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

Introduction

Neglect of the Infantile Factor

Freud notes that past writers concerned with the explaining the characteristics of adults, have looked at the influences of heredity, but not at childhood.

Infantile Amnesia

Freud proposes the phenomenon of infantile amnesia as the reason for this neglect, and that it occurs as repression in much the same way and for much the same reasons as hysterical amnesia.