It is a question of great importance, who, outside the school, is the person best fitted to undertake the sexual enlightenment; and I have repeatedly expressed my preference for the selection of the mother. But a mother who is unable to superintend the general education of her children, because she is compelled to spend most of her time away from home engaged in earning a livelihood, is not fitted to undertake the sexual enlightenment of her children; equally unfitted for this is the mother who leaves the education of her children in the hands of hired assistants, whilst herself occupied in attending public meetings, perhaps on behalf of the woman's movement, of the education of children, of the promotion of the sexual enlightenment, of rational dress, or the like, whilst her children at home are abandoned to moral corruption; and the same considerations apply to the mother whose nights are so much occupied in dancing and feasting, that the greater part of her days have to be spent in bed. Fortunately, however, there are many mothers who have very different conceptions of their duties to home and children. We find such mothers very often among the class of skilled artisans, but also among the cultured middle class,143although among these latter the desire to ape the manners of the so-called upperclasses is unfortunately far too general. I have seen cases in which the mother was still the confidant of her sons after they had entered the period of early manhood; and thus I have known a mother who in the case of a son of sixteen and even of eighteen years, was in a position to allay the grave anxiety awakened by the first occurrence of nocturnal emissions. But where the mother is not the confidant, some other person must take this place, as, for instance, a governess or a near relative. In the case of boys, the father is often the person best able to undertake the sexual enlightenment; or it may be a physician who enjoys the lad's confidence, and especially a family physician in the old and excellent sense of the term; in other cases it may be an elder brother, or an old family friend. Much good in such cases may be done by a friend, older, indeed, than the child who is to receive enlightenment; and yet not so much older as to make the child feel that a mutual understanding is hardly possible. In any case, next to the possession of a cultivated intelligence by the person who undertakes to effect the sexual enlightenment, the point of greatest importance is that this latter person should receive the full confidence of the child. Only when the child has such perfect trust, will it accept as true what it is told, and not suspect that, as has so often been the case, it is being put off with hypocritical phrases—for children recognise the hypocritical character of much of what they are told about sexual matters at an age far earlier than most elders are willing to believe. But another reason why the person who undertakes the enlightenment must be one who has the child's fullest confidence, is that in that case only can the child be expected to be absolutely straightforward. A very frequent mistake in dealing with children is to mistrust them needlessly. Let us suppose that a child has been discovered to masturbate, and that it is spoken to very earnestly in order to break it off the habit. I have known cases in which, although everything pointed to the fact that the child had abandoned its bad habit, yet, when it denied masturbating any longer, it was accused of lying. A child will naturally never give its confidence again to one who has once unjustly reproached it in this manner. On the other hand, a child isfar more likely to acknowledge its faults to one in whom it has perfect confidence. The child's confidence can be gained only by an individual confidant. In the presence of such a confidant, a child loses all sense of false shame, and this is an indispensable precondition for effecting a really valuable enlightenment. Where no individual is forthcoming who fulfils the requirements just specified, it is usually better to dispense with the enlightenment; and above all, in this matter, a mechanical routine must be avoided.
I will now briefly report a case in which a younger brother made a confidant of his elder brother, and will show how unwise it would be to lay down any general rule as to who is the person best fitted to undertake the sexual enlightenment of a child.
Case18.—One day a student of medicine came to me to ask my advice about his younger brother, a lad of thirteen. This latter, an intelligent boy, was attending the upper third class of the higher school. The boy confessed to his brother that he masturbated to excess, and that he found that scenes of cruelty especially aroused sexual stimulation. I asked the student to bring his young brother to see me, and the latter made on me a very favourable impression, especially in the matter of his frankness. He spoke to me quite openly, and attended most carefully to all my advice. I explained to him truthfully that his future was endangered, not only by the masturbation, but also by the perverse ideas; I told him that the danger of a combination of masturbation with perverse ideas was especially serious; and I assured him that he was still at an age when it remained possible for him to develop into a normal man. Some years later, I saw the young man once more. His subsequent development had been excellent, and he was almost free from perverse sexual sensibility.
In this case it would have been utterly wrong to insist on the lad's being enlightened by his father, his mother, his guardian, or his schoolmaster. The particular circumstances of the life often point out the right way. In this instance, it was his older brother in whom the lad had complete confidence. Now, if the elder brother had consulted the parents in this difficulty, such a course would not merely havedestroyed the younger's confidence in his elder brother's silence and discretion, but would have undermined the lad's confidence in general. Especially towards the parents, but also towards other relatives, a feeling of shame commonly exists—perhaps a mistaken feeling, but one with which we have to reckon. Often it is the parents' own fault, when they fail to gain the confidence of their children.
The question has also been mooted whether the sexual enlightenment of girls should not be entrusted to some companion of the same sex, more especially in cases in which the mother is for one reason or another unfitted for this task. This view is altogether erroneous. Sex has comparatively little to do with the question. For example, Heidenhain, whose practical experience in these matters is most extensive, has shown that the enlightenment of girls may be effected most admirably by a male physician endowed with the requisite qualities.144The thing that matters is not the sex of the person who effects the enlightenment, but the manner in which the enlightenment is effected.
To sum up.The sexual enlightenment of the child is advisable. The biological processes of sex in the vegetable and lower animal world may be taught in school as early as the second period of childhood. A warning against the dangers of venereal infection may be given at school to the senior pupils shortly before they leave, or at some similar suitable opportunity. But for effecting enlightenment regarding the processes of the individual sexual life, the school is unsuitable; this matter can best be undertaken by some private person, and above all by the mother. Choice of the time for this last phase of the sexual enlightenment must be guided, in part by the questions of the child, in part by the child's physical maturity, but more especially by the indications of psychosexual development.
