Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
The first essay separates the sexual object from the sexual aim and argues that inversion and the perversions are not divided from ordinary sexuality by a sharp line, since the drive is only loosely soldered to its object. The second essay claims that sexuality begins in infancy, with thumb-sucking as a model of autoerotic pleasure and the mouth, anus and skin as erotogenic zones; the third traces how puberty subordinates these partial drives to the genital zone.
Understanding the text
Published in Vienna in 1905, the same year as the Dora case history and the book on jokes, it was, together with the dream book, the work Freud revised most heavily. The editions of 1910, 1915, 1920 and 1924 added the theory of libido, the pregenital phases of organisation and many footnotes, including one of 1920 that calls the Oedipus complex the nucleus of the neuroses.
Key points
- 01
Object and aim
By distinguishing whom desire chooses from what it seeks to do, Freud treats variations of sexual life as differences of degree to be explained, not as signs of inherited degeneracy.
- 02
Infantile sexuality
The forgetting of early childhood and the latency period, Freud argues, have hidden from adults that children seek bodily pleasure and form sexual theories of their own.
- 03
Finding an object
At puberty the drive turns towards another person, yet Freud holds that the finding of an object is in fact a re-finding, modelled above all on the infant’s first relation to the mother’s breast.
Explore the ideas in depth
Rethinking sexuality from childhood
Examine how the Three Essays separate the drive from its object, place the origins of sexuality in childhood and trace its reorganisation at puberty.
Situating the text
Published in Vienna in 1905, the same year as the Dora case history and the book on jokes, it was, together with the dream book, the work Freud revised most heavily. The editions of 1910, 1915, 1920 and 1924 added the theory of libido, the pregenital phases of organisation and many footnotes, including one of 1920 that calls the Oedipus complex the nucleus of the neuroses. The first essay separates the sexual object from the sexual aim and argues that inversion and the perversions are not divided from ordinary sexuality by a sharp line, since the drive is only loosely soldered to its object. The second essay claims that sexuality begins in infancy, with thumb-sucking as a model of autoerotic pleasure and the mouth, anus and skin as erotogenic zones; the third traces how puberty subordinates these partial drives to the genital zone.
Following the arguments
Object and aim : By distinguishing whom desire chooses from what it seeks to do, Freud treats variations of sexual life as differences of degree to be explained, not as signs of inherited degeneracy. Infantile sexuality : The forgetting of early childhood and the latency period, Freud argues, have hidden from adults that children seek bodily pleasure and form sexual theories of their own. Finding an object : At puberty the drive turns towards another person, yet Freud holds that the finding of an object is in fact a re-finding, modelled above all on the infant’s first relation to the mother’s breast.
Continuing the reading
Read the opening of the first essay and the whole of the second, checking the edition date of each passage; read the remarks on women, homosexuality and normality critically, with their medical context of 1905 in mind. Published in Vienna in 1905, the same year as the Dora case history and the book on jokes, it was, together with the dream book, the work Freud revised most heavily. The editions of 1910, 1915, 1920 and 1924 added the theory of libido, the pregenital phases of organisation and many footnotes, including one of 1920 that calls the Oedipus complex the nucleus of the neuroses.
Questions to carry into your reading
- What does Freud gain by distinguishing the sexual object from the sexual aim?
- Why, according to Freud, have adults forgotten their own infantile sexuality?
The Three Essays make sexuality a history that begins in infancy, so that adult desire carries the traces of earlier pleasures and attachments.
How to read it
Read the opening of the first essay and the whole of the second, checking the edition date of each passage; read the remarks on women, homosexuality and normality critically, with their medical context of 1905 in mind.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method →