higher psychic activities. He who is in any way psychically abnormal, be
it in social or ethical conditions, is, according to my experience,
regularly so in his sexual life. But many are abnormal in their sexual
life who in every other respect correspond to the average; they have
followed the human cultural development, but sexuality remained as their
weak point.

As a general result of these discussions we come to see that, under
numerous conditions and among a surprising number of individuals, the
nature and value of the sexual object steps into the background. There
is something else in the sexual impulse which is the essential and
constant.[13]


2. DEVIATION IN REFERENCE TO THE SEXUAL AIM

The union of the genitals in the characteristic act of copulation is
taken as the normal sexual aim. It serves to loosen the sexual tension
and temporarily to quench the sexual desire (gratification analogous to
satisfaction of hunger). Yet even in the most normal sexual process
those additions are distinguishable, the development of which leads to
the aberrations described as _perversions_. Thus certain intermediary
relations to the sexual object connected with copulation, such as
touching and looking, are recognized as preliminary to the sexual aim.
These activities are on the one hand themselves connected with pleasure
and on the other hand they enhance the excitement which persists until
the definite sexual aim is reached. One definite kind of contiguity,
consisting of mutual approximation of the mucous membranes of the lips
in the form of a kiss, has received among the most civilized nations a
sexual value, though the parts of the body concerned do not belong to