Deliberately I avoid discussing the question as to the precise words and phrases with which the child's enlightenment is to be effected. Moreover, this question is subordinate to another, namely, to what extent instruction in natural science has prepared the way, in the child's mind, for such enlightenment. Both in Germany and in Austria, schematahave been drawn up for systematic preparation of this kind.145Speaking generally, we may draw the following conclusions. We have to distinguish according to the age of the child with which we have to deal. Where we have to caution a young man about to leave one of the higher schools, about the dangers of venereal infection, our difficulties are inconsiderable. But where we have to do with a girl of eight, who has asked her mother where her baby brother has come from; or with a boy of fourteen, whom we wish to protect because he has taken to sexual malpractices with his school-fellows, our difficulties are great. In such cases, tact, which cannot always be taught, and a desire for the best interests of the child, must show us the right path. It is obvious that each case will require individual consideration and treatment. An intelligent mother, who constitutes half the child's world and more, can describe these matters to her child, can even describe the sexual act, whose existence most persons prefer to conceal from children. It is by no means impossible to present even this act to the child's mind in a tactful way. It can be done in a poetical manner, and yet without departing from the strict truth. The same considerations apply to the act of birth. In a book dealing with this subject, a mother is asked by her child where children come from, and she answers as follows: "You see, little one, how fruit grows upon a tree; in just the same way, little children grow within the body of the mother." Beyond question, there is no justification for the assumption that sexual enlightenment can be effected only in a repulsive manner; and this view depends merely upon the fact that through a perversion of moral ideas certain persons regard as unclean things which are essentially clean. Everything depends upon the person who effects the enlightenment, upon finding a suitable opportunity, and upon choosing words and phrases adapted to the child's intelligence. Success will often follow upon replying in an illuminating way to some chancequestion of the child. In other cases, there may be indications for making the enlightenment part of a festival occasion—a method described in an old book, in which the father effects the enlightenment of his children to the accompaniment of public prayers.146The description shows a truly religious spirit, and a genuine love for children; it shows, further, that natural processes may be described truthfully to children without wounding in any way their sense of shame. There is no ground whatever for the belief that to a fairly advanced child a serious person cannot suitably describe all the natural processes of the human body, including sexual intercourse. The child to whom these things are described in a well-considered way, will receive no kind of injury to its moral sentiments; nor will such a description, once more, if it is couched in well-chosen words, provoke in the child any tendency to laughter. The secrecy with which the sexual life is surrounded, confused by many with the sentiment of shame, often gives rise to the belief that the child has the same feelings about the sexual life as the adult. But the unspoiled child has absolutely no feeling that the sexual life is in any way unclean; and for this very reason, no great difficulty arises in the sexual enlightenment of such an unspoiled child—an enlightenment which includes a description of the sexual act. I have myself on several occasions been asked by parents with a proper care for the future morality and health of their children, to undertake the necessary enlightenment of these latter. I am absolutely convinced that when the child has complete trust in the person who effects the enlightenment, the explanation ofeverythingis fully possible. In this book, I have more than once proved that a description of sexual intercourse, appealing as it does rather to the intellectual side of the child's mind, need have no bad influence at all upon its emotional life; and in the further course of this chapter I shall have to speak of the matter once again. I may add here that there are books written specially for the purposeof assisting parents in the instruction of their children in these matters.147
From what I have written it will have been obvious that I regard the sexual enlightenment of the child as very desirable; but it does not follow from this that I regard it as something thatmustbe undertaken. Not everything is practicable which may seem desirable. We must not forget that there are dangers associated with the sexual enlightenment. It will not be right simply to ignore a reason often alleged against the desirability of sexual enlightenment, namely, that in this way it is possible that the child's thoughts will be turned in the sexual direction. This is unquestionably possible, and the danger can only be avoided by great adroitness. But when we remember that such adroitness is not found everywhere, we shall have to admit, however much we may wish that the sexual enlightenment of children should invariably be effected, that it will often be necessary to dispense with it, because the person suitable to undertake the enlightenment of a particular child is not forthcoming.
If the right person is not to be found, the idea of the sexual enlightenment must be abandoned. However unsympathetic and even dangerous the manner in which, as a rule, children mutually enlighten one another about sexual matters, even more serious dangers may attach to the enlightenment of a child by an adult unsuited for this difficult task. Inept enlightenment may entail extremely serious consequences, and more especially it is likely to bring about the particular evil results that we are most eager to avoid, that is to say, it may direct the attention of the child to its own sexual inclinations. We have also to take into account the fact that there are persons who cannot discuss sexual topics without themselves becoming sexually excited; and we cannot afford to ignore the danger that among those who undertaketo effect the sexual enlightenment of children there may be persons who will gladly seize every opportunity of speaking to the children upon sexual matters, intoxicating themselves the while with their own sexual imaginings. The grave danger of allowing an unsuitable person to undertake the sexual enlightenment is obvious from the existence of those persons who teach that homosexual inclinations occurring in children indicate that they are permanently homosexual—a view which, as has been shown, is utterly erroneous. But let us suppose that one who holds such a doctrine is the person who has undertaken the sexual enlightenment of a child, and we can hardly doubt what the result will be, namely, to foster homosexuality. The greatest possible care must therefore be exercised in the selection of the person who is to undertake the sexual enlightenment.
Nor must we expect too much from the sexual enlightenment. Although to adults the way in which one schoolboy instructs another about matters of sex may appear to be extremely unpleasant, yet, as a matter of practical experience, this method has not had the disastrous results that some believe to attach to it. Unquestionably, the Germans and other civilised races have done much very important work, not only in the intellectual field, but also in that of ethics and in that of social life. Still we have learned that disadvantages are entailed by the rough-and-ready methods of sexual enlightenment hitherto commonly practised. Will these ill-effects disappear with the realisation of the modern efforts for a purposive and deliberate sexual enlightenment? Even though the modern ideas on the subject are to be preferred, it must not be supposed that their adoption will immediately result in the disappearance of all the unfavourable aspects of the sexual life. We shall not thereby transform children into little angels; and I doubt very much if the new methods of enlightenment will have much effect in diminishing the frequency of masturbation among children. I am led to this conviction by my experience that at the time when the process of sexual ripening begins, a child does not usually possess an adequate sense of the dangers of such malpractices. I am certainly afraid that nothing we can do will greatly lessen the prevalence of masturbation amongchildren. I would rather venture to hope for a diminution in the prevalence of venereal diseases, as a result of the newer methods of sexual enlightenment; but even here there will be many cases in which passion will gain the victory over all possible prudential considerations. The same remarks apply also to pregnancy, and to the other consequences of the sexual life.
