Albert Moll

“ I do not pretend to assert that those who have received religious instruction have become more immoral than the others; but I am certainly entitled to contest the assertion that religious instruction induces a loftier sexual morality. ”

“ I am led to this conviction by my experience that at the time when the process of sexual ripening begins, a child does not usually possess an adequate sense of the dangers of such malpractices. I am certainly afraid that nothing we can do will greatly lessen the prevalence of masturbation among children, I would rather venture to hope for a diminution in the prevalence of venereal diseases, as a result of the newer methods of sexual enlightenment; but even here there will be many cases in which passion will gain the victory over all possible prudential considerations. ”

“ The grave danger of allowing an unsuitable person to undertake the sexual enlightenment is obvious from the existence of those persons who teach that homosexual inclinations occurring in children indicate that they are permanently homosexual--a view which, as has been shown, is utterly erroneous. But let us suppose that one who holds such a doctrine is the person who has undertaken the sexual enlightenment of a child, and we can hardly doubt what the result will be, namely, to foster homosexuality. ”

“ A classical education, too, gives so many opportunities for the sight or the mention of the nude--for instance, delineations of the gods of the ancient mythology--that the demands of the "morality-fanatics" could be met only by cutting off the child from the most beautiful sources of culture. But now, let those who, in the lower classes of our schools, have seen in the text-books of mythology pictures of unclad gods and goddesses, seriously ask themselves whether in this connexion they ever experienced even the faintest uncleanness of thought! ”

“ Moreover, if the mother devotes a great deal of time and pains to the personal care of her child, this has, in the case of a boy, the great advantage of inculcating a greater respect for the female sex in general than is apt to be found in boys to-day. I consider this last-mentioned point to be one of the utmost importance in relation to the sexual enlightenment, for only in such a way can the boy when grown to manhood be led instinctively to refrain from the seduction of girls--with all the misery which such a course usually involves for the victims. ”

“ I have myself on several occasions been asked by parents with a proper care for the future morality and health of their children, to undertake the necessary enlightenment of these latter. I am absolutely convinced that when the child has complete trust in the person who effects the enlightenment, the explanation of everything is fully possible. ”

“ When a young man is being sent to the university, it is wise to instruct him concerning the dangers of venereal infection; but to inform him that human beings come into the world as the result of an act of sexual intercourse would be altogether superfluous. Conversely, if a child asks its parents where its little brother has come from, we do not need to say anything about syphilis and gonorrhoea; but none the less we can give such a child an account suitable for one of its age of the way in which human beings come into the world. ”

“ Although I am not myself an enthusiastic adherent of the movement started a few years back with a great flourish of trumpets for the introduction of art into the education of children--a movement which has already perceptibly slackened--I do not wish to deny the important bearings of art upon the education of the child. Children who are still comparatively young, have not as a rule much understanding of art. None the less, we must not withhold from the child possibilities of appreciating the beauties of the nude. ”

“ As if potency in intercourse with an experienced prostitute, skilled in all the tricks of her trade, were a proof that the bridegroom will prove sexually potent in intercourse with a chaste woman; or as if, on the other hand, the fact that a man proves impotent when he attempts intercourse with a prostitute whose embraces are repulsive to him, were in any sense whatever a proof that the same man will fail to effect intercourse with the woman he loves. ”

“ When children are properly educated, there is reason to hope that sexual matters will be less often treated in an obscene spirit than is the case to-day. Nor need we fear, when such education becomes the rule, that every allusion to sexual things may involve dangers to the child. Precisely because the sexual life will then be known to the child in a natural way, will there be less reason to dread the deliberate cultivation by children of sexual topics of conversation. ”

“ It will readily be understood that the performance upon children of sexual acts is a very serious matter for the children themselves, especially as affecting their sexual morality. It is true that in many instances paedophilia does not entail any consequences for the child, which completely fails to understand that it has been made use of for perverse purposes. The offender may know how to mask his actions, so that even a third person who is looking on may detect nothing more than tender caresses, and may remain altogether unaware of the existence of any sexual excitement. ”

“ The objection need not be raised that the sexual enlightenment would not safeguard a girl, since, when she gives herself to a man, a girl knows well enough that children are the result of sexual intercourse. The objection is unsound, if we only have a right understanding of what we mean by sexual enlightenment, and if at the same time we do not neglect the general sexual education. Enlightenment should not be limited to merely making the person concerned aware of the consequences of sexual acts ”

