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Foreword
In the Introductory Lectures (1915–1917), Freud introduced his theory of sexuality by describing it as an effort to extend our understanding of human sexuality beyond the realm of genital union. While Freud’s theory of sexuality has been the target of a great deal of criticism, many of his ideas remain cogent: that sexuality has a lengthy developmental course, that we can observe differences in the ways men and women think about and express their sexuality, and that our entire history of relating to others becomes woven into our unique individual sexual expressions. Additional compelling ideas are that we have rich fantasy lives which inform our sexuality, that most people turn to sexual day dreams with great frequency and often our conscious fantasies seem to have little to do with actual “genital union.”
The Standard Edition is full of examples of a wide variety of sexual expression and difficulties of sexuality between couples in Vienna at the turn of the century. Infidelity, fetishism, an inability to move into adult sexuality, incest, what we would now call child sexual abuse, are all detailed in Freud’s works. Indeed there is good evidence that the idea of a Transference Cure came out of observations of temporarily restored mental health after a visit to a Spa—the treatment of choice for a wide variety of mental difficulties at that time.