I am, moreover, scepticalbecause the very persons to whom to-day we have to look to effect the sexual enlightenment of children, are themselves to a great extent also in need of enlightenment; and in respect of many of the questions about which the child has to be enlightened, no general harmony of scientific opinion can as yet be said to obtain. Take, for example, the question whether masturbation during the period of sexual development is or is not a physiological act; or the question whether sexual abstinence can do any harm to the health. It is true that such differences in scientific opinion are not so extensive as gravely to affect the question of the sexual enlightenment of the child. In the matter of sexual abstinence, for example, the majority of physicians are to-day agreed upon the view that such abstinence in general does no harm; and that those, if any, whose health may be unfavourably influenced by sexual abstinence, constitute at most a very small minority. In my own view, the persons who may suffer from this cause are those affected with hyperæsthesia of the sexual impulse, and in whom the impulse is dominant to such a degree that it interferes with all their alternative activities. But it is certainly only an extremely small percentage of persons about whom, among medical men able to speak authoritatively, that there is any difference of opinion.
A more serious matter is the extent to which erroneous views about sexual questions still prevail among the populace. A father who starts with the false assumption that his son must inevitably have intercourse with so many prostitutes and must seduce so many girls—in a word, a father who regards sexual abstinence as unmanly, or as necessarily dangerous to health (and fathers who hold such opinions are no rarity)—such a father must himself be sexually enlightened before we give him the right to enlighten his son. Those also themselvesgreatly need enlightenment who, for instance, advise a young bridegroom who has always lived a chaste life to visit a prostitute before marriage, in order to prove his sexual potency. As if potency in intercourse with an experienced prostitute, skilled in all the tricks of her trade, were a proof that the bridegroom will prove sexually potent in intercourse with a chaste woman; or as if, on the other hand, the fact that a man proves impotent when he attempts intercourse with a prostitute whose embraces are repulsive to him, were in any sense whatever a proof that the same man will fail to effect intercourse with the woman he loves. Thus, many full-grown men are in need of enlightenment about this matter of sexual potency, and especially need information regarding the extent of the individual variations in this matter. We hear of young men who believe themselves to be ill, simply because they are not sexually potent to a degree that enables them to effect complete sexual intercourse several times in brief succession. Their error often depends upon the fact that they have been told by other young men that normal sexual potency enables a man to have repeated intercourse at intervals of a few minutes. As regards the informants, it may be that, having had such exceptional potency on one or two occasions, they really believe it to be a normal requisite of full manhood; more often, however, the mistake originates from a young man taking at its face value the boasting of one of his comrades who has lied freely about his own "virile potency." I have known similar things happen in the case of women, among whom boasting about the intensity of the voluptuous sensations experienced during sexual intercourse is by no means uncommon. There are a great many women in whom voluptuous sensations during intercourse are entirely lacking, and in whom even sexual desire may be in abeyance. Sometimes this is a matter of no great importance. But wives whose women-friends have boasted to such an extent of the intensity of the voluptuous sensations experienced in sexual intercourse, are apt to overestimate the importance of the lack of such voluptuous pleasure in their own experience of the sexual act; and it is therefore desirable that women should know the true facts of the case. We have further to remember that many of the disillusionmentsof marriage depend upon the fact that before marriage girls have allowed their imaginations to run riot concerning the intensity of enjoyment they will experience in sexual intercourse; all the greater is their disillusionment if they are among those who fail, after all, to experience sexual pleasure to the full.
In conclusion, I may refer to another instance of the way in which the importance of the sexual enlightenment is apt to be over-estimated, namely, as regards the effect of the enlightenment in furnishing protection against the venereal diseases. It is by this very error attaching to so much of what is said about the sexual enlightenment, that attention is readily diverted from a far more important field. Namely, in moral questions, a child is far more easily influenced by good example, than by any amount of good instruction by word of mouth. Example arouses a stimulus towards imitative action, whilst, in countless cases, the listener has no inclination whatever to do what he is merely told. This applies even to very little children, who adopt for themselves the practices they observe in their elders to a far greater extent than is commonly believed—although, as Bleuler148has shown, in this imitativeness the conceptual life may play a comparatively small part. If, therefore, from the first the principal stress is laid on giving a good example, the subsequent sexual enlightenment would be rendered far easier, and its success to a large extent assured. In a pure household, it is not so necessary that a child should be fully enlightened; or rather, the child's enlightenment will be extremely easy. Conversely in the case of an impure household. Unless the greatest care is taken that children shall never be exposed to the contagion of bad example, how readily may it happen, that the child, after it has received the sexual enlightenment, and has been cautioned against any kind of obscene talk, is allowed to watch all sorts of improper acts and to listen to obscenities! Such mischances may occur, not only, as self-satisfied parents are apt to imagine, through the misconduct of servants or strangers, but often the members of the child's own family may be the persons at fault. Adults believe that a child hears nothing, when in reality it is payingcareful attention to that which is not intended for childish ears, and to that which gives the lie to what the child has just been told in the form of the sexual enlightenment. And this may happen without the grown-up persons having made any indiscreet connected speeches in the child's presence. Various slight indications, gestures, a stolen laugh, &c., may be interpreted by the child after its own fashion, which is often one directly conflicting with the sense of the lesson previously given. How easily may it happen that a boy is taught that the seduction of a girl is a wicked thing, or a girl is told that she must never be so ignorant or so stupid as to become the victim of a seducer, and yet a few minutes later the child may overhear the instructor relating the heroic deeds of a cousin, who has seduced so and so many girls of the lower orders!
