Objections to the Sexual Hypothesis
As I said, the finding of precocious sexual phantasies, which seemed the source of the neurosis, forced Freud to the view of a highly developed sexuality in infancy. As you know, the reality of this observation has been contested by many, who maintain that crude error, that narrow-minded delusion, misled Freud and his whole school, alike in Europe and in America, so that the Freudians saw things that never existed. They regarded them as people in the grip of an intellectual epidemic. I have to admit that I possess no way of defending myself against criticism of this kind. The only thing I can do is to refer to my own work, asking thoughtful persons if they discover there any clear indications of madness. Moreover, I must maintain that science has no right to start with the idea that certain facts do not exist. At the most one can say: “This seems very improbable—we want still more proofs and more research.” This is also our reply to the objection: “It is impossible to discover anything trustworthy by the psychoanalytic method, as this method is practically absurd.” No one believed in Galileo’s telescope, and Columbus discovered America on a false hypothesis. The psychoanalytic method may be full of errors, but this should not prevent its use. Many chronological and medical observations have been made with inadequate instruments. We must regard the objections to the method as pretexts until our opponents come to grip with the facts. It is there a decision must be reached—not by wordy warfare.
Our opponents also call hysteria a psychogenic disease. We believe that we have discovered the etiological determinants of this disease and we present, without fear, the results of our investigation to open criticism. Whoever cannot accept our results should publish his own analyses of cases. So far as I know, that has never been done, at least not in European literature. Under these circumstances, critics have no right to deny our conclusions a priori. Our opponents have likewise cases of hysteria, and those cases are surely as psychogenic as our own. There is nothing to prevent their pointing out the psychological determinants. The method is not the real question. Our opponents content themselves with disputing and reviling our researches, but they do not point out any better way.
Many other critics are more careful and more just, and do admit that we have made many valuable observations, and that the associations of ideas given by the psychoanalytic method will very probably stand, but they maintain that our point of view is wrong. The alleged sexual phantasies of childhood, with which we are here chiefly concerned, must not be taken, they say, as real sexual functions, being obviously something quite different, since at the approach of puberty the characteristic peculiarities of sexuality are acquired.
This objection, being calmly and reasonably made, deserves to be taken seriously. Such objections must also have occurred to every one who has taken up analytic work, and there is reason enough for deep reflection.
The Conception of Sexuality
The first difficulty arises with the conception of sexuality. If we take sexuality as meaning the fully-developed function, we must confine this phenomenon to maturity, and then, of course, we have no right to speak of sexuality in childhood. If we so limit our conception, then we are confronted again with new and much greater difficulties. The question arises, how then must we denominate all those correlated biological phenomena pertaining to the sexual functions sensu strictiori, as, for instance, pregnancy, childbirth, natural selection, protection of the offspring, etc. It seems to me that all this belongs to the conception of sexuality as well, although a very distinguished colleague did once say, “Childbirth is not a sexual act.” But if these things do pertain to this concept of sexuality, then there must also belong innumerable psychological phenomena. For we know that an incredible number of the pure psychological functions are connected with this sphere. I shall only mention the extraordinary importance of phantasy in the preparation for the sexual function. Thus we arrive rather at a biological conception of sexuality, which includes both a series of psychological phenomena as well as a series of physiological functions. If we might be allowed to make use of an old but practical classification, we might identify sexuality with the so-called instinct of the preservation of the species, as opposed in some way to the instinct of self-preservation.
Looking at sexuality from this point of view, we shall not be astonished to find that the root of the instinct of race-preservation, so extraordinarily important in nature, goes much deeper than the limited conception of sexuality would ever allow. Only the more or less grown-up cat actually catches mice, but the kitten plays at least as if it were catching mice. The young dog’s playful indications of attempts at cohabitation begin long before puberty. We have a right to suppose that mankind is no exception to this rule, although we do not notice similar things on the surface in our well brought-up children. Investigation of the children of the lower classes proves that they are no exceptions to the biological rule. It is of course infinitely more probable that this most important instinct, that of the preservation of the race, is already nascent in the earliest childhood, than that it falls at one swoop from heaven, full-fledged, at the age of puberty. The sexual organs also develop long before the slightest sign of their future function can be noticed. Where the psychoanalytic school speaks of sexuality, this wider conception of its function must be linked to it, and we do not mean simply that physical sensation and function generally designated by the term sexual. It might be said that, in order to avoid any misunderstanding on this point, the term sexuality should not be given to these preparatory phenomena in childhood. This demand is surely not justified, since the anatomical nomenclature is taken from the fully-developed system, and special names are not generally given to more or less rudimentary formations.
After all, the objections to the terminology do not spring so much from objective arguments, as from those tendencies which lie at the base of moral indignation. But then no objection can be made to the sex-terminology of Freud, as he rightly gives to the whole sexual development the general name of sexuality. But certain conclusions have been drawn which, so far as I can see, cannot be maintained.