CHAPTER II
The Infantile Sexuality
The precocious manifestations of sexual phantasy as cause of
the shock now seemed to be the source of neurosis. This, logically,
attributed to children a far more developed sexuality than
had been hitherto admitted. Many cases of precocious sexuality
had been recorded in literature long before the time of psychoanalysis.
For instance, a girl of two years old with normal menstruation,
or cases of boys of three and four and five years of
age having normal erections, and so far ready for cohabitation.
These were, however, curiosities. Great astonishment was
caused when Freud began to attribute to the child, not only ordinary
sexuality, but even polymorphic perverse sexuality; all this
based upon the most exhaustive investigation. People inclined
much too lightly to the superficial view, that all this was merely
suggested to the patients, and was a highly disputable artificial
product. Hence Freud's[1] "Three Contributions to the Sexual
Theory" not only provoked opposition, but even violent indignation.
It is surely unnecessary to insist upon the fact that science
is not furthered by indignation, and that arguments of moral
resentment may perhaps please the moralist—that is his business—but
not a scientific man, for whom truth must be the guide,
and not moral indignation. If matters are really as Freud
describes them, all indignation is absurd; if they are not so, again
indignation will avail nothing. The conclusion as to what is the
truth can only be arrived at on the field of observation and research,
and nowhere else. The opponents of psychoanalysis with
certain honorable exceptions, display rather ludicrously a somewhat
pitifully inadequate realization of the situation. Although
the psychoanalytic school could unfortunately learn nothing from
their critics, as the criticism took no notice of its investigations,
and although it could not get any useful hints, because the psycho-*
- ↑ No. 7 of this Monograph Series.