Thus the importance of the sexual enlightenment must on no account be over-estimated. Rather should the words of the old proverb always be kept in mind: "As the old birds sing, so will the young birds chirp." Those who guide their own conduct in accordance with this principle, will find the sexual enlightenment of their children an easy matter; but in other houses, the theoretical enlightenment may be effected as carefully as you please, and yet it will do but little good. It is evident that the earlier movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment, to which I referred on page 8, failed because the expectations of its advocates were pitched too high, and because the emotional life of the child was ignored—an error rightly pointed out by Thalhofer. I have no doubt that in a few decades the efforts of our own day on behalf of the sexual enlightenment, in so far as they lay the principal stress upon the theoretical enlightenment, and expect its enforcement to initiate the golden age, will arouse similar feelings of amusement to those with which we ourselves now contemplate the failures of the past.
The above is all I have to say about the psychical aids to the sexual enlightenment of the child, I turn now to consider the hygienic measures—those with a direct effect upon the body. Speaking generally, these are identical with those which are recommended for the treatment of masturbation.
When the child awakes in the morning, it should not be permitted to lie in bed too long, above all, not in a hot feather-bed. To send children to bed, or to keep them in bed all day, as a punishment, as a means of depriving them of liberty, is, from this point of view, a practice which must unreservedly be condemned. Very dangerous, from this outlook, is also the rule common in boarding-schools and similar places, in accordance with which the children are sent to bed at a fixed time, and are not in any circumstances allowed to leave their beds before a fixed time in the morning. Everything must be done strictly according to the rules. Now although we may admit that no such institution can be carried on without some discipline, yet it is necessary to point out that when there is a rule in a boarding-school that no inmate shall get out of bed before seven o'clock in the morning, children that are wide awake and lively at an earlier hour are exceedingly likely to take to masturbation. The dangers attendant upon prolonged lying in bed arises from a combination of mental and physical influences. Among the physical influences, the warmth of the bed is the most important; among the mental influences, we have to consider the lack of occupation, and the ease with which the genital organs are handled.
We have further to take steps to allay as far as possible all kinds of local irritation of the genital organs. Among these may be mentioned: phimosis and skin-eruptions of the genital region, which latter may lead to scratching, and so give rise to masturbation, even apart from the fact that the itching itself may favour the occurrence of voluptuous sensations. In addition, we have to think of the clothing. I pointed out before that breeches which pressed on the perineum sometimes led to the practice of masturbation. Hence this article of dress, breeches, knickerbockers, or trousers, should be made loose and comfortable. With regard to the proposal to do away with breeches altogether in the case of children, a recommendation which, as previously explained, has been made by several authorities, I cannot think that we should gain much thereby, for, to be effective, this measure would have to be continued up to acomparatively advanced age, and would thus involve a complete remodelling of our customary dress. It may be doubted however, if attention to this point will do much to prevent premature sexual stimulation; for the danger is not so great as has sometimes been suggested. Still, a careful mother will take care that the tailor does not cut her little boy's breeches so as to fit too closely: for though this may please the parental eye, it is undoubtedly dangerous to the child. I have previously referred to the dangers attendant upon climbing the pole in the gymnasium; and here will merely add that a number of teachers of gymnastics regard pole-climbing as an exercise of very great value, whilst they believe that the danger of sexual stimulation in climbing results from the use of too thin a pole, and does not occur in climbing a thick pole, or in climbing a rope. It has been suggested, in this connexion, that the rocking-horse should be eliminated from the list of permissible toys. Objections have also been made, on the ground of the possibility of improper sexual stimulation, against bicycling and horseback-riding; but I think these objections are largely unfounded, for, as far as bicycling is concerned, a well-shaped saddle cannot improperly stimulate the genital organs; and just as little does such stimulation occur in horseback exercise unless when the lower part of the trunk is pressed forward against the front peak of the saddle, as in halting, or in passing from a faster to a slower pace. Of course, for horseback exercise, the breeches must be properly cut, as otherwise they may exercise injurious pressure on the genital organs when the rider is in the saddle. Intestinal stimulation may also give rise to reflex excitation of the genital organs; for example, intestinal worms may initiate such reflex disturbance. Mantegazza149lays especial stress upon stimulation of the rectum, being of opinion that stimulation of this region is very likely to lead to the development of pæderastic inclinations. There are no grounds for such an assumption; but it is quite true that stimulation of the anal or gluteal region will very readily irradiate to the sphere ofthe genitals. For all these reasons, constipation, and more especially the accumulation of large scybalous masses in the rectum, are above all to be avoided.
In cases of obstinate inclination to masturbate, all kinds of local measures have been recommended to prevent manipulation and artificial stimulation of the penis or the vulva. But speaking generally, no great reliance can be placed in any of these local measures. Moreover, casual local stimulation, especially towards the end of the second period of childhood, has no very profound etiological significance. The chief stimuli giving rise to reflex excitement of the genital organs are of an organic nature, and are therefore but little influenced by external measures. Besides, the fact that among races who never wear breeches, the boys masturbate freely, and perhaps even more freely than do boys in Europe, proves that such external stimuli as the pressure exercised by breeches on the genital organs play no decisive part in the causation of masturbation.
I purposely refrain from further reference here to such measures as a methodical "hardening" by hydrotherapeutic procedures, and the like. In special text-books, whether upon masturbation, or upon hydrotherapeutics, ample information will be found about these matters.
