compositions
are to be formed in complicated mechanisms, here, too, there is a
possibility for morbid disturbance if the new order of things does not
get itself established. All morbid disturbances of the sexual life may
justly be considered as inhibitions of development.

THE PRIMACY OF THE GENITAL ZONES AND THE FORE-PLEASURE

From the course of development as described we can clearly see the issue
and the end aim. The intermediary transitions are still quite obscure
and many a riddle will have to be solved in them.

The most striking process of puberty has been selected as its most
characteristic; it is the manifest growth of the external genitals which
have shown a relative inhibition of growth during the latency period of
childhood. Simultaneously the inner genitals develop to such an extent
as to be able to furnish sexual products or to receive them for the
purpose of forming a new living being. A most complicated apparatus is
thus formed which waits to be claimed.

This apparatus can be set in motion by stimuli, and observation teaches
that the stimuli can affect it in three ways: from the outer world
through the familiar erogenous zones; from the inner organic world by
ways still to be investigated; and from the psychic life, which merely
represents a depository of external impressions and a receptacle of
inner excitations. The same result follows in all three cases, namely, a
state which can be designated as "sexual excitation" and which manifests
itself in psychic and somatic signs. The psychic sign consists in a
peculiar feeling of tension of a most urgent character, and among the
manifold somatic signs the many changes in the genitals stand first.
They have a definite meaning, that of readiness; they constitute a
preparation for the sexual act (the erection of the penis and the
glandular activity of the vagina).

*The Sexual Tension*--The character of the tension of sexual excitation
is connected with a problem the solution of which is as difficult as it
would be important for the conception of the sexual process. Despite all
divergence of opinion regarding it in psychology, I must firmly maintain
that a feeling of tension must carry with it the character of
displeasure. For me it is conclusive that such a feeling carries with it
the impulse to alter the psychic situation, and acts incitingly, which
is quite contrary to the nature of perceived pleasure. But if we ascribe
the tension of the sexual excit