Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex by Sigmund Freud

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NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH SERIES NO. 7

THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF SEX

_SECOND EDITION_
_SECOND REPRINTING_

BY

PROF. SIGMUND FREUD, LL.D.
VIENNA

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY

A.A. BRILL, PH.B., M.D.
CLINICAL ASSISTANT, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGY, COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY; ASSISTANT IN MENTAL DISEASES, BELLEVUE HOSPITAL; ASSISTANT
VISITING PHYSICIAN, HOSPITAL FOR NERVOUS DISEASES

WITH INTRODUCTION BY

JAMES J. PUTNAM, M.D.

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NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON
1920

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION v
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION x
I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS 1
II. THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY 36
III. THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBERTY 68

INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION

The somewhat famous "Three Essays," which Dr. Brill is here bringing to
the attention of an English-reading public, occupy--brief as they
are--an important position among the achievements of their author, a
great investigator and pioneer in an important line. It is not claimed
that the facts here gathered are altogether new. The subject of the
sexual instinct and its aberrations has long been before the scientific
world and the names of many effective toilers in this vast field are
known to every student. When one passes beyond the strict domains of
science and considers what is reported of the sexual life in folkways
and art-lore and the history of primitive culture and in romance, the
sources of information are immense. Freud has made considerable
additions to this stock of knowledge, but he has done also something of
far greater consequence than this. He has worked out, with incredible
penetration, the part which this instinct plays in every phase of human
life and in the development of human character, and has been able to
establish on a firm footing the remarkable thesis that psychoneurotic
illnesses never occur with a perfectly normal sexual life. Other sorts
of emotions contribute to the result, but some aberration of the sexual
life is always present, as the cause of especially insistent emotions
and repressions.

The instincts with which every child is born furnish desires or cravings
which must be dealt with in some fashion. They may be refined
("sublimated"), so far as is necessary and desirable, into energies of
other sorts--as happens readily with the play-instinct--or they may
remain as the source of perversions and inversions, and of cravings of
new sorts substituted for those of the more primitive kinds under the
pressure of a conventional civilization. The symptoms of the functional
psychoneuroses represent, after a fashion, some of these distorted
attempts to find a substitute for the imperative cravings born of the
sexual instincts, and their form often depends, in part at least, on the
peculiarities of the sexual life in infancy and early childhood. It is
Freud's service to have investigated this inadequately chronicled period
of existence with extraordinary acumen. In so doing he made it plain
that the "perversions" and "inversions," which reappear later under such
striking shapes, belong to the normal sexual life of the young child and
are seen, in veiled forms, in almost every case of nervous illness.

It cannot too often be repeated that these discoveries represent no
fanciful deductions, but are the outcome of rigidly careful observations
which any one who will sufficiently prepare himself can verify. Critics
fret over the amount of "sexuality" that Freud finds evidence of in the
histories of his patients, and assume that he puts it there. But such
criticisms are evidences of misunderstandings and proofs of ignorance.

Freud had learned that the amnesias of hypnosis and of hysteria were not
absolute but relative and that in covering the lost memories, much more,
of unexpected sort, was often found. Others, too, had gone as far as
this, and stopped. But this investigator determined that nothing but the
absolute impossibility of going further should make him cease from
urging his patients into an inexorable scrutiny of the unconscious
regions of their memories and thoughts, such as never had been made
before. Every species of forgetfulness, even the forgetfulness of
childhood's years, was made to yield its hidden stores of knowledge;
dreams, even though apparently absurd, were found to be interpreters of
a varied class of thoughts, active, although repressed as out of harmony
with the selected life of consciousness; layer after layer, new sets of
motives underlying motives were laid bare, and each patient's interest
was strongly enlisted in the task of learning to know himself in order
more truly and wisely to "sublimate" himself. Gradually other workers
joined patiently in this laborious undertaking, which now stands, for
those who have taken pains to comprehend it, as by far the most
important movement in psychopathology.

It must, however, be recognized that these essays, of which Dr. Brill
has given a translation that cannot but be timely, concern a subject
which is not only important but unpopular. Few physicians read the works
of v. Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Moll, and others of like sort.
The remarkable volumes of Havelock Ellis were refused publication in his
native England. The sentiments which inspired this hostile attitude
towards the study of the sexual life are still active, though growing
steadily less common. One may easily believe that if the facts which
Freud's truth-seeking researches forced him to recognize and to publish
had not been of an unpopular sort, his rich and abundant contributions
to observational psychology, to the significance of dreams, to the
etiology and therapeutics of the psychoneuroses, to the interpretation
of mythology, would have won for him, by universal acclaim, the same
recognition among all physicians that he has received from a rapidly
increasing band of followers and colleagues.

