Quotable Quote
(‘It’s a pity I can’t kiss myself’, he seems to be saying.)
Essay II Infantile Sexuality, SE VII p182 – quoted below
Index
Availability
Publication
Texts published at www.Freud2Lacan.com
Headings for Essay II
CITATIONS
Cited by Sigmund Freud
– the shoe or foot fetish (for fuller notes see Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood : 1910c : Sigmund Freud, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19100101))
Essay I 1905 SE VII p155
Alexander Sandor Lorand
Fetishism 1927 SE XXI p152
James Strachey SE XXI p150
Essay I 1905 SE VII p155
Essay II 1905 SE VII p195
Cited by Jacques Lacan
-(‘It’s a pity I can’t kiss myself’, he seems to be saying.)
13th May 1964 Seminar XI
Essay II 1905 SE VII p182
-polymorphous perverse
18th November 1959 Seminar VII
13th May 1964 Seminar XI
Essay II 1905 SE VII p191 Polymorphously Perverse Disposition
-‘quälen’ and ‘gequält werden’, to torment and to be tormented
13th May 1964 Seminar XI
Essay II SE VII p192
-Translation of ‘but’ (French), ‘ziel’ (German) as goal not aim
13th May 1964 Seminar XI
Essay II SE VII P198
Essay II SE VII P200
Available
SE VII p173-230.
Published bilingual at www.Freud2Lacan.com /homepage (THREE ESSAYS ON SEXUALITY (Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie))
Published
First published (a) GERMAN EDITIONS:
1905 Leipzig and Vienna: Deuticke. Pp. ii + 83.
Then
1942 G.W., 5, 29-145. (Unchanged.)
First translated by A. A. Brill, 1910
James Strachey
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1949 London: Imago Publishing Co. Pp. 133. (Ir. James Strachey.)
Then republished in 1953 in the Standard Edition
…
Texts published at www.Freud2Lacan.com
…
THE STANDARD EDITION OF THE COMPLETE PSYCHOLOGICAL WORKS OF
SIGMUND FREUD
Translated from the German under the General Editorship of
JAMES STRACHEY
In Collaboration with
ANNA FREUD
Assisted by
ALIX STRACHEY and ALAN TYSON
VOLUME VII (SE VII)
(1901-1905)
Three Essays on Sexuality
LONDON, THE HOGARTH PRESS AND THE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS (1953)
…
Sigmund Freud
Studienausgabe Band V (GW V)
Sexualleben
Fischer Wissenschaft, 1972
…
Headings for Essay II
II INFANTILE SEXUALITY page 173
NEGLECT OF THE INFANTILE FACTOR
INFANTILE AMNESIA page 174
[1] The Period of Sexual Latency in Childhood and its Interruptions page 176
SEXUAL INHIBITIONS page 177
REACTION-FORMATION AND SUBLIMATION page 178
INTERRUPTIONS OF THE LATENCY PERIOD page 179
[2] The Manifestations of Infantile Sexuality page 179
AUTO-EROTISM page 181
[3] The Sexual Aim of Infantile Sexuality page 183
CHARACTERISTICS OF EROTOGENIC ZONES page 183
THE INFANTILE SEXUAL AIM page 184
[4] Masturbatory Sexual Manifestations page 185
ACTIVITY OF THE ANAL ZONE page 185
ACTIVITY OF THE GENITAL ZONES page 187
SECOND PHASE OF INFANTILE MASTRUBATION page 189
RETURN OF EARLY INFANTILE MASTURBATION page 190
POLYMORPHOUSLY PERVERSE DISPOSITION page 191
COMPNENT INSTINCTS (Drives) page 191
[5] The Sexual Researches of childhood page 194
THE INSTINCT (Drive) FOR KNOWLEDGE page 194
THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX page 194
CASTRATION COMPLEX AND PENIS ENVY page 195
THEORIES OF BIRTH page 196
SADISTIC VIEW OF SEXUAL INTERCOURSE page 196
TYPICAL FAILURE OF INFANTILE SEXUAL RESEARCHES page 196
[6] The Phases of development of the Sexual Organization page 197
PREGENITAL ORGANIZATIONS page 197
AMBIVALENCE page 199
DIPHASIC CHOICE OF OBJECT page 200
[7] The Sources of Infantile Sexuality page 200
MECHANICAL EXCITATIONS page 201
MUSCULAR ACTIVITY page 202
AFFECTIVE PROCESSES page 203
INTELLECTUAL WORK page 204
VARIETIES OF SEXUAL CONSTITUTION page 205
PATHWAYS OF MUTUAL INFLUENCE page 205
A selection of Sigmund Freud’s references
This has not been attempted as yet. September 2026
Citations
There are many more citations at https://web.archive.org/web/20220718142618/https://lacanianworks.net/2021/08/references-to-sigmund-freud-within-lacanianworks/ so these are a work in progress….
