even if an inferior, erogenous zone. The inferiority of this second
region urges it later to seek the same parts, the lips of another
person. ("It is a pity that I cannot kiss myself," might be attributed
to it.)

Not all children suck their thumbs. It may be assumed that it is found
only in children in whom the erogenous significance of the lip-zone is
constitutionally reënforced. Children in whom this is retained are
habitual kissers as adults and show a tendency to perverse kissing, or
as men they have a marked desire for drinking and smoking. But if
repression comes into play they experience disgust for eating and evince
hysterical vomiting. By virtue of the community of the lip-zone the
repression encroaches upon the impulse of nourishment. Many of my female
patients showing disturbances in eating, such as hysterical globus,
choking sensations, and vomiting, have been energetic thumbsuckers
during infancy.

In the thumbsucking or pleasure-sucking we have already been able to
observe the three essential characters of an infantile sexual
manifestation. The latter has its origin in conjunction with a bodily
function which is very important for life, it does not yet know any
sexual object, it is _autoerotic_ and its sexual aim is under the
control of an _erogenous zone_. Let us assume for the present that these
characters also hold true for most of the other activities of the
infantile sexual impulse.


THE SEXUAL AIM OF THE INFANTILE SEXUALITY

*The Characters of the Erogenous Zones.*--From the example of