ABSTRACT
Donald Meltzer’s revised theory of sexuality, set out in Sexual States of Mind, in a sense combines the three phases of the psychoanalytic approach. Sexuality, ethics and thought processes are intimately connected. Within the infantile category, Meltzer differentiates infantile polymorphous sexuality, a fluctuating state, from the infantile perversity that can infiltrate adult life. Polymorphous sexuality is egocentric, masturbatory and tends toward ‘wanton as distinct from compulsive promiscuity’, being essentially experimental. It strongly characterises adolescence but also small children, expressing a sense of puzzlement about the nature of genuine creativity. Meltzer categorises four types of adolescent. Meltzer also differentiates within the category of perversion, which he says is not adequately accounted for by the contrast between narcissistic and object-related states. By contrast with the multiplicity of infantile sexual states, the adult sexual state of mind can be simply described. His psychological model is internally, not socially, based, though it has social consequences.
