Three essays on the theory of sexuality.

This book is great—I read the 1905 edition, and it’s an attempt by Freud to understand the phases of psychosexual development before the introduction of concepts like the Oedipus conflict, so on. In some ways, Freud is strikingly progressive here. He pushes back the idea that homosexuality is a “perversion,” and argues that most sexual behavior is not worth being classified as pathological. Instead, we were just thinking about it the wrong way.

Freud goes on to argue that sexuality is not just a function of reproduction, and that it really begins in infancy, with actions like sucking, hugging, and being softly caressed. As a result, what is understood is “pure love” by parents is actually experienced by young children as sexual attraction. After early childhood, sexuality undergoes a “latency period,” with some notable exceptions. When a child reaches sexual maturity (i.e. puberty), his or her behaviors have already been defined by the way s/he experienced sexuality as a child, although the adolescent won’t remember it as such.

The essays in this book represent an idea just beginning to germinate, and I think Freud might be right in a lot of ways.