A Preliminary Study of the Emotion of Love between the Sexes

The author presents a preliminary scientific examination of sexual feelings, tracing their emergence and variation from early childhood through adolescence and into adult forms. After surveying limited prior literature, the work argues for studying normal development to understand pathological variants, reports observational evidence from schools and case examples, and outlines stages in the maturation of the reproductive instinct and its social inhibition by civilization. It also discusses psychological and physiological consequences of repression, common substitutes and courtship behaviors, and implications for sexual hygiene and clinical study.