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TWENTIETH LECTURE GENERAL THEORY OF THE NEUROSES The Sexual Life of Man ONE might think we could take for granted what we are to understand by the term " sexual . " Of course , the sexual is the indecent , which we must not talk about . I have been told that the pupils of a famous psychiatrist once took the trouble to convince their teacher that the symptoms of hysteria very frequently represent sexual matters . With this intention they took him to the bedside of a woman suffering from hysteria , whose attacks were unmistakable imitations of the act of delivery . He , however , threw aside their suggestion with the remark , " a delivery is nothing sexual . " Assuredly , a delivery need not under all circumstances be indecent . I see that you take it amiss that I jest about such serious matters . But this is not altogether a jest . In all seriousness , it is not altogether easy to define the concept " sexual . " Perhaps the only accurate definition would be everything that is connected with the difference between the two sexes ; but this you may find too general and too colorless . If you emphasize the sexual act as the central factor , you might say that everything is sexual which seeks to obtain sensual excitement from the body and especially from the sexual organs of the opposite sex , and which aims toward the union of the genitals and the performance of the sexual act . But then you are really very close to the comparison of sexual and indecent , and the act of delivery is not sexual . But if you think of the function of reproduction as the nucleus of sexuality you are in danger of excluding a number of things that do not aim at reproduction but are certainly sexual , such as onanism or even kissing . But we are prepared to realize that attempts at definition always lead to difficulties ; let us give up the attempt to achieve the unusual in our particular case . We may suspect that in the development of the concept " sexual " something occurred which resulted in a false disguise . On the whole , we are quite well oriented as to what people call sexual .
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