“ If at a social gathering for which evening dress is the rule, a gentleman turns up in light tweeds, he is guilty of a breach of custom, but not of an immoral action. If an officer in the army, having impregnated a young girl of the working class, marries her, his action is a moral one in the positive sense, but in spite of this he commits an offence against the customs of his class. Moreover, we have to remember that an act which is immoral or opposed to custom at a certain time and among a certain people, may at another time, or among another people, be neither the one nor the other. ”

“ But I have also been present at trials in which no such precautions were taken, but in which every child was allowed to hear all the uncleanness in the evidence of the other children, and perhaps also in that of adults. Knowledge of the world, and, above all, tact, will best save the judge from treating children wrongly in this matter. The way in which a trial is conducted, which is often an extremely mechanical one, will not always enable the judge to avail himself of the means requisite for the protection of children from contamination in the course of such a prosecution. ”

“ My view that what is commonly called religious education does not as a rule help the subject to master the sexual impulse, has been forced upon me by the numerous confessions entrusted to me by persons who have received such an education. Very recently, I was shown a diary in which a young man, obviously very religious and pious, to whom God was the source of all hope, and who thanked God for His grace on every page, refers again and again to the fact that he has found himself unable to overcome the lower forms of sensuality. ”

“ A child will naturally never give its confidence again to one who has once unjustly reproached it in this manner. On the other hand, a child is far more likely to acknowledge its faults to one in whom it has perfect confidence. The child's confidence can be gained only by an individual confidant. In the presence of such a confidant, a child loses all sense of false shame, and this is an indispensable precondition for effecting a really valuable enlightenment. ”

“ Enlightenment regarding the earliest manifestations of the sexual life, whether about the feelings or about the peripheral processes, demands such a degree of individualisation, that a schoolmaster or a schoolmistress, who has to teach from thirty to fifty pupils at once, or even a larger number than this, is quite unable to undertake anything of the kind. Such enlightenment can be properly effected only by an individual confidant, and by one who makes the fullest possible allowance for the child's own individuality. ”

“ A more serious matter is the extent to which erroneous views about sexual questions still prevail among the populace. A father who starts with the false assumption that his son must inevitably have intercourse with so many prostitutes and must seduce so many girls--in a word, a father who regards sexual abstinence as unmanly, or as necessarily dangerous to health (and fathers who hold such opinions are no rarity) --such a father must himself be sexually enlightened before we give him the right to enlighten his son. ”

“ A child may receive the best of instruction without result, if in its own environment it is continually seeing something precisely the opposite of that which it is being told. This applies with equal force to the sexual life, which can be influenced far more readily by example than by good teaching, if the latter, though daily repeated, conflicts with what the child sees every day in the conduct of its relatives and companions. ”

“ If we go further, and recognise that through the association of ideas such a sexual stimulus may arise from witnessing the coupling of animals--of dogs, for instance, in the street--we shall understand how the educator's powers are limited by the milieu in which he has to work. We have, therefore, to recognise clearly from the first, that in the education of the child the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli is impossible. ”

“ Of course we must avoid leading the child to dwell too much upon sexual topics, and fortunately human beings have numerous other interests. The sphere of the sexual must be regarded as a fraction merely of the general educational field. The inculcation of true ideas of morality, and of a sense of honour not confined to externals but one by which the entire being is permeated--these will be the safest essentials of a good sexual and general education. ”

“ Although we no longer assume that human impulses, emotions, and sentiments take their course quite independently of the influence of other psychical powers, such as the reason and the will, still, unprejudiced observation shows that the power of the reason and the will is less than many persons imagine. In very many cases we are able to see how difficult it is in a child of ten or less, to exert any notable influence upon the impulses, the emotions, and the sentiments. ”

“ By many persons, an especial stress is laid upon the value of religious education, for the purpose of directing in proper paths the sexual life of the child, and of giving help in the mastery of its temptations. But notwithstanding the fact that I value most highly a genuinely religious education, I feel that for the purposes just mentioned we cannot place much reliance upon that which in our schools of to-day passes by the name of religious education. ”

