three essays on the theory of sexuality sigmund freud

Freud and Modern Psychology pp 67–93 Cite as

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

The Problem of Sex as Instinct

• Helen Block Lewis 4  

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Part of the book series: Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy ((EPPS))

Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), Interpretation of Dreams (1900), and Studies on Hysteria (Breuer & Freud, 1893–1895) are publications in which he set down his discovery that forbidden sexual longings were somehow transformed into neurotic symptoms. Although Freud’s theorizing in Three Essays emphasized the primacy of instincts, the outcome of this work has been to focus attention on the primacy of human emotional—specifically, affectional-social—bonds as governors of human behavior.

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© 1983 Plenum Press, New York

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Lewis, H.B. (1983). Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. In: Freud and Modern Psychology. Emotions, Personality, and Psychotherapy. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4532-9_4

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Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality

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By Sigmund Freud

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Sigmund Freud

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality

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Sigmund Freud’s Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was first published in 1905. Freud expanded it several times in later editions, and it reached its final form in 1924. The book occupies a major place in Freud’s body of work, but it was controversial when it first appeared. Freud pointedly blurs the line between perversions and normal sexual behaviors, and he develops a radically new and surprising theory of human sexuality—in particular, of childhood sexuality. The essays present some of Freud’s most famous ideas, including the stages of psychosexual development, polymorphous perversity, drive theory, and the Oedipus complex. Finally, the book makes contributions to Freud’s thinking about aggression, ambivalence, sublimation , and more.

In 1953, the multivolume Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Freud appeared in English with a translation of the Three Essays by James Strachey. This version remains definitive, although though there is a long history of disputing some of Strachey’s translations of key terms. Strachey’s annotations and footnotes explain the position of the Three Essays in the overall development of Freud’s thought. Strachey’s notes also explain the development of the book over time, describing its expansions and revisions between 1905 and 1924.

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Most English editions reproduce Strachey’s translation including his notes. (Some e-book editions rely on an outdated, although sometimes elegant, English translation from 1915 by A. A. Brill.) This guide relies on the Basic Books edition of Strachey’s translation published in 2000. Still in print, it is also available for free at the Internet Archive. Citations refer to the page numbers in that edition.

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The first essay, “The Sexual Aberrations,” analyzes various perversions to challenge commonplace ideas about human sexuality. These commonplaces are, first, that infants and children do not have sex lives because the sexual impulse only arrives with puberty and, second, that sexual instincts are naturally directed to the opposite sex and procreation.

Freud discusses “inversion,” or homosexuality, to demonstrate that the sexual instinct does not contain an innate sexual object (such as the opposite sex). Freud looks at various theories about inversion that were prevalent in his day and finds fatal problems with each of them. Next, under the category of the sexual aim, he discusses the perversions proper, like fetishes for feet or other body parts, and so on. Freud concludes that the sexual instinct is itself various and nonunitary, but that its primitive and partial components come together or amalgamate to produce various macro-level sexualities. In some cases, the result is an amalgamation that we call normal. In other cases, the result is a perversion.

Freud then turns to the topic of neurotics and their sexual lives. He writes that the sexual instinct is key to the formation and maintenance of a neurotic’s symptoms because sexual libido is what charges or gives energy to the neurotic’s symptoms. As a result, the neurotic’s sex life, he writes, is in some way really nothing more than the (unhappy) experience of their symptoms.

In the second essay, “Infantile Sexuality,” Freud turns to early childhood, which he argues plays a pivotal role not just in the development of adult sexual preferences but in human psychological development as a whole. Infantile sexuality is fundamentally autoerotic in nature and “polymorphously perverse” (115). Freud argues that the whole variety of neurotic and normal psychological structures emerge from the process of psychosexual development that begins with oral satisfaction and thumb-sucking and proceeds through the other so-called erotogenic zones, including the anal, arriving finally at genital sexuality. He discusses key ideas like the incest barrier and penis envy in this section.

In the final essay, “The Transformation of Puberty,” Freud discusses the changes ushered in by puberty following the latent stage—itself begun at around age five. In a normal case, the adolescent will discover an attraction to the opposite sex and begin to break away from the emotionally incestuous confines of the family unit. While some adolescents make the transition to adult sexuality in the normal way, others do so differently, leading to what we call perversions and to various neurotic formations that may not at first seem like they are related to sexual life.