May Dr. Brill's translation help toward this end.

There are two further points on which some comments should be made. The
first is this, that those who conscientiously desire to learn all that
they can from Freud's remarkable contributions should not be content to
read any one of them alone. His various publications, such as "The
Selected Papers on Hysteria and Other Psychoneuroses,"[1] "The
Interpretation of Dreams,"[2] "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life,"[3]
"Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious,"[4] the analysis of the case
of the little boy called Hans, the study of Leonardo da Vinci,[4a] and
the various short essays in the four Sammlungen kleiner Schriften, not
only all hang together, but supplement each other to a remarkable
extent. Unless a course of study such as this is undertaken many critics
may think various statements and inferences in this volume to be far
fetched or find them too obscure for comprehension.

The other point is the following: One frequently hears the
psychoanalytic method referred to as if it was customary for those
practicing it to exploit the sexual experiences of their patients and
nothing more, and the insistence on the details of the sexual life,
presented in this book, is likely to emphasize that notion. But the fact
is, as every thoughtful inquirer is aware, that the whole progress of
civilization, whether in the individual or the race, consists largely in
a "sublimation" of infantile instincts, and especially certain portions
of the sexual instinct, to other ends than those which they seemed
designed to serve. Art and poetry are fed on this fuel and the evolution
of character and mental force is largely of the same origin. All the
forms which this sublimation, or the abortive attempts at sublimation,
may take in any given case, should come out in the course of a thorough
psychoanalysis. It is not the sexual life alone, but every interest and
every motive, that must be inquired into by the physician who is seeking
to obtain all the data about the patient, necessary for his reeducation
and his cure. But all the thoughts and emotions and desires and motives
which appear in the man or woman of adult years were once crudely
represented in the obscure instincts of the infant, and among these
instincts those which were concerned directly or indirectly with the
sexual emotions, in a wide sense, are certain to be found in every case
to have been the most important for the end-result.

JAMES J. PUTNAM.

BOSTON, August 23, 1910.

[1] Translated by A.A. Brill, NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISEASE MONOGRAPH
SERIES, NO. 4.

[2] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York, and Allen &
Unwin, London.

[3] Translated by A.A. Brill, The Macmillan Co., New York.

[4] Translated by A.A. Brill, Moffatt, Yard & Co., New York.

[4a] Translated by A.A. Brill, Moffatt, Yard & Co., New York.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

Although the author is fully aware of the gaps and obscurities contained
in this small volume, he has, nevertheless, resisted a temptation to add
to it the results obtained from the investigations of the last five
years, fearing that thus its unified and documentary character would be
destroyed. He accordingly reproduces the original text with but slight
modifications, contenting himself with the addition of a few footnotes.
For the rest, it is his ardent wish that this book may speedily become
antiquated--to the end that the new material brought forward in it may
be universally accepted, while the shortcomings it displays may give
place to juster views.

VIENNA, December, 1909.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

After watching for ten years the reception accorded to this book and the
effect it has produced, I wish to provide the third edition of it with
some prefatory remarks dealing with the misunderstandings of the book
and the demands, insusceptible of fulfillment, made against it. Let me
emphasize in the first place that whatever is here presented is derived
entirely from every-day medical experience which is to be made more
profound and scientifically important through the results of
psychoanalytic investigation. The "Three Contributions to the Theory of
Sex" can contain nothing except what psychoanalysis obliges them to
accept or what it succeeds in corroborating. It is therefore excluded
that they should ever be developed into a "theory of sex," and it is
also quite intelligible that they will assume no attitude at all towards
some important problems of the sexual life. This should not however give
the impression that these omitted chapters of the great theme were
unfamiliar to the author, or that they were neglected by him as
something of secondary importance.

The dependence of this work on the psychoanalytic experiences which have
determined the writing of it, shows itself not only in the selection but
also in the arrangement of the material. A certain succession of stages
was observed, the occasional factors are rendered prominent, the
constitutional ones are left in the background, and the ontogenetic
development receives greater consideration than the phylogenetic. For
the occasional factors play the principal role in analysis, and are
almost completely worked up in it, while the constitutional factors only
become evident from behind as elements which have been made functional
through experience, and a discussion of these would lead far beyond the
working sphere of psychoanalysis.

