Impairment at any developmental level has its effect; the
earlier the impairment the greater the damage. For instance,
the girl who never developed an erotic interest in her mother
is hampered in forming sexual attachments to her playmates,
or a pleasure bond with her husband.
The twelveyear-
old boy with a firm erotic foundation who is secretly
enamored of his teacher is only temporarily shaken when she
rejects his clumsy overtures.
The foundation for the adult
sexual response is well established in the first six years of life.
Our cat has four kittens. One spits, claws, and scrambles
up the cardboard litter box.
She dashes across the kitchen
floor and hides behind the refrigerator. A second kitten likes
to be held and mews when he hears the children. Two others
eat, sleep, and play with one another.
Mama cat seems to
love them all-why are they so different? Kittens and children
are a heterogeneous lot, each with certain innate qualities,
or temperament.
The child's temperament consists of
certain well-defined, relatively stable attributes which have
been traced from infancy by researchers such as Stella
Chess. She describes nine components to temperament such
as adaptability, intensity of reaction, and distractibility.
Altogether these nine elements determine whether the child
will be easy or difficult to handle under most circumstances.
Difficult children require skillful guidance, as any nursery
school teacher can attest.
Most parents do well with an easy,
tractable child, while most are exasperated by a moody,
resistant, difficult child. Both the child's temperament and
the parents' adaptation to it influence the development of the
erotic response, as the following cases illustrate.
CARRIE AND HANK
In an effort to sustain their faltering marriage, the Andersons
produced two children in three years. Helen Anderson
described her first pregnancy as one continuous evacuation
due to an impossible combination of morning sickness and
diarrhea.
Carrie was born with high forceps after twenty-six
hours of hard labor. She arrived "screeching like a banshee"
and stained olive green by meconium (fetal stool discharged
before birth).
When her father first saw her in the hospital
nursery, she squalled while other babies slept. Carrie's first
year was marked by intermittent colic that abated in time
for teething to begin. Nothing worked for long. Helen felt
helpless and exhausted. She suspected her husband, Burt, of
having an affair.
When Carrie was fourteen months old she was more manageable,
although still moody and easily upset. Helen and
Burt were learning to communicate through marriage counseling,
and Burt spent more time at home.
Several months
later, Helen again became pregnant. She was pleasantly surprised
when her nausea abated after the first two months.
At
eight months she remarked that this infant was gentle compared
to Carrie. Labor lasted only six hours and the birth
was rapid and uncomplicated. Hank cried briefly after delivery,
then yawned and blinked as he was bundled off to the
nursery.
Thereafter, he ate and slept at regular intervals.
The next two years were turbulent. Violent quarrels and
Burt's unpredictable absences heralded the end of the marriage.
When Helen upbraided Burt, Carrie ran through the
house screaming, "I hate you," while Hank slept soundly in
his bed. Helen and Burt finally separated when Carrie was
almost five and Hank was two.
Although Carrie had never
been close to her father, she sobbed uncontrollably when he
moved to a distant city.