ABSTRACT
Certain common features emerging during the therapy of a number of children in care have suggested that it would be helpful to direct attention to the appearance of markedly precocious or perverse sexuality as a significant feature of a child’s relationships and activities. In these ways it can be recognised as a precursor of the disturbances of sexuality which have been more commonly studied as manifestations of adult emotional life. From the beginning of life physiological growth and functioning can be seen as interrelating with the growth of personality, sensory and sensual experience with infantile ‘pre-genital’ sexuality, and all linking in many complex ways with the development of character traits and personal relationships. Whereas infantile sexuality is characterised as being experimental and imitative in terms of phantasies about the parental relationship, and predominantly masturbatory in aim, adult sexuality is envisaged as essentially creative and reciprocal.