“ But a separation of the sexes will not do away with them, as is proved, not only by the homosexual manifestations of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, but also by those that arise transiently, at any rate, when the members of one sex are completely segregated from those of the other--as in boarding-schools, on board ship, and in prisons. The educator cannot even count on being at all times able to safeguard the child from the sight of sexual acts. ”

“ Similarly, a young man brought up to respect women will refrain from making a mock of pregnancy, whether "legitimate" or "illegitimate." When we see a young woman bearing a new life in her womb, owing her position it may be to all the subtle arts of the seducer, and note how cruelly she is treated by the law and what scorn and contempt are poured upon her by society and by the individual, we cannot fail to welcome most heartily the movement for the Protection of Motherhood (Mutterschutzbewegung) which has recently made such progress in Germany. ”

“ There is no doubt that our clothing is intimately connected with the development of the sentiment of shame and with the formation of our ideas of morality. But the more we learn so to form the mind of the child that it will not regard nakedness as being per se immoral, the sooner shall we be able, not only to instil into children truly moral ideas, but also to safeguard them against the risks of premature sexual excitement. ”

“ Although we must be careful not to overestimate the power of education, it would be no less erroneous to assume that development is inalterably predetermined at the time of procreation. This applies to the efficacy of educational influences in general, and to educational influences affecting the sexual life in particular. The following consideration must be given due weight. The power of the educator is limited, not merely by the child's hereditary dispositions, but also by the nature of its environment. ”

“ Now, we learn from experience, that when a perversion is traced back to its origination in a chastisement endured during childhood, this chastisement was as a rule the customary whipping of the buttocks. Far less frequently, and indeed hardly over, are we told that any other form of punishment has initiated a sexual perversion. ”

“ When at school the love adventures of Mars and Venus are the subject of the lesson, in children thus educated no unclean thoughts need arise. It must never be forgotten, however, that when the imagination has been perverted, opportunities for unclean thoughts recur with extraordinary frequency; and indeed by no means whatever can such opportunities be altogether avoided. Since this is so, we must strengthen the child against the dangers it will inevitably encounter, and must be careful not to pervert its imagination by a false prudery. ”

“ A girl brought up in this way will defend herself instinctively against the wiles of a seducer. But only by such an education, by one which is not confined to the mere imparting of information, can we produce in the girl greater powers of self-protection and a more enduring self-consciousness, and so save her from the far too common fate of behaving like a stupid unripe creature, and believing all the asseverations of the first man who makes love to her--asseverations which the man himself, in the moment of passion, very probably believes. ”

“ A very real and serious danger to children is to be found in my opinion in the risk of the progressive cultivation of homosexuality, if they become victims of a paedophile. The adult homosexual will sometimes conceal a perverse inclination directed towards children under the cloak of friendship or of an educational interest. I have previously referred to the danger that the child, at a time of life when its own sexual impulse is still undifferentiated, may sometimes reciprocate such a feeling. ”

“ Boys who adopt a girlish behaviour, should not be encouraged in doing so by treating the matter as a joke. If a boy frequently dresses up as a girl, or a girl as a boy, and if we observe between two boys, or between two girls, an unduly intimate friendship at an age which corresponds to the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, it will be as well to modify the children's education accordingly. A girl with such inclinations should, for example, be thrown as much as possible into the society of lads of an appropriate age. ”

“ There is no ground whatever for the belief that to a fairly advanced child a serious person cannot suitably describe all the natural processes of the human body, including sexual intercourse. The child to whom these things are described in a well-considered way, will receive no kind of injury to its moral sentiments; nor will such a description, once more, if it is couched in well-chosen words, provoke in the child any tendency to laughter. ”

“ Where we have reason to believe, in the case of a particular child, that a perverse mode of sexual sensibility is developing, we shall occasionally find it preferable rather to attempt to hinder the growth of the perversion, than to try to cheek the general manifestations of the sexual impulse. ”

“ It is not religious education of such a kind that will have any good effect in the matter of sexual education; but that religious education only which is in complete accord with our ideas of morality, and which is based, not so much upon the historical and material contents of the Bible, as upon the internal and everlasting truths of religion. ”

“ But by itself a qualitatively abnormal sexual impulse gives the offender just as little right to plead irresponsibility, as a qualitatively abnormal sexual impulse gives the right to invade the sphere of interests of another. The fact that paedophile tendencies occur in those who are in other respects admirable persons does not countervail the need that children should be protected. ”