tempt of intellectual independence seems to be of a persevering and profoundly depressing nature.[1]
If the period of infantile sexual investigation comes to an end through an impetus of energetic sexual repression, the early association with sexual interest may result in three different possibilities for the future fate of the investigation impulse. The investigation either shares the fate of the sexuality, the curiosity henceforth remains inhibited and the free activity of intelligence may become narrowed for life; this is especially made possible by the powerful religious inhibition of thought, which is brought about shortly hereafter through education. This is the type of neurotic inhibition. We know well that the so acquired mental weakness furnishes effective support for the
- ↑ For a corroboration of this improbable sounding assertion see the “Analysis of the Phobia of a Five-year-old Boy,” Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische Forschungen, Bd. I, 1909, and the similar observation in Bd. II, 1910. In an essay concerning “Infantile Theories of Sex” (Sammlungen kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, p. 167, Second Series, 1909), I wrote: “But this reasoning and doubting serves as a model for all later intellectual work in problems, and the first failure acts as a paralyzer for all times.”
