Freud developed his theoretical propositions about sexuality on the basis of the limited knowledge available in his day and guided by unexamined ideologies of the 'natural' inferiority of women. Some of these propositions have been disproved by research on embryology and on the physiology of the sexual function in both genders. The organization of the human embryo is, in a primary sense, female; therefore, the clitoris cannot be regarded as a rudimentary penis. Both genders identify first with the mother. The notion that at puberty the clitoris must be given up for the vagina as central zone of sexual arousal and satisfaction is untenable inasmuch as the 'purely' vaginal orgasm is a myth. The author emphasizes that the psychoanalytic theory of sexuality and of neurosis deals primarily with the psychic transformation of biological-physiological givens. When considered in this framework, the tradition is seen as having been marked by an underestimation of the formative power of social ideologies.