ABSTRACT

A being with a developed genital function is therefore better adapted with reference also to the nonerotic activities concerned with the demands of existence; he can defer erotic gratification until the latter no longer interferes with the functions of self-preservation. The process sn genital gratification consists so to speak in an eruptive genitalization of the entire organism, the complete identification, attained with the help of the frictional process, of the entire organism with the executive organ. The stages of sexual development described by Sigmund Freud therefore appear to us as a continually repeated attempt to reattain that goal—the genital organization itself, however, as a final even if only partial attainment of that which is demanded by the instinct. Since the libidinal tension ordinarily confined to the genital suddenly irradiates the entire organism, the organism not only shares enjoyment with the genital for the moment but shares anew the bliss of intrauterine existence.