Cited by Sigmund Freud
– the shoe or foot fetish
(for fuller notes see Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood : 1910c : Sigmund Freud, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19100101))
SE VII p195
SE VII p195 is quoted in Freud’s Footnote 2 (1910), Essay I (see Essay I The Sexual Aberration : 1905 : Sigmund Freud. this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19050101), SE VII p155,
Another factor that helps towards explaining the fetishistic preference for the foot is to be found among the sexual theories of children (see SE VII p195)
*
Background to this citation
– Fetishism in Statu Nascendi : July 1929 (Oxford) : Alexander Sandor Lorand, see this site /5 Authors A-Z (Lorand) or https://web.archive.org/web/20210917045718/http://www.lacanianworks.net/?p=12766
-… based on Freud’s presentation of fetishism, and adds evidence on fetishism in its original, childhood stage. Freud’s paper[i] presented fetishism as a substitute for the mother’s phallus, which the little boy once believed in and does not want to renounce as a protection against his castration anxiety. Fetishism is the final consequence of the retention of this fantasy even after the individual has been convinced of its falsehood, but in childhood there are other consequences of the ‘female penis’ phantasy. In connection with the case of little Harry, I was particularly interested in the footnote to Freud’s paper [ii], in which he refers back to his 1910 paper, ‘A Childhood Memory of Leonardo da Vinci’[iii]. Here he had stated that in foot or shoe fetishism, the foot or shoe is a substitute symbol for the female penis, the female being always the mother.
[i]Fetishism : 1927 : Sigmund Freud, SE XXI, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19270101 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts
[iii]Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood : 1910c : Sigmund Freud, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19100101)
____________________________
– Footnote [i]
From Fetishism : 1927 : Sigmund Freud, see this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19270101 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts), SE XXI (1927-1931), Penguin Freud Library vol 7 p345, Published bilingual at www.Freud2Lacan.com :
SEXXI p152, When now I announce that the fetish is a substitute for the penis, I shall certainly create disappointment; so I hasten to add that it is not a substitute for any chance penis, but for a particular and quite special penis that had been extremely important in early child- hood but had later been lost. That is to say, it should normally have been given up, but the fetish is precisely designed to preserve it from extinction. To put it more plainly: the fetish is a substitute for the woman’s (the mother’s) penis that the little boy once believed in and-for reasons familiar to us-does not want to give up. [l]
What happened, therefore, was that the boy refused to take cognizance of the fact of his having perceived that a woman does not possess a penis. No, that could not be true: for if a woman had been castrated, then his own possession of a penis was in danger; and against that there rose in rebellion the portion of his narcissism which Nature has, as a precaution, attached to that particular organ. In later life a grown man may perhaps experience a similar panic when the cry goes up that Throne and Altar are in danger, and similar illogical consequences will ensue.
Freud’s Footnote [1] : This interpretation was made as early as 1910, in my study on Leonardo da Vinci, without any reasons being given for it. [SE XI p96. Cf. Editor’s Note, p. 150.]
*
The Editor’s note to Fetishism : 1953 : James Strachey : SE XXI p150 :
… which he enlarged upon in a footnote added to the Three Essays in its second edition of l910 (ibid., SE VII p155[a]). But soon afterwards a new and more important connection must have occurred to him, for this same added footnote contained the first assertion that the fetish stands for the missing penis of the woman, which had figured prominently among the infantile sexual theories to which he had recently devoted a paper (1908c), ibid., SE IX p215- 18. This new explanation of the fetish was also mentioned (as Freud remarks on p. 153n. below) in his study on Leonardo (1910c), ibid., SE XI p96, published very soon after the Three Essays footnote.
