- oughly explored, and if we do not yet know all there is to
know about the subject, we still know a great deal.
The material I am about to go into is fact, scientific fact, not opinion. If the information here seems new or strange or even irritating to you, do not be surprised or upset. It is new and strange to most people and at first it may not seem applicable to you. But if you will stay with it, use it to understand the case histories which I will discuss afterward, you will gradually see why understanding these phases is so necessary and helpful to the individual who has not yet been able to achieve her full femininity. As you have been told many times, all psychological problems are rooted in infancy, childhood, or in adolescence. To uproot these problems, we must return to those stages of development with new tools, new ideas, a new master plan.
There are two over-all stages of biological and psychological development that every individual must go through. The first stage lasts from birth to about ten years of age. In turn this stage is divided into two phases; the first, the phase we call infancy, lasts roughly for the first five years of life. The second phase we call the latency period and occupies the second five years of life.
The first five years of growth, the infantile period, is of enormous importance for later development. In this phase the whole personality takes the shape and develops the characteristics that will distinguish it from that time on.
At this point I have to note a certain scientific fact that may surprise or disconcert you. I ask you to withhold any prejudices of a personal or moral kind you may have about this fact, for they will only obscure the entire issue and make it difficult for you to understand one of the most important contributions science has made to the understanding of the human mind.
The decisive fact, then, about the infantile period is that