The suggestion has also been made that from the sexual outlook the diet of children is a matter worthy of the most earnest attention. Nothing should be given to the child which may exert a sexually stimulating effect; especially we must avoid giving heavy foods late in the evening. More detailed directions are also given as to the use of particular kinds of food, some of which may be consecrated by tradition, and yet seem to have but small reasonable foundation. To this category belong the prohibition or limitation of flesh-foods, and the prohibition of asparagus, celery, and other articles of diet. There is no proof that such things have a stimulating influence upon the sexual impulse, either in children or in adults. We might more readily incline to believe that certain spices may have such an influence; but even as regards these, no great anxiety need be felt. As regards alcohol, many maintain it has an exciting influence uponthe sexual life, and thus gives rise to all kinds of excesses. This is true of a good many cases, but the rule is by no means so general as is commonly assumed. I recall that in my own student days we often classified the students into two groups, the alcoholic and the sexual; those of the former group spent their money upon alcohol, those of the latter group upon women. My own experience of these days certainly leads me to dispute the assertion that those addicted to alcohol are generally more inclined than others to indiscriminate sexual intercourse. But this reservation is necessary, that at that time actual abstainers were almost unknown among the students, and we classified in the alcoholic group those who consumed very large quantities of alcohol; whilst the members of the sexual group certainly also consumed alcohol, though not very much. Beyond question, the common belief that there is an association between the free use of alcohol and sexual excesses is one which lacks foundation. This view is to too great an extent based upon criminal statistics, and upon the records of the perversions to which the sexual perverts among alcoholics have been inclined. But think of the countless normal persons in whom the enjoyment of alcohol induces no tendency to sexual excesses; and, on the other hand, abstainers from alcohol have been personally known to me whom no one could venture to call moderate in their sexual relations. But although I make all these reservations with regard to the effects of the use of alcohol by adults, I am in full accord with the view that the use of alcohol should be prohibited to children. Alcohol cannot do any good to children, and the possibility that in individual instances it may stimulate the sexual imagination, is one which cannot be denied. But this fact does not justify us in advising against the moderate use of alcohol by adults.150
Passing to consider the general mode of life, we certainly agree with Hufeland, who, in hisMakrobiotik, recommends vigorous bodily activity. He contends that children who go to bed at night healthily tired out, will not be likely to think of masturbation. In the present age of sports and games it will not be found difficult to fulfil this indication; and we see as a matter of fact that a great deal of trouble is taken to give children every opportunity of keeping in active movement. Even in our large towns, in which, owing to the lack of a sufficiency of open spaces, great difficulties have arisen in this respect, much has of late been done to improve matters. For many years past in England special efforts have been made to provide such playgrounds for children and adults.
I take this opportunity of drawing attention to a method recommended by Féré for the cure of masturbation, which I have myself found of good use in several cases, but which appears to be almost entirely unknown. It is that the child addicted to masturbation during the night hours should be watched by a trustworthy person; every time the child puts its hand to its genital organs, or endeavours to stimulate these organs mechanically in some other way, the attendant must immediately intervene, and draw the hands from beneath the bed-clothing. This plan may be adopted whether the child masturbates while asleep or while awake. But good can be expected from the method above all in those cases in which the child masturbates during sleep, and in which it commonly wakes up directly it is interfered with. Inmost cases the children treated in this way soon give up the practice of masturbation, even though the evil is of long standing. But it will be advisable to continue to supervise the child for some time after a cure has apparently been effected, lest what may have become a nervous automatism should be resumed after a brief intermission. The chief difficulty in the practical application of this method lies in the choice of a trustworthy person to watch the child. As a rule, the mother will be the most suitable, but now and again we shall find a hired nurse to whom this extremely difficult task may safely be entrusted. In a number of cases with which I have had to deal, I have recommended the mother to undertake the duty herself, because she seemed to me the most trustworthy person available. But it is a very regrettable fact that many mothers are altogether unwilling to make the necessary sacrifice for their child's good; and most of them are quite ready to believe that some woman whom they can hire for a few shillings a night will perform the duty which they themselves as mothers have renounced. Such lack of proper feeling is especially common among those who belong to what are termed the upper classes of society—to the aristocracy whether of birth or of wealth—whereas among the middle classes I have found mothers far more ready to make the necessary sacrifices.
In sexual education, the sexual perversions must receive especial attention. I must first of all refer again to two matters, of which some account has previously been given: the influencing of congenital inborn tendencies; and the undifferentiated sexual impulse. As regards the former, we have to take the following data into consideration. The fact that the indications lead us to believe that a particular sexual perversion is inborn, need not induce us to think there is no hope of counteracting this perversion by well-planned educational influences. I have already written at considerable length about the undifferentiated sexual impulse, and have shown that perverse manifestations during the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse do not prove that a permanent perversion has developed. But everything possible should bedone to guard against the further development of any such perverse mode of sexual sensibility, including sexual qualities in the wider sense of the term. We know, for example, that many homosexual men have a tendency to dress in girls' clothing, and many homosexual women to go about in men's clothing, and, in both cases, to adopt the inclinations and occupations of the opposite sex. During the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, we must not attach too much importance to the appearance of inclinations of this kind; but it would be equally erroneous to ignore them altogether. Boys who adopt a girlish behaviour, should not be encouraged in doing so by treating the matter as a joke. If a boy frequently dresses up as a girl, or a girl as a boy, and if we observe between two boys, or between two girls, an unduly intimate friendship at an age which corresponds to the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, it will be as well to modify the children's education accordingly. A girl with such inclinations should, for example, be thrown as much as possible into the society of lads of an appropriate age. In the case of those who are still quite young, there is no doubt that by the proper measures we can in part check the development of perverse manifestations, and in part completely repress them; notwithstanding the fact that interested agitators, whose principal aim is to secure the repeal of Section 175 of the German Imperial Criminal Code, maintain the contrary, and assert that homosexual tendencies appearing in the child necessarily indicate the future development of permanent homosexuality. Parents, tutors, schoolmasters, and physicians, must not allow themselves to be led astray by these agitators, who falsify the data of science. In the interest of truth, in the interest of the children endangered by these perversions, and in the interest of civilisation, these misstatements must be contradicted.