The special question of the origin of foot-fetishism (referred to in the present paper, p. 155 below) attracted Freud’s attention a few years later. On March 11, 1914, he read another paper to the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society, on ‘A Case of Foot-Fetishism’. This too remains unpublished, ….
Footnote [a]
From Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality : 1905 : Sigmund Freud : p67-68 of Vol 7, pfl : SE VII p123-245 : see Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality : 1905 d : Sigmund Freud, this site /3 Sigmund Freud (19050101 or Index of Sigmund Freud’s texts)
Essay I The Sexual Aberrations 1905, see this site /3. Sigmund Freud (19050101)
(A) Anatomical Extensions, Unsuitable substitutes for the sexual object – fetishism :
SE VII p155 : GW p65, translated by James Strachey :
In other cases the replacement of the object by a fetish is determined by a symbolic connection of thought, of which the person concerned is usually not conscious. It is not always possible to trace the course of these connections with certainty (The foot, for instance, is an age-old sexual symbol which occurs even in mythology; [1] no doubt the part played by fur as a fetish owes its origin to an association with the hair of the mons (Freud, complete works 1192) Veneris.) None the less even symbolism such as this is not always unrelated to sexual experiences in childhood. [2] [1] [Freud’s Footnote added 1910:] The shoe or slipper is a corresponding symbol of the female genitals.
[2] [Freud’s Footnote added 1910:] Psycho-analysis has cleared up one of the remaining gaps in our understanding of fetishism. It has shown the importance, as regards the choice of a fetish, of a coprophilic pleasure in smelling which has disappeared owing to repression. Both the feet and the hair are objects with a strong smell which have been exalted into fetishes after the olfactory sensation has become unpleasurable and been abandoned. Accordingly, in the perversion that corresponds to foot fetishism, it is only dirty and evil-smelling feet that become sexual objects. Another factor that helps towards explaining the fetishistic preference for the foot is to be found among the sexual theories of children (see below [b] p. 1514, p113 of pfl Vol 7 : SE VII p195 : Essay II Infantile Sexuality, 1905, Section 5 The sexual researches of childhood.)) : the foot represents a woman’s penis, the absence of which is deeply felt. [Added 1915:] In a number of cases of foot-fetishism it has been possible to show that the scopophilic instinct, seeking to reach its object (originally the genitals) from underneath, was brought to a halt in its pathway by prohibition and repression. For that reason it became attached to a fetish in the form of a foot or shoe, the female genitals (in accordance with the expectations of childhood/children) being imagined as male ones
Footnote [b]
Essay II Infantile Sexuality, 1905, Section 5 The sexual researches of childhood. : p. 1514, SE VII p195, p113 of pfl Vol 7
SE VII p195, On the contrary, the existence of two sexes does not to begin with arouse any difficulties or doubts in children. It is self-evident to a male child that a genital like his own is to be attributed to everyone he knows, and he cannot make its absence tally with his picture of these other people.
Castration Complex and Penis Envy
This conviction is energetically maintained by boys, is obstinately defended against the contradictions which defended against the contradictions which soon result from observation, and is only abandoned after severe internal struggles (the castration complex). The substitutes for this penis which they feel is missing in women play a great part in determining the form taken by many perversions. [2] [Footnote 2, Sigmund Freud, added in1920:] We are justified in speaking of a castration complex in women as well. Both male and female children form a theory that women no less than men originally had a penis, but that they have lost it by castration. The conviction which is finally reached by males that women have no penis often leads them to an enduringly low opinion of the other sex.
The assumption that all human beings have the same (male) form of genital is the first of the many remarkable and momentous sexual theories of children. It is of little use to a child that the science of biology justifies his prejudice and has been obliged to recognise the female clitoris as a true substitute for the penis.
***
Cited by Jacques Lacan
***
SE VII p182 (‘It’s a pity I can’t kiss myself’, he seems to be saying.)
Session of Seminar XI The partial drive & its circuit : 13th May 1964 : Jacques Lacan, see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19640513)
P179 of Alan Sheridan’s translation, If the drive may be satisfied without attaining what, from the point of view of a biological totalization of function, would be the satisfaction of its end of reproduction, it is because it is a partial drive, and its aim is simply this return into circuit.
