THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE THEORY OF SEX

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE
INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION v
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ix
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION x
I. THE SEXUAL ABERRATIONS 1
II. THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY 36
III. THE TRANSFORMATION OF PUBERTY 68




INTRODUCTION TO TRANSLATION


The somewhat famous "Three Essays," which Dr. Brill is here bringing to
the attention of an English-reading public, occupy--brief as they
are--an important position among the achievements of their author, a
great investigator and pioneer in an important line. It is not claimed
that the facts here gathered are altogether new. The subject of the
sexual instinct and its aberrations has long been before the scientific
world and the names of many effective toilers in this vast field are
known to every student. When one passes beyond the strict domains of
science and considers what is reported of the sexual life in folkways
and art-lore and the history of primitive culture and in romance, the
sources of information are immense. Freud has made considerable
additions to this stock of knowledge, but he has done also something of
far greater consequence than this. He has worked out, with incredible
penetration, the part which this instinct plays in every phase of human
life and in the development of human character, and has been able to
establish on a firm footing the remarkable thesis that psychoneurotic
illnesses never occur with a perfectly normal sexual life. Other sorts
of emotions contribute to the result, but some aberration of the sexual
life is always present, as the cause of especially insistent emotions
and repressions.