Chapter 1) The Primacy of the Sexual Zone and Fore-Pleasure of Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality - Study Guide by Sigmund Freud

1) The Primacy of the Sexual Zone and Fore-Pleasure

The most striking process at puberty is the manifest growth of the external genitalia. Also noteworthy is the return of sexual stimulation and excitement from three directions (the external world; the organic interior and from mental life), which also shows itself both mentally and somatically.

Sexual Tension

The fact that sexual excitement can also produce tension and unpleasure, is problematic. How are this unpleasurable tension and this feeling of pleasure to be reconciled?

The Mechanism of Fore-pleasure

In this, erotogenic zones are used to provide a certain amount of pleasure by being appropriately stimulated. This leads to an increase in tension which in turn is responsibel for the motor energy for concluding the sexual act. Thus we arrive at two pleasures - one due to the excitation of the erotogenous zones and the other due to the discharge of sexual substances - 'fore-pleasure' and 'end-pleasure' respectively.

Dangers of Fore-pleasure

The connection between fore-pleasure and infantile sexual life is made clearer by the pathogenic part which it can come to play, since fore-pleasure can endanger the attainment of the sexual aim if it is too great and the tension too small. This can be avoided if the primacy of the genitals too is adumbrated in childhood. Thus the distinctions between adult and infantile sexual life can be seen to decrease, and the impact of the infantile on the mature, seen to be great.