This theory is present in Freud. He tells us somewhere that the ideal model for auto-eroticism would be a single mouth kissing itself—a brilliant, even dazzling metaphor, in this respect so typical of everything he writes, and which requires only to be completed by a question. In the drive, is not this mouth what might be called a mouth in the form of an arrow?—a mouth sewn up, in which, in analysis, we see indicating as clearly as possible, in certain silences, the pure agency of the oral drive, closing upon its own satisfaction.
Essay II Infantile Sexuality SE VII p182
James Strachey’s translation, To begin with, sexual activity attaches itself to functions serving the purpose of self-preservation and does not become independent of them until later.! No one who has seen a baby sinking back satiated from the breast and falling asleep with flushed cheeks and a blissful smile can escape the reflection that this picture persists as a prototype of the expression of sexual satisfaction in later life. The need for repeating the sexual satisfaction now becomes detached from the need for taking nourishment—a separation which becomes inevitable when the teeth appear and food is no longer taken in only by sucking, but is also chewed up. The child does not make use of an extraneous body for his sucking, but prefers a part of his own skin because it is more convenient, because it makes him independent of the external world, which he is not yet able to control, and because in that way he provides himself, as it were, with a second erotogenic zone, though one of an inferior kind. The inferiority of this second region is among the reasons why at a later date he seeks the corresponding part-the lips—of another person. (‘It’s a pity I can’t kiss myself’, he seems to be saying.)
It is not every child who sucks in this way. It may be assumed that those children do so in whom there is a constitutional intensification of the erotogenic significance of the labial region. If that significance persists, these same children when they are grown up will become epicures in kissing, will be inclined to perverse kissing, or, if males, will have a powerful motive for drinking and smoking. If, however, repression ensues, they will feel disgust at food and will produce hysterical vomiting.
Freud, Die Sexualbetätigung lehnt sich zunächst an eine der zur Lebenserhaltung dienenden Funktionen an und macht sich erst später von ihr selbständig. Wer ein Kind gesättigt von der Brust zurücksinken sieht, mit geröteten Wangen und seligem Lächeln in Schlaf verfallen, der wird sich sagen müssen, daß dieses Bild auch für den: Ausdrudk.der sexuellen Befriedigung im späteren Leben maßgebend bleibt. Nun wird das Bedürfnis nach Wiederholung der sexuellen Befriedigung von dem Bedürfnis nach Nahrungsaufnahme getrennt, eine Trennung, die unvermeidlich ist, wenn die Zähne erscheinen und die Nahrung nicht mehr ausschließlich eingesogen, sondern gekaut wird. Eines fremden Objektes bedient sich das Kind zum Saugen nicht, sondern lieber einer eigenen Hautstelle, weil diese ihm bequemer ist, weil es sich sa von der Außenwelt unabhängig macht, die es zu beherrschen noch nicht vermag, und weil es sich solcherart gleichsam eine zweite, wenngleich minderwertige erogene Zone schafft. Die Minderwertigkeit dieser zweiten Stelle wird es später mit dazu veranlassen, die gleichartigen Teile, die Lippen, einer anderen Person zu suchen. (*Schade, daß ich mich nicht küssen kann«, möchte man ihm unterlegen.)
Nicht alle Kinder lutschen. Es ist anzunehmen, daß jene Kinder dazu gelangen, bei denen. die erogene. Bedeutung der Lippenzone konstitutionell verstärkt ist. Bleibt diese erhalten, so werden diese Kinder als Erwachsene Kußfeinschmecker werden, zu perversen Küssen neigen oder als Männer ein kräftiges Motiv zum Trinken und Rauchen mitbringen. Kommt aber die Verdrängung hinzu, so werden sie Ekel vor dem Essen empfinden und hysterisches Erbrechen produzieren.
Internet translation, Sexual activity is initially linked to one of the functions necessary for sustaining life and only later becomes independent of it. Anyone who sees a child, sated, slump back from the breast, falling asleep with rosy cheeks and a blissful smile, will have to admit that this image remains a defining one for the expression of sexual satisfaction in later life. Now the need for repeated sexual gratification becomes separated from the need for food intake, a separation that is inevitable once teeth appear and food is no longer simply sucked in but is chewed. The child does not use a foreign object for sucking, but prefers a part of its own skin, because this is more comfortable, because it thereby detaches itself from the outside world, which it is not yet able to control, and because in this way it creates, as it were, a second, albeit inferior, erogenous zone. The inferiority of this second position will later lead him, amongst other things, to seek out similar parts – the lips – on another person. (‘It’s a shame I can’t kiss myself,’ one might want to suggest to him.)
