relations between the same determine the severest
predispositions for disturbed sexual development or neurotic diseases in
the children.

The infantile desire for the parents is, to be sure, the most important,
but not the only trace revived in puberty which points the way to the
object selection. Other dispositions of the same origin permit the man,
still supported by his infancy, to develop more than one single sexual
series and to form different determinations for the object
selection.[11]

*Prevention of Inversion.*--One of the tasks imposed in the object
selection consists in not missing the opposite sex. This, as we know, is
not solved without some difficulty. The first feelings after puberty
often enough go astray, though not with any permanent injury. Dessoir
has called attention to the normality of the enthusiastic friendships
formed by boys and girls with their own sex. The greatest force which
guards against a permanent inversion of the sexual object is surely the
attraction exerted by the opposite sex characters on each other. For
this we can give no explanation in connection with this discussion. This
factor, however, does not in itself suffice to exclude the inversion;
besides this there are surely many other supporting factors. Above all,
there is the authoritative inhibition of society; experience shows that
where the inversion is not considered a crime it fully corresponds to
the sexual inclinations of many persons. Moreover, it may be assumed
that in the man the infantile memories of the mother's tenderness, as
well as that of other females who cared for him as a child,
energetically assist in directing his selection to the woman, while the
early sexual intimidation experienced through the father and the
attitude of rivalry existing between them deflects the boy from the same
sex. Both factors also hold true in the case of the girl whose sexual
activity is under the special care of the mother. This results in a
hostile relation to the same sex which decisively influences the object
selection in the normal sense. The bringing up of boys by male persons
(slaves in the ancient times) seems to favor homosexuality; the
frequency of inversion in the present day nobility is probably explained
by their employment of male servants, and by the scant care that mothers
of that class give to their children. It happens in some hysterics that
one of the parents has disappeared (through death, divorce, or
estrangeme