Throughout the book, Freud emphasizes that perversion, neurosis, and normality are continuous and often overlapping categories. Drawing on an enormous wealth of observations about both neurotic and normal psychological experience, he connects his theory of psychosexual development, elaborated for the first time in this book, to the framework for psychoanalysis that he had already developed, in which repressed childhood experiences are found to be the causes of present-day psychological formations. To summarize most briefly, this is the book that made sex fundamental to Freudian theory.

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1905, by Sigmund Freud

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a 1905 work by Sigmund Freud which advanced his theory of sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood. Freud considered these essays to be his second greatest work. His most important work, according to him was The Interpretation of Dreams . Freud began developing these theories after working with female patients. Most of these patients were loosely diagnosed to suffer from hysteria. The symptoms for this term were quite varied. For instance, symptoms as paralysis or insomnia were diagnosed to be hysteria. It also included psychotic instances and wild mood swings. Interestingly, one of the common ways of treating it was for a doctor to cause the patient to have an orgasm. This may have had a great influence on Sigmund Freud's work.

Sigmund Freud was mentored by Jean-Martin Charcot, a renowned Psychiatrist of his time. He was the first to use hypnosis in treating patients that were diagnosed with hysteria. However, Freud abandoned the practice later in his career, finding it to be ineffective. Freud's own success came from dealing with patients who had psychosomatic illnesses. He theorized that the symptoms, which these patients were experiencing, were due to repression of sexual desires. Consequently, Freud postulated that treatment of these symptoms was by bringing these suppressed desired into the conscious mind.

Freud's work has generated a lot of controversy, especially among feminist groups. They view Freud's work as a sexist. However, newer theories into human sexuality are still based on the original Freudian theories. These opponents are particularly offended by the use of the term "normal". They argue that normal is subjective and thus Freud's work is flawed. Freud did also observe that people with "normal" sexual tendencies were not normal afterall. He claimed that there was no normal sexual behavior. On the issue of pedophiles, Freud had an interesting observation. He characterized such perverse feelings as originating form fear. For instance, animals, which were unable to mate successfully with others, would take their frustrations out on young ones. Thus, he observed that pedophilia was not innate but rather grew out of fear.

Despite the major flaws, Freud does make a number of important points. This work was based on famous sexologists of his time. He read their theories and observed their work before coming up with his own theory. The first part of this work is dedicated to studying sexual behaviors that were not "normal". In his work, Freud observed a number of different sexual orientations, which he had observed such as homosexuality and bisexual tendencies. Freud observed that some of this individuals have always had this attraction since birth while others developed this "condition" after a certain trigger.

Sigmund Freud was the first to give detailed description of how children experienced sexual pleasure. He described that children experience pleasure through mechanical processes such as being flung in the air. He claimed that the sense of fear they experience followed by a sense of calmness was an intense source of sexual pleasure. In his work, Freud also suggested that children had specific erogenous zones through which they would experience sexual pleasure. For instance, the act of a child sucking on their thumb was for sexual pleasure. He also postulated the anal area could be converted into an area of sexual pleasure where the child experiences pleasure by exerting pressure.

On his explanations on the stages of sexual development in children, Freud claimed the first stage was borne out of curiosity. A young boy will wonder why they are built different from girls. He also suggested that girls on discovering they do not have a penis develop what he termed as "sexual envy". Freud suggested that this early developments in the child of a life had a great influence on them later on in life. He suggested boys would develop a fear for their father and thus try to mimic him in an attempt to appease him. This fear was the fear of castration. According to Freud this fear came out of sexual desire for his mother. He also postulates he discovery of the penis to be the origin of misogyny. Freud suggested that when the boy made the discovery that the opposite sex lacks a penis, he would henceforth look down on the as lesser men. Freud suggested that later on, this feeling would disappear but re-emerge later in puberty. At this stage, the person's sexual desire and relationships would be staged by the early stages of development. One of his wildest claims was that the desire for intellectualism was driven by sexual desires.

The essays also do briefly touch on sadomasochism. He explained that the drive men had to be aggressive was rooted in more than a desire to mate. He postulated that men were driven by the dire to completely dominate the female in every way. He also observed that this trait was common in most men. However, it existed in varying degrees among different men.

