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The oral stage is concerned with libidinal and self-preservative activity as well as the fusing or diverting of primary instincts. The shortening or prolongation of suckling constitutes either a traumatic experience or a fixation, the former being in the author's experience almost invariably traumatic. It is suggested that primary gratification, which normally should become subsidiary in the next stage and finally represented in the fore-pleasure of coitus, may abnormally retain its dominating influence and become inhibitory. This inhibitory disturbance may be quantitative, libido energy being withdrawn from one point to invest another (displacement and condensation), or to reinvest another point through regression. Ferenczi thinks that the 'handing on' is qualitative, the genital act being a merging of pregential characteristics (amphimixis).
The importance of suckling to the child is described lucidly. Such factors as the smell of the maternal body and the colour and shape of breast and nipple are emphasized. The taste of blood from a cracked nipple reminds the child of his first blood-scented birth experiences. The punishment of weaning, preceded by the initial slaps administered for nipple biting together with the maternal erotic reactions to suckling, play an important part in future instinct modification.