Sigmund Freud's 1905 work sets out his theory of sexuality in three essays. The first covers sexual aberrations, arguing that the range of human sexual behaviour cannot be neatly divided into normal and perverse, and that the sexual drive is separate from its object. The second deals with infantile sexuality, introducing the idea that children have sexual impulses that develop through stages, including the oral and anal phases. The third discusses the changes of puberty, when the drive takes its adult form. The essays introduce concepts such as the libido, erogenous zones and the polymorphous perversity of the child.
It is for readers of psychology, philosophy and the history of ideas who want to read a founding text of psychoanalysis directly. Whatever one thinks of its claims, it shaped twentieth-century thought about desire, childhood and identity.
Deep, inward-looking and contemplative; a demanding read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1991
- Publisher
- Fischer
- Language
- DE