The original Freud theories have been revised over the course of more than a hundred years. Although most of his work has been disproved. He did make some very progressive a point for a man of his time. For instance, he gave an explanation to what were seen as perverse sexual nature of people at the time. In essence, Freud was challenging the long held notion that all sexual desire came from a biological desire to mate. Here in lies the contradictory nature of Freud's work. Although he clearly described sexuality developing independently from a desire to mate, he still viewed it as perverse. Freud also viewed sexuality as fluid and not fixed, thus it developed over the course of an individual's life.

From the aforementioned summary, it is quite clear that Sigmund Freud was obsessed by development of human beings as rooted in sexuality. However, his work does raise some interest. For instance, Freud's attributes the rise of monotheism and the strong hold it had at the time to psychosexual development. In addition, Freud attributed the ease with which strongmen in most states at the time ruled with absolute authority to development of human sexuality. His work was controversial during his time and still is even today. However, Freud's contribution to modern psychoanalysis is not in doubt.

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: The 1905 Edition - Sigmund Freud

The first edition of this classic work from 1905 shows a radically different psychoanalysis.

The traditional story about the historical origins of Freudian psychoanalysis implies that the Oedipus complex was part of Freudian theory from the very beginning. However, in this first edition of  Three Essays on Sexuality , first published in 1905 and never before translated into English, we find no reference whatsoever to the Oedipus complex. Is there a Freudian psychoanalysis that is not Oedipal?

This first version of Freud’s  Three Essays  articulates just such a non-Oedipal psychoanalysis. As such, it still has a definite ‘emancipatory’ potential; Freudian psychoanalysis is not Oedipal in its very nature. It is only from 1909 onwards that psychoanalysis tends to become a sophisticated defence of what Freud first called the ‘popular opinion’ about sexuality. It was precisely this ‘popular opinion’ that psychoanalysis originally was meant to deconstruct. Is there a Freudian escape – that is an escape that remains not so much within Freudian orthodoxy, but at least within its inspiration – from this impasse?

If Freud has respected more systematically his own original thesis, could it be that the Oedipus complex wouldn’t be the shibboleth of psychoanalysis? Not only is this first edition less Oedipal than is generally believed, but it also contains the elements for thinking a ‘non-Oedipal’ psychoanalysis; a Freud against Oedipus.

Introduction by Philippe Van Haute

Publisher:  Verso

Published: January 2014

Format: Paperback

Dimensions:  13.06 x 0.69 x 20.27 cm

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Hardcover – September 29, 2010

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Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality is a work by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author advances his theory of sexuality, in particular its relation to childhood. Freud's book covers three main areas: sexual perversions; childhood sexuality; and puberty.

• Print length 102 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Lits
• Publication date September 29, 2010
• Dimensions 6 x 0.31 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 1609422899
• ISBN-13 978-1609422899
• See all details

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About the author.

Ulrike Kistner is professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has published Commissioning and Contesting Post-Apartheid's Human Rights and numerous articles on political, aesthetic, and psychoanalytic theory.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lits (September 29, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 102 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1609422899
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1609422899
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.31 x 9 inches
• #1,341 in Medical Psychoanalysis
• #1,758 in Psychology & Counseling Books on Sexuality
• #1,895 in Popular Psychology Psychoanalysis

About the authors

James strachey.

James Strachey (1887-1967) was a British psychoanalyst, and, with his wife Alix, a noted translator of Sigmund Freud into English.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Moravia; between the ages of four and eighty-two his home was in Vienna: in 1938 Hitler's invasion of Austria forced him to seek asylum in London, where he died in the following year.

His career began with several years of brilliant work on the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system. He was almost thirty when, after a period of study under Charcot in Paris, his interests first turned to psychology, and another ten years of clinical work in Vienna (at first in collaboration with Breuer, an older colleague) saw the birth of his creation, psychoanalysis. This began simply as a method of treating neurotic patients by investigating their minds, but it quickly grew into an accumulation of knowledge about the workings of the mind in general, whether sick or healthy. Freud was thus able to demonstrate the normal development of the sexual instinct in childhood and, largely on the basis of an examination of dreams, arrived at his fundamental discovery of the unconscious forces that influence our everyday thoughts and actions.

Freud's life was uneventful, but his ideas have shaped not only many specialist disciplines, but the whole intellectual climate of the last half-century.

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