Not all children suck their thumbs. It is reasonable to assume that this behaviour is observed in those children in whom the erogenous significance of the lip area is constitutionally heightened. If this is preserved, these children will, as adults, become connoisseurs of kissing, have a tendency towards perverse kisses, or – as men – have a strong incentive to drink and smoke. However, if repression is also involved, they will feel revulsion towards food and experience hysterical vomiting.
***
SE VII p191
***
18th November 1959 Seminar VII, polymorphous perverse
see Session of Seminar VII The attraction of transgression : 18th November 1959 : Jacques Lacan, this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19591118)
4th paragraph, p4-5 of Denis Porter’s translation,
Here we are touching on a perspective that has been little explored in analysis.
It seems that from the moment of those first soundings, from the sudden flash of light that the Freudian experience cast on the paradoxical origins of desire, on the polymorphously perverse character of its infantile forms, a general tendency has led psychoanalysts to reduce the paradoxical origins in order to show their convergence in a harmonious conclusion. This movement has on the whole characterized the progress of analytical thought to the point where it is worth asking if this theoretical progress was not leading in the end to an even more all-embracing moralism than any that has previously existed. Psychoanalysis would seem to have as its sole goal the calming of guilt – although we know well through our practical experience the difficulties and obstacles, indeed the reactions, that such an approach entails. This approach involves the taming of perverse jouissance, which is assumed to emerge from the demonstration of its universality, on the one hand, and its function, on the other.
*
Bruno de Florence during the Reading Seminar VII Group, suggested this referred to Sigmund Freud’s ‘Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905)[p33 of pfl, Penguin Freud Library: Volume 7, On Sexuality or p1173] I think this is the quote: From p1219
or p109 of pfl: Volume 7, On Sexuality: Essay II, Infantile Sexuality: Section 4, Masturbatory Sexual Manifestations: ,
SE VII p191 Polymorphously Perverse Disposition
It is an instructive fact that under the influence of seduction children can become polymorphously perverse, and can be led into all possible kinds of sexual irregularities. This shows that an aptitude for them is innately present in their disposition. There is consequently little resistance towards carrying them out, since the mental dams against sexual excesses – shame, disgust and morality – have either not yet been constructed at all or are only in course of construction, according to the age of the child. In this respect children behave in the same kind of way as an average uncultivated woman in whom the same polymorphously perverse disposition persists. Under ordinary conditions she may remain normal sexually, but if she is led on by a clever seducer she will find every sort of perversion to her taste, and will retain them as part of her own sexual activities. Prostitutes exploit the same polymorphous, that is, infantile, disposition for the purposes of their profession; and, considering the immense number of women who are prostitutes or who must be supposed to have an aptitude for prostitution without becoming engaged in it, it becomes impossible not to recognise that this same disposition to perversions of every kind is a general and fundamental human characteristic.
Related texts
-Seminar VII Reading Group notes for p1 – 7 of 18th November 1959 (Wo es War, … & perverse jouissance) : 15th September 2012 : Julia Evans. See this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19591118) or https://web.archive.org/web/20220718142559/https://lacanianworks.net/2012/09/notes-from-p1-7-of-seminar-vii-from-the-21-09-12-reading-group-meeting/
-Notes on Seminar VII 18th November 1959, p7-15 (Wo es war …, & polymorphous perversion, & Jouissance/Happiness definition) : 6th October 2012 : Julia Evans. See this site /5 Other Authors A-Z (Evans Julia) or https://web.archive.org/web/20220718142654/https://lacanianworks.net/2012/10/notes-on-seminar-vii-18th-november-1959-from-page-7-to-15/
***
SE VII p192
***
– Session of Seminar XI The partial drive & its circuit : 13th May 1964 : Jacques Lacan, see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19640513)
P176 of Alan Sheridan’s translation, quote, In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Freud was able to posit sexuality as essentially polymorphous, aberrant.
