and if the two flirt one with the other, it will often be merely from a
desire to imitate their elders. In many instances, even, in which the
genital organs play a part in such imitation, we must distinguish what
is done from the sexual life proper of the child. If children play at
"father and mother," if the "midwife" comes, and "childbirth" takes
place, the play may certainly depend upon an early awakening of the
sexual life; but this is not necessarily the case. There may be no more
than innocent imitation of grownups, as the following case shows. A
number of little boys and girls, almost all under eight years of age,
played at being prostitutes, souteneurs, and men-about-town. The little
girls each demanded a penny when they had allowed the little boys to
touch their genital organs. It was an extremely characteristic fact that
the leader of this band was a feeble-minded boy, whose parents I had
advised to send him to an asylum, because, after various dangerous
actions, he had attempted one night to kill his little sister eighteen
months old by inserting beans in her nose. Such acts as that first
described may, of course, depend upon a premature awakening of the
sexual impulse; and when a number of children engage in amusements of
this kind we not infrequently find that in the leader and seducer the
sexual impulse is already awakened, whilst the others act merely in
obedience, at first, at least, to an imitative impulse. Certainly, I
have known a few instances in which children with premature sexual
development very rapidly came to a mutual understanding, and in whom
their intimate association was dependent upon prematurely awakened
sexual impulses.

Just as sexual acts in which the genital organs play a part occasionally
arise, not from premature awakening of the sexual impulse, but from
imitation merely, so also, as previously explained, may this happen in
the case of more harmless processes. Braggadocio here plays a great
part, and also the desire to act like grown-ups. Thus, the boy who runs
after girls, and makes appointments with them, sometimes does this
merely to show off before his companions, and to produce in them the
impression that he is a "manly" fellow. We must take care to separate
these cases, also, from those that are genuinely sexual.

If it is difficult to separate the sexual from the merely imitative, no
less difficult may it be to distinguish psychosexual processes from
others. If a child lav