Sexual life of the child (1909) Albert Moll torrent

"The Sexual Life of the Child"

by Moll, Albert, 1862-1939
Translated from the German by Paul, Eden, 1865-1944
Introduction by Thorndike, Edward L. (Edward Lee), 1874-1949
First published in German as Das Sexualleben des Kindes, 1909
First published in English by Macmillan, 1912. LCCN 12-015624
Copyright © 1912 The Macmillan Company
This edition of October 2000 by Books Reborn
xv, 339 p. ; 20 cm.
155.3 HQ56.M67


http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/INDEX.HTM

MOLL, ALBERT

Albert Moll (1862-1939) was a major rival to Magnus Hirschfeld. A Berlin neurologist, he wrote an influential book on homosexuality entitled Die Konträre Sexualempfindug (1891), in which he distinguished between innate and acquired homosexuality. He regarded innate homosexuality as a stepchild of nature and held that the sex drive was an innate psychological function that could be injured or malformed through no fault or choice of the individual.

He further refined his theory in a general treatise on sexuality, Untersuchungen über die Libido sexualis (1897), where he emphasized homosexuality as an illness, probably with an "inherited taint." His major work was his Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaft (1911), where he developed association therapy, the replacement of same-sex associations with those of the opposite sex, as a curative technique.

Over the years, Moll grew increasingly hostile to Hirschfeld, in part because of Hirschfeld's polemical style and because of what he regarded as the ethically dubious facets of Hirschfeld's activity. As he did so, he also changed his mind about the innate character of homosexuality and went into full opposition to Hirschfeld by organizing a rival international congress. Though never a Nazi (Moll came from a Jewish background), he mistakenly believed he could continue to be active under them, and after the Nazi takeover he was unable to practice and was more or less under house arrest until he died. His autobiography, Ein Leben als Arzt der Seek (1936), was his final attack on Hirschfeld's views. Though he still believed that there might be a few homosexuals whose orientation could be called innate, he felt that most homosexuality was acquired through improper sexual experiences and attacked those who argued for social and legal acceptance of homosexuality.

He pioneered the study of childhood sexuality in his Sexualleben des Kindes, and his handbook (mentioned above) was the first comprehensive work on sex. His theory of the sex life of the child had a profound effect on Freudian concepts, though Freud did not acknowledge it.

Vern L. Bullough