SE VII p191, Essay II. Infantile Sexuality
Polymorphously Perverse Disposition (see above for quote from Freud)
***
SE VII p192 quälen and gequält werden, to torment and to be tormented
***
In Session of Seminar XI The partial drive & its circuit : 13th May 1964 : Jacques Lacan, see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19640513), (See this post for all the translation references in Freud)
NOTE Translations for the German terms Lacan uses.
p177 of Alan Sheridan’s translation, Freud now introduces us to the drive by one of the most traditional ways, using at moment the of the language, and not hesitating to base himself on something that belongs only to certain linguistic systems. the three voices, active, passive and But this is merely an envelope. We must see that this signifying reversion is something other, something other than what it dresses in. What is fundamental at the level of each drive is the movement outwards and back in which it is structured.
It is remarkable that Freud can designate these two poles simply by using something that is the verb. Beschauen und beschaut werden, to see and to be seen, quälen and gequält werden, to torment and to be tormented. This is because, from the outset, Freud takes it as understood that no part of this distance covered can be separated from its outwards-and-back movement, from its fundamental reversion, from the circular character of the path of the drive.
SE VII p192
quälen and gequält werden, to torment and to be tormented
Essay II Infantile Sexuality SE VII p192
James Strachey’s translation, When repression of these inclinations sets in, the desire to see other people’s genitals (whether of their own or the opposite sex) persists as a tormenting compulsion, which in some cases of neurosis later affords the strongest motive force for the formation of symptoms.
The cruel component of the sexual drive [not instinct] develops in childhood even more independently of the sexual activities that are attached to erotogenic zones.
Freud, Nach eingetretener Verdrängung dieser Neigungen bleibt die Neugierde, fremde Genitalien (des eigenen oder des anderen Geschlechtes) zu sehen, als quälender Drang bestehen, der bei mancien neurotischen Fällen dann die stärkste Triebkraft für die Symptombildung abgibt.
In noch größerer Unabhängigkeit von der sonstigen, an erogene Zonen gebundenen Sexualbetätigung entwickelt sich beim Kinde die Grausamkeitskomponente des Sexualtriebes.
Internet translation, After these tendencies have been repressed, the curiosity to see foreign genitals (of one’s own or of the opposite sex) remains as a tormenting urge, which in manic neurotic cases then provides the strongest driving force for symptom formation.
The cruelty component of the sexual drive develops in children with even greater independence from other sexual drive linked to erogenous zones.
***
SE VII P198 Translation of ‘but’ (French), ziel (German) as goal not aim
***
– Session of Seminar XI The partial drive & its circuit : 13th May 1964 : Jacques Lacan, see this site /4 Jacques Lacan (19640513)
Notes on ‘Translations for the German terms Lacan uses’.
Some are not found in the German text of Three Essays…. There follows current day translations of these German words &,where possible, in use by Freud, and then some references to ‘aim’ or ‘but’ in ‘Three Essays’
P178 of Alan Sheridan’s translation, It is to this that I would now like to draw your attention. You see here, on the blackboard, a circuit formed by the curve of this rising and redescending arrow that crosses, Drang [urge] as it is in its origin, the surface constituted by what I defined last time as the rim, which is regarded in the theory as the source, the Quelle [What?], that is to say, the so-called erogenous zone in the drive. The tension is always loop-shaped and cannot be separated from its return to the erogenous zone.
Here we can clear up the mystery of the zielgelzemmt [target-oriented], of that form that the drive may assume, in attaining its satisfaction without attaining its aim—in so far as it would be defined by a biological function, by the realization of reproductive coupling. For the partial drive does not lie there. What is it?
Let us still suspend the answer, but let us concentrate on this term but, and on the two meanings it may present. In order to differentiate them, I have chosen to notate them here in a language in which they are particularly expressive, English. When you entrust someone with a mission, the aim is not what he brings back, but the itinerary he must take. The aim is the way taken. The French word but may be translated by another word in English, goal. In archery, the goal is not the but either, it is not the bird you shoot, it is having scored a hit and thereby attained your but.
If the drive may be satisfied without attaining what, from the point of view of a biological totalization of function, would be the satisfaction of its end of reproduction, it is because it is a partial drive, and its aim is simply this return into circuit.
Essay II Infantile Sexuality SE VII P198
James Strachey’s translation, We shall give the name of ‘pregenital’ to organizations of sexual life in which the genital zones have not yet taken over their predominant part. We have hitherto identified two such organisations, which almost seem as though they were harking back to early animal forms of life.
