German Psycho-Analytical Society

April 12, 1932. Dr. Wulff: 'An Interesting Oral Symptom Complex'.

April 19, 1932. Dr. Sachs: 'The Retardation of the Age of Machinery'.

April 30, 1932. Dr. Lampl de Groot: 'A Contribution to the problems of Libidinal Tendencies whose aim is both active and passive'. Theory of bisexuality. The final development into masculinity (activity) or femininity (passivity) does not occur till puberty, though the way is prepared for it in early childhood. For active love it is necessary that the narcissistic libido-reservoir should reach a certain level so that libido may be transferred to the object. When his narcissism is damaged, a person must cause himself to be loved passively, in order that it may be restored. Of the early hurts sustained by the individual's narcissism the most important is the phallic, i.e. in boys, a pathologically acute dread of castration, in girls, the discovery of their lack of a penis. These wounding experiences result in the abandonment of activity in favour of passivity. The latter becomes fixated by a turning inwards of the instinct of aggression (masochism). In boys this process leads to mal-development, in girls to normal femininity.

If Freud's theory of instinct be applied to the problem of which portions of the libido are active and which passive in their aim, the following conclusions are arrived at. It appears to be the task of the narcissistic libido to bind the death-instinct which operates within the organism. Relations to objects are inaugurated by the instinct of aggression (the death-instinct turned outwards), which is accompanied by libido (the infant's behaviour in relation to the mother's breast). With the secondary turning inwards of the instinct of aggression libido is also withdrawn into the ego. Probably the libidinal trends whose aim is active are those which accompany the instinct of aggression when directed outwards, while that part of the libido whose aim is passive binds the aggressive