ession. The reenforcement of the sexual inhibitions produced in the
woman by the repression of puberty causes a stimulus in the libido of
the man and forces it to increase its capacity; with the height of the
libido there is a rise in the overestimation of the sexual, which can be
present in its full force only when the woman refuses and denies her
sexuality. If the sexual act is finally submitted to and the clitoris
becomes excited its role is then to conduct the excitement to the
adjacent female parts, and in this it acts like a chip of pine wood
which is utilized to set fire to the harder wood. It often takes some
time for this transference to be accomplished; during which the young
wife remains anesthetic. This anesthesia may become permanent if the
clitoris zone refuses to give up its excitability; a condition brought
on by abundant activities in infantile life. It is known that anesthesia
in women is often only apparent and local. They are anesthetic at the
vaginal entrance but not at all unexcitable through the clitoris or even
through other zones. Besides these erogenous causes of anesthesia there
are also psychic causes likewise determined by the repression.

If the transference of the erogenous excitability from the clitoris to
the vagina has succeeded, the woman has thus changed her leading zone
for the future sexual activity; the man on the other hand retains his
from childhood. The main determinants for the woman's preference for the
neuroses, especially for hysteria, lie in this change of the leading
zone as well as in the repression of puberty. These determinants are
therefore most intimately connected with the nature of femininity.

THE OBJECT-FINDING

While the primacy of the genital zones is being established through the
processes of puberty, and the erected penis in the man imperiously
points towards the new sexual aim, _i.e._, towards the penetration of a
cavity which excites the genital zone, the object-finding, for which
also preparations have been made since early childhood, becomes
consummated on the psychic side. While the very incipient sexual
gratifications are still connected with the taking of nourishment, the
sexual impulse has a sexual object outside its own body in his mother's
breast. This object it loses later, perhaps at the very time when it
becomes possible for the child to form a general picture of the person
to whom the organ granting him the gratification belongs. The sexual
i