The first of these is the oral or, as it might be called, cannibalistic pregenital sexual organization. Here sexual activity has not yet been separated from the ingestion of food; nor are opposite currents within the activity differentiated. The object of both activities is the same; the sexual aim consists in the incorporation of the object-the prototype of a process which, in the form of identification, is later to play such an important psychological part. A relic of this constructed phase of organization, which is forced upon our notice by pathology, may be seen in thumb-sucking, in which the sexual activity, detached from the nutritive activity, has substituted for the extraneous object one situated in the subject’s own body.’
A second pregenital phase is that of the sadistic-anal organization. Here the opposition between two currents, which runs through all sexual life, is already developed: they cannot yet, however, be described as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’, but only as ‘active’ and ‘passive’. The activity is put into operation by the drive [NOT instinct] for mastery through the agency of the somatic musculature; the organ which, more than any other, represents the passive sexual aim is the erotogenic mucous membrane of the anus. Both of these currents have objects, which, however, are not identical. Alongside these, other component drives [NOT instincts] operate in an auto-erotic manner. In this phase, therefore, sexual polarity and an extraneous object are already observable. But organisation and subordination to the reproductive function are still absent.[1]
Freud, Organisationen des Sexuallebens, in denen die Genitalzonen noch nicht in ihre vorherrschende Rolle eingetreten sind, wollen wir prä-genitale heißen. Wir haben bisher zwei derselben kennengelernt, die wie Rückfälle auf frühtierische Zustände anmuten.
Eine erste solche prägenitale Sexualorganisation ist die orale oder, wenn wir wollen, kannibalische. Die Sexualtätigkeit ist hier von der Nahrungsaufnahme noch nicht gesondert, Gegensätze innerhalb derselben nicht differenziert. Das Objekt der einen Tätigkeit ist auch das der anderen, das Sexualziel besteht in der Einverleibung des Objektes, dem Vorbild dessen, was späterhin als Identifizierung eine so bedeutsame psychische Rolle spielen wird. Als Rest dieser fiktiven, uns durch die Pathologie aufgenötigten Organisationsphase kann das Lutschen angesehen werden, in dem die Sexualtätigkeit, von der Ernährungstätigkeit abgelöst, das fremde Objekt gegen eines am eigenen Körper aufgegeben hat.
Eine zweite prägenitale Phase ist die der sadistisch-analen Organisation. Hier ist die Gegensätzlichkeit, welche das Sexualleben durchzieht, bereits ausgebildet; sie kann aber noch nicht männlich und weiblich, sondern muß aktiv und passiv benannt werden. Die Aktivität wird durch den Bemächtigungstrieb von seiten der Körpermuskulatur hergestellt, als Organ mit passivem Sexualziel macht sich vor allem die erogene Darmschleimhaut geltend; für beide Strebungen sind Objekte vorhanden, die aber nicht zusammenfallen. Daneben betätigen sich andere Partialtriebe in autoerotischer Weise. In dieser Phase sind also die, sexuelle Polarität und das fremde Objekt bereits nachweisbar. Die Organisation und die Unterordnung unter die Fortpflanzungsfunktion stehen nochaus’:
Internet translation, We shall refer to forms of sexual organisation in which the genital regions have not yet assumed their predominant role as ‘pre-genital’. So far, we have encountered two such forms, which appear to be a regression to early animal states.
A prime example of such a pre-genital form of sexual organisation is the oral – or, if you will, cannibalistic – form. Here, sexual activity is not yet distinct from feeding, and no distinctions are made between the two. The object of one activity is also that of the other; the sexual goal consists in the incorporation of the object, the model of what will later play such a significant psychological role as identification. Sucking can be regarded as a remnant of this fictitious organisational phase, imposed upon us by pathology, in which sexual activity, having been separated from the act of feeding, has replaced the external object with one on one’s own body.
A second pregenital phase is that of sadistic-anal organisation. Here, the polarity that pervades sexual life is already established; however, it cannot yet be described in terms of male and female, but must be referred to as active and passive. The activity is generated by the drive for possession on the part of the body’s musculature; the erogenous intestinal mucosa, as an organ with a passive sexual goal, plays a particularly prominent role; there are objects for both drives, but they do not coincide. In addition, other partial drives manifest themselves in an autoerotic manner. In this phase, therefore, sexual polarity and the external object are already evident. The organisation and subordination to the reproductive function are still pending.
