CHAPTER XI

DEVELOPMENT OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT

The sex instinct, in the course of development from its infantile aspect to its adult manifestation, goes through well-marked phases which are little known outside the ranks of the psychotherapists, but which are of great importance to the educationalist and sociologist.

The sexuality of the child is simply a capacity for deriving gratification from certain feelings, and it is a diffused and vague sensation that he experiences; this capacity, however, as the child grows older, becomes gradually concentrated upon its physiological channels of activity, and as it becomes concentrated it increases in intensity, just as the placid waters of a broad and shallow river become deep and headlong in a ravine.

The interests of a very young child only gradually extend beyond his own bodily sensations, and he therefore leads an existence that is self-centred beyond any adult conception of the term. The organs of reproduction, being very highly nerved in preparation for their future functions, are found to be capable of keener sensation than the rest of the body, and therefore attract his attention. This is the AUTO-EROTIC STAGE.

The, to a child, striking manifestations connected with the exercise of the bodily functions also attract his interest. This is the COPROPHILIC STAGE.

Later, his curiosity concerning his own body being satisfied, he begins to be curious concerning the bodies of others. This is called the HOMOSEXUAL STAGE, the stage wherein he is interested in bodies of the same sex as his own, but it might more truly be called the stage of undifferentiated interest, for the child is only interested in those who are made in the same way as himself, because he is not aware that anyone is made differently.

This curiosity being outgrown, his interest is transferred to those who are different from himself, regardless as to whether they are closely related to him or not. Soon, however, he begins to differentiate between his immediate relations and those who are less closely connected. This is called by psychologists “the raising of the incest barriers,” but to the child it appears simply as a moving on of the focus of interest; he is no longer attracted by his mother and sisters, not because he feels it is wrong to have such feelings towards them, but because familiarity breeds contempt, and gives rise to the state of mind that is expressed in the phrase “insipid as sisters’ kisses.”

The child has now attained the adult attitude towards sex, and it only remains for the physical organs to make their corresponding development at the time of puberty for the circuit to be complete.