No one need suggest that all these recommendations are superfluous, for the reason that, according to my own previous account of the matter, the undifferentiated condition of the sexual impulse is spontaneously replaced by the normal heterosexual impulse. For, first of all, the signs that give rise to anxiety may not be manifestations of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, but may be the first manifestations of a developing congenital perversion; and, secondly, it is by no means improbable that, even in the entire absence of any congenital tendency to sexual perversion, unfavourable external conditions may lead to the further development of the perverse manifestations of the undifferentiated period. I may refer in this connexion to what was said upon p. [312] et seq.
It is necessary to refer at length to one additional educational method which plays a very important part in sexual development, namely, punishment. The sexual perversions known by the names of sadism and masochism have of late attracted much attention from students of the sexual life. In sadism, sexual excitement occurs in association with the infliction of ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain upon others; in masochism the sexual excitement results from the experience of such ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain by the masochist in person. But in sadism, it is not essential that the sadist should himself play the active part; very often, the maltreatment by a second person of a third suffices to cause sexual excitement in the sadist who looks on. Masochistic and sadistic modes of sensibility are frequently associated in the same individual. As far as the relationship of these perversions to punishment is concerned, we learn from many adult masochists and sadists that their first experience of sexual excitement occurred when as children they received a whipping, or saw another child whipped—at school, for instance. The oft-quoted case of Rousseau has previously been mentioned in this work. It is thus evident that the subject of the punishment of children needs to be considered, not merely from the general educational point of view, but also from the special outlook of sexual education. The principal question is whether as a result of corporal punishment, either personally experienced or witnessed, an enduring sexual perversion may be induced in a child; and this problem must be carefully distinguished from another problem, which, however, is also of very great importance, namely, that of the sexual excitement which may be experienced by the person who inflicts the punishment. The significance of the materials available to guide us to a conclusion upon these questions, is not, however, perfectly clear in all cases. I may refer to what was said upon p. [130] et seq.; and will here merely add that the question whether the infliction of corporal punishment really originates a perversion in the sufferer, or whether it merely awakens to activity a pre-existent tendency, and one which, in the absence of this particular exciting cause, would almost certainly have been awakened by some other and unavoidable cause, some influence acting from without—this is a question to which conflicting answers have been given.
But corporal punishment entails other dangers, in addition to the risk of the origination or the awakening of a sexual perversion. Certain children, having experienced sexual stimulation as a result of such punishment, will endeavour to secure its repetition. I have known cases in which sexual perverts have deliberately misconducted themselves in school, in order to be punished, and thus to enjoy voluptuous sensations. Finally, there is a third danger to be taken into account, and this is a danger of whose reality I have been convinced by the direct confessions of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, that they have struck their pupils for the purpose of thereby enjoying sexual stimulation. Even if no such admissions had ever been made to me, I should have regarded it as by no means improbable that such incidents should from time to time occur. Let no reader draw the inference that whenever a master chastises a naughty boy, he acts always under the influence of a sadistic inclination; I do not even consider that sadistic inclinations are a frequent cause of the infliction of corporal chastisement. The danger of such sweeping generalisations is obvious, especially in view of the fact that to-day many children, even, know what sadism is. Hence a schoolboy who has been punished might readily attribute sadistic motives to his master; and might even make a definite accusation of this kind.
When we come to ask what practical conclusions may be drawn from our recognition of the relationships between corporal punishment and sexual perversions, the first point that occurs to our minds is to consider whether the corporal punishments which may possibly give rise to such perverse stimulations are in fact absolutely indispensable. Although in this matter I find myself in opposition to a great many physicians and to not a few educationalists, I remain of the opinion that we cannot propose to do away altogether with corporal punishments in our schools; at any rate, such punishment remains, I consider, essential, so long as certain other reforms are still wanting. Among the reforms which are indispensable preliminaries to the complete abolition of corporal punishment, is one giving a greater power to expel insolent and undisciplined boys. Not until such a power is granted can corporal punishments be abolished from our schools. For a flogging is oftentimes the only punishment of which a rough and ill-conditioned boy is afraid. Moreover, and altogether apart from this consideration, the discipline of our schools is to-day endangered in various ways: for instance, by public disquisitions about overwork in schools; by the conduct of many parents, who prejudice their children against the schools in a most indiscreet manner; and by attacks in the newspapers on the schoolmasters—attacks which are often unfair and inconsiderate. Further, the recent widely advertised public pronouncements against the right of the schoolmaster to inflict corporal punishment, are hardly calculated to strengthen the discipline of our schools, or to assist the masters in the performance of what must be at best extremely difficult duties. So long, therefore, as we lack the safeguard to discipline that would be provided by extensive powers of expelling undesirables, I consider that corporal punishment is essential to the discipline of our schools.