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Essay II Infantile Sexuality SE VII P200
James Strachey’s translation, DIPHASIC CHOICE OF OBJECT
It may be regarded as typical of the choice of an object that the process is diphasic, that is, that it occurs in two waves. The first of these begins between the ages of two and five, and is brought to a halt or to a retreat by the latency period; it is characterized by the infantile nature of the sexual aims. The second wave sets in with puberty and determines the final outcome of sexual life.
Although the diphasic nature of object-choice comes down in essentials to no more than the operation of the latency period, it is of the highest importance in regard to disturbances of that final outcome. The resultants of infantile object-choice are carried over into the later period. They either persist as such or are revived at the actual time of puberty. But as a consequence of the repression which has developed between the two phases they prove unutilizable. Their sexual aims have become mitigated and they now represent what may be described as the ‘affectionate current’ of sexual life. Only psycho-analytic investigation can show that behind this affection, admiration and respect there lie concealed the old sexual longings of the infantile component instincts which have now become unserviceable. The object-choice of the pubertal period is obliged to dispense with the objects of childhood and to start afresh as a ‘sensual current’. Should these two currents fail to converge, the result is often that one of the ideals of sexual life, the focusing of all desires upon a single object, will be unattainable.
German, Zweizeitige Objektwahl.
Man kann es als ein typisches Vorkommnis ansprechen, daß die Objektwahl zweizeitig, in zwei Schüben erfolgt. Der erste Schub nimmt in den Jahren zwischen zwei und fünf seinen Anfang und wird durch die Latenzzeit zum Stillstand oder zur Rückbildung gebracht; er ist durch die infantile Natur seiner Sexualziele ausgezeichnet. Der zweite setzt mit der Pubertät ein und bestimmt die definitive Gestaltung des Sexuallebens.
Die Tatsache der zweizeitigen Objektwahl, die sich im wesentlichen auf die Wirkung der Latenzzeit reduziert, wird aber höchst bedeutungsvoll für dieb Störung dieses Endzustandes. Die Ergebnisse der infantilen Objektwahl ragen in die spätere Zeit hinein; sie sind entweder als solche erhalten geblieben, oder sie erfahren zur Zeit der Pubertät selbst eine Auffrischung. Infolge der Verdrängungsentwicklung, welche zwischen beiden Phasen liegt, erweisen sie sich aber als unverwendbar. Ihre Sexualziele haben eine Milderung erfahren, und sie stellen nun das dar, was wir als die zärtliche Strömung des Sexuallebens bezeichnen können. Erst die psychoanalytische Untersuchung kann nachweisen, daß sich hinter dieser Zärtlichkeit, Verehrung und Hochachtung die alten, jetzt unbrauchbar gewordenen Sexualstrebungen der infantilen Partialtriebe verbergen. Die Objektwahl der Pubertätszeit muß auf die infantilen Objekte verzichten und als sinnliche Strömung von neuem beginnen. Das Nichtzusammentreffen der beiden Strömungen hat oft genug die Folge, daß eines der Ideale des Sexuallebens, die Vereinigung aller Begehrungen in einem Objekt, nicht erreicht werden kann.
Internet translation, Two-stage (Di-phasic) object selection.
It can be described as a typical occurrence that object selection takes place in two stages, in two phases. The first surge begins between the ages of two and five and is brought to a halt or reversed by the latency period; it is characterised by the infantile nature of its sexual goals. The second begins with puberty and determines the definitive shape of one’s sex life.
However, the fact that object selection takes place in two stages – which essentially boils down to the effect of the latency period – becomes highly significant in terms of the disruption of this final state. The results of infantile object choice extend into later life; they have either been preserved as such, or are themselves revived during puberty. However, due to the displacement that occurs between the two phases, they prove to be unusable. Their sexual goals have become more subdued, and they now represent what we might call the tender current of sexual life. Only psychoanalytic investigation can demonstrate that behind this tenderness, adoration and esteem lie the old, now obsolete sexual drives of the infantile partial drives. The choice of objects during puberty must dispense with infantile objects and begin anew as a sensual current. The failure of these two currents to converge often results in one of the ideals of sexual life – the unification of all desires in a single object – remaining unattainable.
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