Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN YOUTHThe castration-complexis associated by psycho-analystswith the (Edipus complex, Freud regarding it as primarilya reaction to intimidation in the field of sex, and any restrainton infantile activity being ultimately ascribed tothe father. It sometimes happens that mothers and nurses,seeing the young child handling his penis, playfullythreaten to cut it off, and the child may possibly take thethreat seriously, especially if he observes that his sisterhas no penis; while the little girl may feel it a deprivationto lack an organ her brother possesses. It is not easy toassert that those feelings count for much in ordinary children,though Freud has gone so far as to claim, not onlythat the castration-complex may play a large part in theformation of neuroses but even in the formation of characterin the healthy child. That the castration complex isinfluential in some neurotic persons there can be nodoubt. Some persons of keen intelligence but neuroticdisposition, when able to review their early development,have found much significance in the influence upon themof foolish nurses in arousing a castration complex.The definite manifestation that has always most prominentlyattracted attention in connection with this aspectof early life is that which from old time has been termed"masturbation." Here it is convenient and possibly legitimateto speak of sexuality, althoughit is not strictly correctfor we are concerned with an act which may, andoften does, begin in a merely generalized and instinctivesearch for pleasurable sensations. But since it is an actthat is not confined to early life but may occur at any age,often in connection with the most developed ideas of sex,it would be hypercritical to attempt to draw a line of distinction.The ancient and common name of the act indicates themeans of theexcitation of the sexual zone in either sex by[973