A similar connection determines the relation between ontogenesis and
phylogenesis. Ontogenesis may be considered as a repetition of
phylogenesis insofar as the latter has not been varied by a more recent
experience. The phylogenetic disposition makes itself visible behind the
ontogenetic process. But fundamentally the constitution is really the
precipitate of a former experience of the species to which the newer
experience of the individual being is added as the sum of the occasional
factors.

Beside its thoroughgoing dependence on psychoanalytic investigation I
must emphasize as a character of this work of mine its intentional
independence of biological investigation. I have carefully avoided the
inclusion of the results of scientific investigation in general sex
biology or of particular species of animals in this study of human
sexual functions which is made possible by the technique of
psychoanalysis. My aim was indeed to find out how much of the biology of
the sexual life of man can be discovered by means of psychological
investigation; I was able to point to additions and agreements which
resulted from this examination, but I did not have to become confused if
the psychoanalytic methods led in some points to views and results which
deviated considerably from those merely based on biology.

I have added many passages in this edition, but I have abstained from
calling attention to them, as in former editions, by special marks. The
scientific work in our sphere has at present been retarded in its
progress, nevertheless some supplements to this work were indispensable
if it was to remain in touch with our newer psychoanalytic literature.

VIENNA, October, 1914.

I

THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS[1]

The fact of sexual need in man and animal is expressed in biology by the
assumption of a "sexual impulse." This impulse is made analogous to the
impulse of taking nourishment, and to hunger. The sexual expression
corresponding to hunger not being found colloquilly, science uses the
expression "libido."[2]

Popular conception makes definite assumptions concerning the nature and
qualities of this sexual impulse. It is supposed to be absent during
childhood and to commence about the time of and in connection with the
maturing process of puberty; it is supposed that it manifests itself in
irresistible attractions exerted by one sex upon the other, and that its
aim is sexual union or at least such actions as would lead to union.

But we have every reason to see in these assumptions a very
untrustworthy picture of reality. On closer examination they are found
to abound in errors, inaccuracies and hasty conclusions.

If we introduce two terms and call the person from whom the sexual
attraction emanates the _sexual object_, and the action towards which
the impulse strives the _sexual aim_, then the scientifically examined
experience shows us many deviations in reference to both sexual object
and sexual aim, the relations of which to the accepted standard require
thorough investigation.

1. DEVIATION IN REFERENCE TO THE SEXUAL OBJECT

The popular theory of the sexual impulse corresponds closely to the
poetic fable of dividing the person into two halves--man and woman--who
strive to become reunited through love. It is therefore very surprising
to hear that there are men for whom the sexual object is not woman but
man, and that there are women for whom it is not man but woman. Such
_persons_ are called contrary sexuals, or better, inverts; the
_condition_, that of inversion. The number of such individuals is
considerable though difficult of accurate determination.[3]

A. _Inversion_

*The Behavior of Inverts.*--The above-mentioned persons behave in many
ways quite differently.

(_a_) They are absolutely inverted; _i.e._, their sexual object must be
always of the same sex, while the opposite sex can never be to them an
object of sexual longing, but leaves them indifferent or may even evoke
sexual repugnance. As men they are unable, on account of this
repugnance, to perform the normal sexual act or miss all pleasure in its
performance.

(_b_) They are amphigenously inverted (psychosexually hermaphroditic);
_i.e._, their sexual object may belong indifferently to either the same
or to the other sex. The inversion lacks the character of exclusiveness.

(_c_) They are occasionally inverted; _i.e._, under certain external
conditions, chief among which are the inaccessibility of the normal
sexual object and initiation, they are able to take as the sexual
object a person of the same sex and thus find sexual gratification.

The inverted also manifest a manifold behavior in their judgment about
the peculiarities of their sexual impulse. Some take the inversion as a
matter of course, just as the normal person does regarding his libido,
firmly demanding the same rights as the normal. Others, however, strive
against the fact of their inversion and perceive in it a morbid
compulsion.[4]

Other variations concern the relations of time. The characteristics of
the inversion in any individual may date back as far as his memory goes,
or they may become manifest to him at a definite period before or after
puberty.[5] The character is either retained throughout life, or it
occasionally recedes or represents an episode on the road to normal
development. A periodical fluctuation between the normal and the
inverted sexual object has also been observed. Of special interest are
those cases in which the libido changes, taking on the character of
inversion after a painful experience with the normal sexual object.

