will offer lines of least resistance which may, on occasion, invite
illness or perversion.

[Footnote 11: This is the stage which is technically known as
auto-eroticism or self-love.]

=In Love with His Family.= Presently Nature pries the child loose from
love of himself and directs part of his interests to people outside
himself. Before he is a year old, part of his love is turned to
others. In this stage it is natural that at first his affection should
center on those who make up his home circle,--his parents and other
members of the household. Even in this early choice we see a
foreshadowing of his future need. The normal little boy is especially
fond of his mother, and the normal little girl of her father. Not all
the love goes to the parent of the opposite sex, but if the child be
normal, a noticeably larger part finds its way in that direction.
Observing parents can often see unmistakable signs of jealousy: toward
the parent of the same sex, or the brother or sister of the same sex.
The little boy who sleeps with his mother while his father is away, or
who on these occasions gets all the attention and all the petting he
craves, is naturally eager to perpetuate this state of affairs. Many a
small boy has been heard to say that he wished his father would go
away and stay all the time,--to the horror of the parents who do not
understand. All this is natural enough, but it is not to be
encouraged. The pattern of the father or the mother must not be
stamped too deep in the impressionable child-mind. Too little love and
sympathy are bad, leading to repression and a morbid turning in of the
love-force; but too much petting, too many caresses are just as bad.
Sentimental self-indulgence on the part of the parents has been
repeatedly proved to be the cause of many a later illness for the