ishes caresses on mother, governess, or sister, it
may be difficult to discover definite characteristics enabling us to
distinguish whether the motive is or is not sexual. But, generally
speaking, when a child exhibits an intimate and caressive affection for
its mother we shall not incline to think of processes of the sexual
life. We cannot dispute the truth of the statement made by various
authors, that in these caressive inclinations sexual elements are
intermingled. But this talk of the intermingling of sexual sentiments
arises in reality only from the fact that neither on theoretical nor on
practical grounds are we in a position to draw a clear line of
demarcation between the sexual and the non-sexual; and we must avoid
stretching this idea of the intermixture of sexual elements beyond the
fact that a scientifically based practical distinction is not always
possible.

_We have to admit that above all in the mind of the child the various
feelings comprised under the idea of "sympathy" (friendship, affection
for parents, love of children, sexual love) cannot always be marked off
each from the other after the manner of provinces on a map._ Even
jealousy, which is often regarded as characteristic of the erotic
sentiments, does not necessarily possess a sexual basis. The boy, in his
love for his mother, is jealous of his father, jealous of one of his
brothers or sisters, jealous even of a dog to which his mother pays
attention. How little jealousy may depend upon a sexual motive, may be
learned by the observation of animal life; a dog becomes jealous if its
master takes notice of another dog, or even pays attention to his own
children. _In children, more especially, the extension of jealousy is
far greater than it is in adults._ Whereas in adults this sentiment is
chiefly, if not exclusively, associated with the erotic feelings, in
children this is by no means the case. In the child, jealousy may
clearly be associated with every possible variety of sympathetic
feeling. For this reason, it is impossible for us to draw a distinction
between sexual and other psychical processes, simply on the ground of
the associated manifestation of jealousy.

On what grounds, then, can we decide that certain processes are of a
sexual nature? In many instances, only the subsequent development will
show that one process was sexual, another non-sexual. If one day a boy,
embracing, as often before, his girl friend, has an erection, and then