he whole duration of the latency period
until the reinforced breaking through of the sexual impulse in puberty.
In so far as they have paid any attention to infantile sexuality the
educators behave as if they shared our views concerning the formation of
the moral forces of defence at the cost of sexuality, and as if they
knew that sexual activity makes the child uneducable; for the educators
consider all sexual manifestations of the child as an "evil" in the face
of which little can be accomplished. We have, however, every reason for
directing our attention to those phenomena so much feared by the
educators, for we expect to find in them the solution of the primitive
formation of the sexual impulse.

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY

For reasons which we shall discuss later we will take as a model of the
infantile sexual manifestations thumbsucking (pleasure-sucking), to
which the Hungarian pediatrist, Lindner, has devoted an excellent
essay.[9]

*Thumbsucking.*--Thumbsucking, which manifests itself in the nursing
baby and which may be continued till maturity or throughout life,
consists in a rhythmic repetition of sucking contact with the mouth (the
lips), wherein the purpose of taking nourishment is excluded. A part of
the lip itself, the tongue, which is another preferable skin region
within reach, and even the big toe--may be taken as objects for sucking.
Simultaneously, there is also a desire to grasp things, which manifests
itself in a rhythmical pulling of the ear lobe and which may cause the
child to grasp a part of another person (generally the ear) for the same
purpose. The pleasure-sucking is connected with an entire exhaustion of
attention and leads to sleep or even to a motor reaction in the form of
an orgasm.[10] Pleasure-sucking is often combined with a rubbing contact
with certain sensitive parts of the body, such as the breast and
external genitals. It is by this road that many children go from
thumb-sucking to masturbation.

Lindner himself has recognized the sexual nature of this action and
openly emphasized it. In the nursery thumbsucking is often treated in
the same way as any other sexual "naughtiness" of the child. A very
strong objection was raised against this view by many pediatrists and
neurologists which in part is certainly due to the confusion of the
terms "sexual" and "genital." This contradiction raises the difficult
question, which cannot be rejected, namely, in what g