‘If I bring up the sexual problems of the kids,’ says P., who teaches Shop in Junior High, ‘the others will say: “Stick to your woodwork!” This is the time for Socrates’ question — what is woodwork? The young man cannot hammer a nail because he does not hammer on the outbreath. He holds back his anger. We want our young people to have skill and strength, but we will not speak of aggression. We want the work to be beautiful, but we will not speak of sex.’

In psychoanalysis we will speak of sex — but not as much as we used to. Perhaps we are getting on. Puberty, however, brings an urgency to matters of sex and sexuality that usually forces them to everyone's attention, unless interest and curiosity are made subject to the principle of the need not to know.