Unquestionably it would be a good thing if we could entirely dispense with the use of corporal punishments, or at least dispense with them in all cases in which there might be any possibility of their doing harm, as by giving rise to sexual stimulation. But unfortunately we have no means of ascertaining beforehand what are the cases in which corporal punishment is likely to do harm. There is no possibility of withholding the right to inflict corporal punishment from those masters in especial who might use it to gratify their own sexual passions—if only for the reason that we have no means of finding out who these persons are. For it is not the masters with free views about sexual questions who are especially open to suspicion from the point of view we are now considering; nor is it the masters who are morally defective or irreligious. Indeed, I am acquainted with some extremely pious schoolmasters who, according to their own admissions to me, have experienced sexual excitement when chastising children; and some of these have in other respects had admirable characters. Cases recorded, not merely in erotic literature, but also in historical literature, show that religion affords no safeguard against such temptations; we learn, for instance, that in the cloister, monks and nuns have utilised their right to inflict punishment in order to procure sexual excitement. For these reasons, it is inadmissible to infer, because a schoolmaster is a religious man, that therefore he is the one to whom the right to inflict corporal punishment may safely be entrusted.
The danger of an excessive use of powers of administering corporal punishment, and more especially the danger of awakening the sexuality of children prematurely and with perverse associations, may be minimised by the proper treatment of schoolmasters. We must not treat our schoolmasters in such a way that behind them they always feel the presence of the inspector, compelling them to force the pupils through the prescribed, but excessive tasks. Nor must the schoolmaster's own work be excessive, for nervous overstrain will very readily lead to outbreaks of violence. It seems also desirable that the right of administering corporal punishment should not be entrusted to masters who are still quite young, for a certain experience is needed to guide them to a reasonable moderation. What I have said of schoolmasters applies, mutatis mutandis, to schoolmistresses and governesses. There are many reasons for the belief that the danger that the right to inflict corporal punishment may be utilised to procure erotic excitement for the person exercising that right, is considerably greater in women than it is in men. Even if we take no notice of erotic literature, in which sadism in women manifested by the mishandling of children is so frequent a motif, we shall find quite a number of experiences of actual life which compel us to admit the frequency of such perverse sensibilities in women. Among various records bearing upon this matter, I may remind readers of those of the upper class women of ancient Rome, and of the horrible punishments they inflicted upon their female slaves; and also of American women of the slave-owning class, in the South before the war, who sometimes flogged young male slaves in the most terrible way.
Whether this matter is regarded as one of great or of small importance, it is as well to inquire whether it is not possible that the necessary disciplinary punishment should be inflicted in such a way as to reduce to a minimum any dangers from the sexual point of view. Now, we learn from experience, that when a perversion is traced back to its origination in a chastisement endured during childhood, this chastisement was as a rule the customary whipping of the buttocks. Far less frequently, and indeed hardly ever, are we told that any other form of punishment has initiated a sexual perversion. This may, of course, depend merely upon the fact that other modes of punishment are far less common. But there are many reasons for supposing that stimulation of the buttock is especially apt to induce sexual excitement. It is possible, also, that another factor is in operation here, namely, the fact that the child undergoing punishment is commonly placed across the elder's knees in such a way that pressure upon the child's genital organs is almost unavoidable. Moreover, when we bear in mind the fact that other methods of chastisement may involve dangers to health (boxing the ears, for instance, may threaten the integrity of the sense of hearing), the question which is the best method of corporal punishment becomes a very serious one. I have myself elsewhere expressed the opinion that as far as the possible effects on health are concerned, and especially from the point of view of sexual hygiene, blows upon the palm of the hand perhaps constitute the least dangerous form of corporal punishment. But I by no means suppose that even here danger is altogether excluded, or that no sexual stimulation can possibly ensue from such chastisement. For the local physical stimulation is not the only matter we have to consider in connexion with a whipping upon the buttocks. In quite a number of cases in which we are told that some experience during childhood has been the initiating cause of subsequent masochism or sadism, there has been no question of purely physical causation, as by a whipping upon the buttocks. I may recall the case in which sexual perversion appeared to have developed out of witnessing the slaughter of animals, so that the only stimulus acting upon this child belonged to the psychical sphere. The cases, also, in which a child refers the origin of his perversion to having looked on at a whipping (in school, for instance) show that such perversions are not only aroused by mechanical stimuli, but may depend also upon psychological factors. For these reasons I consider that we are not justified in assuming, if whipping upon the buttocks were altogether done away with, and if blows upon the palm of the hand became the only permissible form of corporal punishment, that permanent sexual perversions would then become impossible. With further reference to what I have said above about discipline in schools, I may add that the kernel of the problem is this: is the probability that corporal punishment will lead to permanent sexual perversion, or will induce sexual excitement, sufficiently great, to render it necessary that corporal punishment should be completely abolished from our schools, so long as our schoolmasters possess no other adequate means of making certain of their pupils observe the discipline of the school? It is unconditionally necessary that the discipline of our schools should be maintained; and those who are unreservedly opposed to corporal punishment in all its forms should make it their business to see that some other adequate means are provided for the maintenance of school-discipline. However strongly we may feel that it is essential that there should be no abuse by schoolmasters of their right to administer corporal punishment, none the less, even in this "Century of the Child," we need safeguards also against the abuse of sentimentality.
