Chapter Introduction of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

Introduction

Freud begins by disagreeing with popular opinion about the nature of our "sexual instinct" (or libido): that it is absent in childhood, sets in at the time of puberty in connection with physical changes and is revealed in the manifestations of an irresistible attraction exercised by one sex upon the other. Freud then introduces two terms: 'sexual object' referring to the person from whom the sexual attraction proceeds; and 'sexual aim' referring to the act towards the instinct tends. The rest of the essay is then concerned with the relation between deviations in these and what is assumed to be normal.