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Starting from Bernfeld's 'psycho-analytical' criterion of libidinal processes (Imago, XXI, 1935), the author points out that Bernfeld follows Freud in evading a definition of sexuality. Sexuality is circumscribed by a reference to the 'usual sense of the word'. The first part of the paper is devoted to an exploration of that 'usual sense'. It appears that the criterion of sexuality is sexual pleasure. This view is corroborated by comparing various references made by Freud to sexuality.
Whenever a psychological phenomenon is assumed to be a sexual one it is essential for practical and therapeutical work to verify its sexual nature. This can be done in three ways:
1The most accurate method is that the patient recognizes the connection of the analytical material with sexual pleasure, or that he remembers it. In this way the experience is made by and within the patient's ego.
2The second method is not achieved by a process within the patient's ego. The analyst sees the connection of the phantasy-material with pleasure, but the patient remains unaware of it. This method is based on empathy. An example is the story of the man sitting on a pot with rats (Collected Papers, III, p. 304). This method, of course, has a wider range of error.
3The third method is the weakest. The results gained by the two methods mentioned above can be applied, by analogy, to other objects. This method was used by Freud in his paper 'Leonardo da Vinci: A Psycho-Sexual Study of an Infantile Reminiscence'.
Another aspect of sexual impulses has been introduced by the postulaton of death-instincts. From this point of view sexual impulses are not to be recognized by the experience of pleasure accompanying them, but by the effect of binding together, of constructing etc. This criterion is called by Bernfeld 'physiognomical'. The physiognomical and psycho-analytical criteria are independent of each other, but one cannot overlook that the libido, in its most pronounced expression in the sexua