In this chapter I have attempted to deal with a few only of the problems of sexual education. To discuss the subject exhaustively would have been impossible within the limits of this book; nor have I endeavoured to take into consideration the enormous mass of literature relating to the modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment. I have made no reference to the fact that it has recently been recommended that every girl should spend a year of service [Dienstjahr—analogous to the term of military service obligatory on all males in Germany] in hospitals, asylums, &c., whereby she would gain enlightenment concerning many things which will be of value to her in her subsequent married life. All such proposals are so much matters of detail, that I have thought it inadvisable to discuss them here.
The most important requirement of all is certainly a good educator—a word used here in the widest possible signification. The best of all educators for the child should be its own mother; although we may agree with the assertion recently made by Eschle[152] and others, that the father has important duties to fulfil as instructor, even during the child's first year of life. Nevertheless, the father, even if his professional training gives him especial skill in these directions, is not really likely to do very much in the educational way for his infant offspring. It is to the mother, above all, that the care of infants and young children is of necessity entrusted. We have, however, to remember that a large proportion of mothers, especially those belonging to the ranks of the proletariat, take part in the work of breadwinning for the family, and are thus prevented from giving as much attention to their children as might be wished. But in the families of the well-to-do there is often no question of the mother herself playing the principal part in the education of her children, since it is customary for her to depute so many of her maternal duties to hired substitutes. It has recently been maintained that it is to the Woman's Movement that we owe the fact that the question of the sexual enlightenment has now become a live one; but this is certainly an overstatement, though it is not to be denied that women have had some influence in this direction. But if the women who play a prominent part in the Woman's Movement would do more than they have done as yet to impress upon the women of the well-to-do classes an understanding of their duties towards their children, they would certainly be doing excellent work. No paid substitute can adequately replace for the child the benefits it will derive if its mother herself does all that she could and should do. A mother who seriously devotes herself to the care of her child, need have no anxiety about the risks of its being misused by others for sexual purposes. Such a mother keeps herself fully acquainted with her child's sentiments. She is in a position to choose the best moment for effecting the child's sexual enlightenment, and she can best judge when the use of the stork story is no longer justified. Of such a mother, a child far more readily makes a confidant. Moreover, if the mother devotes a great deal of time and pains to the personal care of her child, this has, in the case of a boy, the great advantage of inculcating a greater respect for the female sex in general than is apt to be found in boys to-day. I consider this last-mentioned point to be one of the utmost importance in relation to the sexual enlightenment, for only in such a way can the boy when grown to manhood be led instinctively to refrain from the seduction of girls—with all the misery which such a course usually involves for the victims. Similarly, a young man brought up to respect women will refrain from making a mock of pregnancy, whether "legitimate" or "illegitimate." When we see a young woman bearing a new life in her womb, owing her position it may be to all the subtle arts of the seducer, and note how cruelly she is treated by the law and what scorn and contempt are poured upon her by society and by the individual, we cannot fail to welcome most heartily the movement for the Protection of Motherhood (Mutterschutzbewegung) which has recently made such progress in Germany. When children are properly educated, there is reason to hope that sexual matters will be less often treated in an obscene spirit than is the case to-day. Nor need we fear, when such education becomes the rule, that every allusion to sexual things may involve dangers to the child. Precisely because the sexual life will then be known to the child in a natural way, will there be less reason to dread the deliberate cultivation by children of sexual topics of conversation. When at school the love adventures of Mars and Venus are the subject of the lesson, in children thus educated no unclean thoughts need arise. It must never be forgotten, however, that when the imagination has been perverted, opportunities for unclean thoughts recur with extraordinary frequency; and indeed by no means whatever can such opportunities be altogether avoided. Since this is so, we must strengthen the child against the dangers it will inevitably encounter, and must be careful not to pervert its imagination by a false prudery.
Of course we must avoid leading the child to dwell too much upon sexual topics, and fortunately human beings have numerous other interests. The sphere of the sexual must be regarded as a fraction merely of the general educational field. The inculcation of true ideas of morality, and of a sense of honour not confined to externals but one by which the entire being is permeated—these will be the safest essentials of a good sexual and general education.