The chief danger associated with the appearance of sexual perversions lies in the fact that the child thus affected, whether boy or girl, endeavours again and ever again to revive these pleasurably-toned sensations; and above all in the fact that as soon as the genital organs are sufficiently mature, the boy or girl obtains sexual gratification bymasturbating simultaneously with the imaginative contemplation of perverse ideas. Such perverse psychical onanism, accompanied or unaccompanied by physical masturbatory acts, is eminently adapted to favour the development of the perversion. Obviously, the actual performance of the corresponding perverse sexual act will be just as dangerous as is perversely associated masturbation. Thus, a boy who is homosexually inclined may masturbate while allowing his imagination to run riot upon homosexual ideas; or he may take to homosexual acts with one or more other male persons. Every sort of gratification that is associated with perverse images, is dangerous; and no less dangerous is the spontaneous cultivation of such perverse sexual images.
A very real and serious danger to children is to be found in my opinion in the risk of the progressive cultivation of homosexuality, if they become victims of a pædophile. The adult homosexual will sometimes conceal a perverse inclination directed towards children under the cloak of friendship or of an educational interest. I have previously referred to the danger that the child, at a time of life when its own sexual impulse is still undifferentiated, may sometimes reciprocate such a feeling. When I recall the light-heartedness with which homosexual males have acknowledged to me their experiences of sexual intercourse with apprentice-boys, and with pupils attending the higher forms of our secondary schools, and when I think of the readiness with which homosexual women seek opportunities of sexual intercourse with immature or partially mature girls, it seems to me that there are good grounds for the utterance of an urgent warning. My experiences in this department further lead me to believe that if Section 175 of the German Imperial Criminal Code is to be repealed, a further alteration in the Code will also be indispensable, namely, that the Age of Protection (Schutzalter—equivalent to theAge of Consentin the English Criminal Law Amendment Act) should be raised to the completion of the eighteenth year, and that the protection should apply, not merely to the actions now specified in Section 175 as "unnatural vice," but to all acts of sexual impropriety in thewidest sense of the term. Recently this proposal has been approved by a resolution of the Reichstag.151
There are certain additional points about which it is unnecessary to write here, for the reason that these have all been considered in some appropriate connexion earlier in this book. For example, I have insisted upon the importance of anyone who possesses children's confidence taking steps for the removal of corrupted children from the environment of uncorrupted ones.
Where we have reason to believe, in the case of a particular child, that a perverse mode of sexual sensibility is developing, we shall occasionally find it preferable rather to attempt to hinder the growth of the perversion, than to try to check the general manifestations of the sexual impulse. Thus, in the case of a boy of fourteen, who is continually affected with homosexual imaginings, we shall find it far more difficult to repress sexual manifestations altogether, than to divert the homosexual sensibility into heterosexual channels. If a boy affected in this way be thrown much into the society of girls, or conversely, a girl into the society of boys (at dances, games of lawn-tennis, &c.), the subsequent effect is likely to be good, because the sexual pervert, even if his perverse tendency be congenital, can nevertheless be educated out of his perversion. It should hardly be necessary to state expressly, that when I speak of finding for the homosexual associates of the opposite sex, I am not thinking of suggesting intimate sexual intercourse. Apart from moral considerations, we could not, in the cases under consideration, expect any benefit to accrue on medical grounds; my reference was to a purely platonic association.
No one need suggest that all these recommendations are superfluous, for the reason that, according to my own previous account of the matter, the undifferentiated condition of the sexual impulse is spontaneously replaced by the normal heterosexual impulse. For, first of all, the signs that giverise to anxiety may not be manifestations of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, but may be the first manifestations of a developing congenital perversion; and, secondly, it is by no means improbable that, even in the entire absence of any congenital tendency to sexual perversion, unfavourable external conditions may lead to the further development of the perverse manifestations of the undifferentiated period. I may refer in this connexion to what was said upon p.312et seq.
It is necessary to refer at length to one additional educational method which plays a very important part in sexual development, namely, punishment. The sexual perversions known by the names of sadism and masochism have of late attracted much attention from students of the sexual life. In sadism, sexual excitement occurs in association with the infliction of ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain upon others; in masochism the sexual excitement results from the experience of such ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain by the masochist in person. But in sadism, it is not essential that the sadist should himself play the active part; very often, the maltreatment by a second person of a third suffices to cause sexual excitement in the sadist who looks on. Masochistic and sadistic modes of sensibility are frequently associated in the same individual. As far as the relationship of these perversions to punishment is concerned, we learn from many adult masochists and sadists that their first experience of sexual excitement occurred when as children they received a whipping, or saw another child whipped—at school, for instance. The oft-quoted case of Rousseau has previously been mentioned in this work. It is thus evident that the subject of the punishment of children needs to be considered, not merely from the general educational point of view, but also from the special outlook of sexual education. The principal question is whether as a result of corporal punishment, either personally experienced or witnessed, an enduring sexual perversion may be induced in a child; and this problem must be carefully distinguished from another problem, which, however, is also of very great importance, namely, that of the sexual excitement which may be experienced by the person who inflicts the punishment. The significance of the materials availableto guide us to a conclusion upon these questions, is not, however, perfectly clear in all cases. I may refer to what was said upon p.130et seq.; and will here merely add that the question whether the infliction of corporal punishment really originates a perversion in the sufferer, or whether it merely awakens to activity a pre-existent tendency, and one which, in the absence of this particular exciting cause, would almost certainly have been awakened by some other and unavoidable cause, some influence acting from without—this is a question to which conflicting answers have been given.
