rgo a perfectly normal, or at any rate a
non-homosexual, development of the sexual life. During the period of the
puberal development, the normal heterosexual characteristics come to
predominate. The non-differentiated character of the sexual life during
childhood forbids us, from the mere existence at this period of life of
such contrary sexual tendencies, to infer that these tendencies will
necessarily persist, and that the subsequent sexual development will
also be of an inverted character. We must point out, in addition, that
from childhood onwards many women and many men fail to exhibit the
psychical tendencies appropriate to _average_ members of their
respective sexes, without this justifying the conclusion that we have to
do with homosexuality. There are heterosexual men who are fond of
needlework; and there are heterosexual women in whom housework and the
care of children, and even in many cases the details of their own
toilet, arouse no interest whatever. Because we observe, in any
individual, certain contrary sexual tendencies of this character, to
draw the inference that in such a case we necessarily have to do with
homosexuality, would be a most disastrous error.

Apart from these considerations, we have, when there is a history of
such tendencies in childhood, to take into account the possibility of
illusions of memory just as much as we have in the cases in which adult
homosexuals assure us that in childhood they never experienced any other
than homosexual inclinations--a matter discussed in the first chapter
(see pp. 5 and 6). A homosexual man, recalling his memories of
childhood, lays especial stress on all that appears to be connected with
homosexuality; he is apt to remember those instances only in which his
conduct exhibited girlish characteristics, and to forget all instances
of an opposite kind. Finally, we have to take into consideration the
various interpretations which are tenable of occurrences during
childhood. An adult homosexual who as a child once did some needlework
for a joke, sees in this later a characteristic of effemination. A girl
who, for lack of companions of her own sex, was accustomed to join in
her brother's sports, comes to believe, when subsequently she has
developed into a homosexual woman, that her conduct in childhood
resulted from congenital perversion, whereas in reality this conduct was
the purely accidental result of her childish environment. On the other
hand, the withd