Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

In the third and final essay in this collection, Freud moves from childhood sexual development to puberty, traditionally viewed as the birth of sexuality in an individual. For Freud, the defining feature of puberty is that it moves the sexual impulse from an inward compulsion (the autoeroticism of childhood) toward outer compulsions: adolescents discover the opposite sex (if heterosexual) as an object of desire, and the idea of sexual union becomes the ultimate sexual aim. To this end, the sexual impulse becomes more closely centered upon the genital region in both males and females.

Freud discusses sexual tension and foreplay as forms of sexual pleasure that are preliminary to, or can even stand apart from, sexual intercourse. Freud warns that these forms of pleasure can become disruptive if they prevent full sexual union from taking place. He examines the nature of sexual excitement, discussing wet dreams, and writes about some of the interesting findings regarding castrated males—namely, that they can still remember or feel desire on a mental level even though they are no longer able to physically perform the act. Freud then talks about the libido, or sex drive, with a focus on how the sex drive becomes fixated on objects of desire.

The primary event that takes place in adolescence, from the perspective of psychosexual development, is the discovery of a sexual object appropriate to adult sexuality. Freud reiterates that childhood sexuality has thus far been primarily autoerotic in the infantile stage and, later, latent. With puberty, the young person discovers a new sexual object, a potential mate. Freud explains that this is actually a rediscovery: “There are thus good reasons why a child sucking at his mother’s breast has become the prototype of every relation of love. The finding of an object is in fact a refinding of it” (88). In other words, the new object (a girlfriend for a boy) is a replacement for the mother.

The incest barrier is what impels this shift of the sexual instinct away from the mother and toward another woman. The adolescent channels his or her sexual impulse toward objects of affection that are outside the family, thereby avoiding the social taboos of literal incest. This is where the Oedipus complex appears. Oedipus, of course, fell in love with his own mother and so became, for Freud, the mythological archetype for the challenge of redirecting the infantile sexual instinct away from the mother and toward a suitable, nonrelated person of the opposite sex. (The process, of course, occurs differently in men and women.)

Freud recognizes numerous obstacles and pitfalls that the libido must navigate before it can discover a suitable object. One potential pitfall is that an adolescent might settle on a homosexual object: “One of the tasks implicit in object-choice is that it should find its way to the opposite sex. This, as we know, is not accomplished without a certain amount of fumbling” (95). Freud is referring here to youthful homosexual experiences and play.

Freud concludes with a summary of what he has covered in his essays. He makes some remarks about the possible role of hereditary factors, repression, and other formative experiences in shaping adult sexuality throughout these transitional phases. He closes the essay by acknowledging that much remains unknown in the field, and that there is still much work to be done.