These different categories of variation generally exist independently of
one another. In the most extreme cases it can regularly be assumed that
the inversion has existed at all times and that the person feels
contented with his peculiar state.

Many authors will hesitate to gather into a unit all the cases
enumerated here and will prefer to emphasize the differences rather than
the common characters of these groups, a view which corresponds with
their preferred judgment of inversions. But no matter what divisions may
be set up, it cannot be overlooked that all transitions are abundantly
met with, so that the formation of a series would seem to impose itself.

*Conception of Inversion.*--The first attention bestowed upon inversion
gave rise to the conception that it was a congenital sign of nervous
degeneration. This harmonized with the fact that doctors first met it
among the nervous, or among persons giving such an impression. There are
two elements which should be considered independently in this
conception: the congenitality, and the degeneration.

*Degeneration.*--This term _degeneration_ is open to the objections
which may be urged against the promiscuous use of this word in general.
It has in fact become customary to designate all morbid manifestations
not of traumatic or infectious origin as degenerative. Indeed, Magnan's
classification of degenerates makes it possible that the highest general
configuration of nervous accomplishment need not exclude the application
of the concept of degeneration. Under the circumstances, it is a
question what use and what new content the judgment of "degeneration"
still possesses. It would seem more appropriate not to speak of
degeneration: (1) Where there are not many marked deviations from the
normal; (2) where the capacity for working and living do not in general
appear markedly impaired.[6]

That the inverted are not degenerates in this qualified sense can be
seen from the following facts:

1. The inversion is found among persons who otherwise show no marked
deviation from the normal.

2. It is found also among persons whose capabilities are not disturbed,
who on the contrary are distinguished by especially high intellectual
development and ethical culture.[7]

3. If one disregards the patients of one's own practice and strives to
comprehend a wider field of experience, he will in two directions
encounter facts which will prevent him from assuming inversions as a
degenerative sign.

(_a_) It must be considered that inversion was a frequent manifestation
among the ancient nations at the height of their culture. It was an
institution endowed with important functions. (_b_) It is found to be
unusually prevalent among savages and primitive races, whereas the term
degeneration is generally limited to higher civilization (I. Bloch).
Even among the most civilized nations of Europe, climate and race have a
most powerful influence on the distribution of, and attitude toward,
inversion.[8]

*Innateness.*--Only for the first and most extreme class of inverts, as
can be imagined, has innateness been claimed, and this from their own
assurance that at no time in their life has their sexual impulse
followed a different course. The fact of the existence of two other
classes, especially of the third, is difficult to reconcile with the
assumption of its being congenital. Hence, the propensity of those
holding this view to separate the group of absolute inverts from the
others results in the abandonment of the general conception of
inversion. Accordingly in a number of cases the inversion would be of a
congenital character, while in others it might originate from other
causes.

In contradistinction to this conception is that which assumes inversion
to be an _acquired_ character of the sexual impulse. It is based on the
following facts. (1) In many inverts (even absolute ones) an early
affective sexual impression can be demonstrated, as a result of which
the homosexual inclination developed. (2) In many others outer
influences of a promoting and inhibiting nature can be demonstrated,
which in earlier or later life led to a fixation of the inversion--among
which are exclusive relations with the same sex, companionship in war,
detention in prison, dangers of hetero-sexual intercourse, celibacy,
sexual weakness, etc. (3) Hypnotic suggestion may remove the inversion,
which would be surprising in that of a congenital character.

In view of all this, the existence of congenital inversion can certainly
be questioned. The objection may be made to it that a more accurate
examination of those claimed to be congenitally inverted will probably
show that the direction of the libido was determined by a definite
experience of early childhood, which has not been retained in the
conscious memory of the person, but which can be brought back to memory
by proper influences (Havelock Ellis). According to that author
inversion can be designated only as a frequent variation of the sexual
impulse which may be determined by a number of external circumstances of
life.

The apparent certainty thus reached is, however, overthrown by the
retort that manifestly there are many persons who have experienced even
in their early youth those very sexual influences, such as seduction,
mutual onanism, without becoming inverts, or without constantly
remaining so. Hence, one is forced to assume that the alternatives
congenital and acquired are either incomplete or do not cover the
circumstances present in inversions.

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