But corporal punishment entails other dangers, in addition to the risk of the origination or the awakening of a sexual perversion. Certain children, having experienced sexual stimulation as a result of such punishment, will endeavour to secure its repetition. I have known cases in which sexual perverts have deliberately misconducted themselves in school, in order to be punished, and thus to enjoy voluptuous sensations. Finally, there is a third danger to be taken into account, and this is a danger of whose reality I have been convinced by the direct confessions of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, that they have struck their pupils for the purpose of thereby enjoying sexual stimulation. Even if no such admissions had ever been made to me, I should have regarded it as by no means improbable that such incidents should from time to time occur. Let no reader draw the inference that whenever a master chastises a naughty boy, he acts always under the influence of a sadistic inclination; I do not even consider that sadistic inclinations are a frequent cause of the infliction of corporal chastisement. The danger of such sweeping generalisations is obvious, especially in view of the fact that to-day many children, even, know what sadism is. Hence a schoolboy who has been punished might readily attribute sadistic motives to his master; and might even make a definite accusation of this kind.
When we come to ask what practical conclusions may be drawn from our recognition of the relationships between corporal punishment and sexual perversions, the first point that occurs to our minds is to consider whether the corporal punishments which may possibly give rise to such perversestimulations are in fact absolutely indispensable. Although in this matter I find myself in opposition to a great many physicians and to not a few educationalists, I remain of the opinion that we cannot propose to do away altogether with corporal punishments in our schools; at any rate, such punishment remains, I consider, essential, so long as certain other reforms are still wanting. Among the reforms which are indispensable preliminaries to the complete abolition of corporal punishment, is one giving a greater power to expel insolent and undisciplined boys. Not until such a power is granted can corporal punishments be abolished from our schools. For a flogging is oftentimes the only punishment of which a rough and ill-conditioned boy is afraid. Moreover, and altogether apart from this consideration, the discipline of our schools is to-day endangered in various ways: for instance, by public disquisitions about overwork in schools; by the conduct of many parents, who prejudice their children against the schools in a most indiscreet manner; and by attacks in the newspapers on the schoolmasters—attacks which are often unfair and inconsiderate. Further, the recent widely advertised public pronouncements against the right of the schoolmaster to inflict corporal punishment, are hardly calculated to strengthen the discipline of our schools, or to assist the masters in the performance of what must be at best extremely difficult duties. So long, therefore, as we lack the safeguard to discipline that would be provided by extensive powers of expelling undesirables, I consider that corporal punishment is essential to the discipline of our schools.
Unquestionably it would be a good thing if we could entirely dispense with the use of corporal punishments, or at least dispense with them in all cases in which there might be any possibility of their doing harm, as by giving rise to sexual stimulation. But unfortunately we have no means of ascertaining beforehand what are the cases in which corporal punishment is likely to do harm. There is no possibility of withholding the right to inflict corporal punishment from those masters in especial who might use it to gratify their own sexual passions—if only for the reason that we have no means of finding out who these persons are. For it is not the masterswith free views about sexual questions who are especially open to suspicion from the point of view we are now considering; nor is it the masters who are morally defective or irreligious. Indeed, I am acquainted with some extremely pious schoolmasters who, according to their own admissions to me, have experienced sexual excitement when chastising children; and some of these have in other respects had admirable characters. Cases recorded, not merely in erotic literature, but also in historical literature, show that religion affords no safeguard against such temptations; we learn, for instance, that in the cloister, monks and nuns have utilised their right to inflict punishment in order to procure sexual excitement. For these reasons, it is inadmissible to infer, because a schoolmaster is a religious man, that therefore he is the one to whom the right to inflict corporal punishment may safely be entrusted.
The danger of an excessive use of powers of administering corporal punishment, and more especially the danger of awakening the sexuality of children prematurely and with perverse associations, may be minimised by the proper treatment of schoolmasters. We must not treat our schoolmasters in such a way that behind them they always feel the presence of the inspector, compelling them to force the pupils through the prescribed, but excessive tasks. Nor must the schoolmaster's own work be excessive, for nervous overstrain will very readily lead to outbreaks of violence. It seems also desirable that the right of administering corporal punishment should not be entrusted to masters who are still quite young, for a certain experience is needed to guide them to a reasonable moderation. What I have said of schoolmasters applies,mutatis mutandis, to schoolmistresses and governesses. There are many reasons for the belief that the danger that the right to inflict corporal punishment may be utilised to procure erotic excitement for the person exercising that right, is considerably greater in women than it is in men. Even if we take no notice of erotic literature, in which sadism in women manifested by the mishandling of children is so frequent amotif, we shall find quite a number of experiences of actual life which compel us to admit the frequency of such perverse sensibilities in women. Among various records bearing uponthis matter, I may remind readers of those of the upper class women of ancient Rome, and of the horrible punishments they inflicted upon their female slaves; and also of American women of the slave-owning class, in the South before the war, who sometimes flogged young male slaves in the most terrible way.
