrifying instances of precocious depravity. So far as I know, not a single author has clearly ecognized the regular cxistence of a sexual instinct in child hood; and in the writings that have become so numcrous or he development of children, the chapter on"Sexual Develop- a Footnote added 1915: Nor is it possible to estimate correctly the ed by childhood on made in the text has since struck me so bold that I have undertaken the task of testing its validity by looking through the literature once more. The outcome of this is that I have