Masculine and Feminine: Psychoanalytic Observations on the “Genital Theory” and on Secondary and Tertiary Sex Characteristics*

To-day I am fortified against a reproach which we frequently hear; it is said of psychoanalysis (an obvious exaggeration of facts) that it wishes to explain everything with sexuality. Since to-day I am going to speak of the sex differences between man and woman, it is, I believe, pertinent to speak of sexuality in this connection, for surely no one doubts at the present time, that the outer appearance and the psychic characteristics of male and female are remote consequences of the functions of the sex organs. Biologists have anticipated us in this assumption. Animal experiments have shown clearly that one can destroy or change sex characteristics by the grafting or removal of sex glands. The biologist has also recognized the effect of purely psychical influences on sex characteristics. It is sufficient to cite one example: a male rat which had been kept with males and had degenerated sexually, was suddenly placed near a cage of female rats. In a short time the animal was transformed internally and externally, and manifested male behavior under the mere influence of the sight and scent of the female. (Steinach). It is hardly too much to speak here of a change of sex characteristics under psychic influence. Only one who rejects the assumption of psychic qualities in animals, could object to this.

But psychoanalysts go further, at times, than the exponents of current biology. Previously I discussed the fact that Freud succeeded in throwing light on the theory of instincts, the most obscure chapter of biology, with the aid of purely psychoanalytical experience. His analysis of neuroses enabled him to reconstruct the beginnings