Whether this matter is regarded as one of great or of small importance, it is as well to inquire whether it is not possible that the necessary disciplinary punishment should be inflicted in such a way as to reduce to a minimum any dangers from the sexual point of view. Now, we learn from experience, that when a perversion is traced back to its origination in a chastisement endured during childhood, this chastisement was as a rule the customary whipping of the buttocks. Far less frequently, and indeed hardly ever, are we told that any other form of punishment has initiated a sexual perversion. This may, of course, depend merely upon the fact that other modes of punishment are far less common. But there are many reasons for supposing that stimulation of the buttock is especially apt to induce sexual excitement. It is possible, also, that another factor is in operation here, namely, the fact that the child undergoing punishment is commonly placed across the elder's knees in such a way thatpressure upon the child's genital organsis almost unavoidable. Moreover, when we bear in mind the fact that other methods of chastisement may involve dangers to health (boxing the ears, for instance, may threaten the integrity of the sense of hearing), the question which is the best method of corporal punishment becomes a very serious one. I have myself elsewhere expressed the opinion that as far as the possible effects on health are concerned, and especially from the point of view of sexual hygiene, blows upon the palm of the hand perhaps constitute the least dangerous form of corporal punishment. But I by no means suppose that even here danger is altogether excluded, or that no sexual stimulation can possibly ensue from such chastisement. For the local physical stimulation is not the only matter we have to consider in connexion with a whipping upon the buttocks. In quite a number of cases in which we are told that some experience during childhood has been theinitiating cause of subsequent masochism or sadism, there has been no question of purely physical causation, as by a whipping upon the buttocks. I may recall the case in which sexual perversion appeared to have developed out of witnessing the slaughter of animals, so that the only stimulus acting upon this child belonged to the psychical sphere. The cases, also, in which a child refers the origin of his perversion to having looked on at a whipping (in school, for instance) show that such perversions are not only aroused by mechanical stimuli, but may depend also upon psychological factors. For these reasons I consider that we are not justified in assuming, if whipping upon the buttocks were altogether done away with, and if blows upon the palm of the hand became the only permissible form of corporal punishment, that permanent sexual perversions would then become impossible. With further reference to what I have said above about discipline in schools, I may add that the kernel of the problem is this: is the probability that corporal punishment will lead to permanent sexual perversion, or will induce sexual excitement, sufficiently great, to render it necessary that corporal punishment should be completely abolished from our schools, so long as our schoolmasters possess no other adequate means of making certain of their pupils observe the discipline of the school? It is unconditionally necessary that the discipline of our schools should be maintained; and those who are unreservedly opposed to corporal punishment in all its forms should make it their business to see that some other adequate means are provided for the maintenance of school-discipline. However strongly we may feel that it is essential that there should be no abuse by schoolmasters of their right to administer corporal punishment, none the less, even in this "Century of the Child," we need safeguards also against the abuse of sentimentality.
In this chapter I have attempted to deal with a few only of the problems of sexual education. To discuss the subject exhaustively would have been impossible within the limits of this book; nor have I endeavoured to take into consideration the enormous mass of literature relating to the modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment. I have made noreference to the fact that it has recently been recommended that every girl should spend a year of service [Dienstjahr—analogous to the term of military service obligatory on all males in Germany] in hospitals, asylums, &c., whereby she would gain enlightenment concerning many things which will be of value to her in her subsequent married life. All such proposals are so much matters of detail, that I have thought it inadvisable to discuss them here.
The most important requirement of all is certainly a good educator—a word used here in the widest possible signification. The best of all educators for the child should be its own mother; although we may agree with the assertion recently made by Eschle152and others, that the father has important duties to fulfil as instructor, even during the child's first year of life. Nevertheless, the father, even if his professional training gives him especial skill in these directions, is not really likely to do very much in the educational way for his infant offspring. It is to the mother, above all, that the care of infants and young children is of necessity entrusted. We have, however, to remember that a large proportion of mothers, especially those belonging to the ranks of the proletariat, take part in the work of breadwinning for the family, and are thus prevented from giving as much attention to their children as might be wished. But in the families of the well-to-do there is often no question of the mother herself playing the principal part in the education of her children, since it is customary for her to depute so many of her maternal duties to hired substitutes. It has recently been maintained that it is to the Woman's Movement that we owe the fact that the question of the sexual enlightenment has now become a live one; but this is certainly an overstatement, though it is not to be denied that women have had some influence in this direction. But if the women who play a prominent part in the Woman's Movement would do more than they have done as yet to impress upon the women of the well-to-do classes an understanding of their duties towards their children, theywould certainly be doing excellent work. No paid substitute can adequately replace for the child the benefits it will derive if its mother herself does all that she could and should do. A mother who seriously devotes herself to the care of her child, need have no anxiety about the risks of its being misused by others for sexual purposes. Such a mother keeps herself fully acquainted with her child's sentiments. She is in a position to choose the best moment for effecting the child's sexual enlightenment, and she can best judge when the use of the stork story is no longer justified. Of such a mother, a child far more readily makes a confidant. Moreover, if the mother devotes a great deal of time and pains to the personal care of her child, this has, in the case of a boy, the great advantage of inculcating a greater respect for the female sex in general than is apt to be found in boys to-day. I consider this last-mentioned point to be one of the utmost importance in relation to the sexual enlightenment, for only in such a way can the boy when grown to manhood be led instinctively to refrain from the seduction of girls—with all the misery which such a course usually involves for the victims. Similarly, a young man brought up to respect women will refrain from making a mock of pregnancy, whether "legitimate" or "illegitimate." When we see a young woman bearing a new life in her womb, owing her position it may be to all the subtle arts of the seducer, and note how cruelly she is treated by the law and what scorn and contempt are poured upon her by society and by the individual, we cannot fail to welcome most heartily the movement for the Protection of Motherhood (Mutterschutzbewegung) which has recently made such progress in Germany. When children are properly educated, there is reason to hope that sexual matters will be less often treated in an obscene spirit than is the case to-day. Nor need we fear, when such education becomes the rule, that every allusion to sexual things may involve dangers to the child. Precisely because the sexual life will then be known to the child in a natural way, will there be less reason to dread the deliberate cultivation by children of sexual topics of conversation. When at school the love adventures of Mars and Venus are the subject of the lesson, in children thus educated no unclean thoughtsneed arise. It must never be forgotten, however, that when the imagination has been perverted, opportunities for unclean thoughts recur with extraordinary frequency; and indeed by no means whatever can such opportunities be altogether avoided. Since this is so, we must strengthen the child against the dangers it will inevitably encounter, and must be careful not to pervert its imagination by a false prudery.
Of course we must avoid leading the child to dwell too much upon sexual topics, and fortunately human beings have numerous other interests. The sphere of the sexual must be regarded as a fraction merely of the general educational field. The inculcation of true ideas of morality, and of a sense of honour not confined to externals but one by which the entire being is permeated—these will be the safest essentials of a good sexual and general education.