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A very interesting and suggestive paper that should be read in the original.
The authors asks first, in what does 'growing up' consist? Among the principal criteria of mental growth he finds:
1increase of intellectual power; though he is inclined to believe that advance here is less great than is often supposed, since the inhibition
inseparable from the process of education frequently hinder the free use of the intellect.
2greater integration, i.e. greater co-ordination among the various components of the mind—this being dependent on a heightened capacity for inhibition.
3decreasing ego-centricity and self-sufficiency, accompanied by a greater interest and love for persons and things in the outer world. Connected with this is the replacement of phantasy by greater adaptation to reality.
4a diminution in the degree of dependence; this being due in the last resort (as psycho-analysis has shown) to an outgrowing of the infantile attachment to one or other parent.
5sexual development, along the lines revealed by psycho-analytic research.