[Attachment and sexuality in psychoanalytic theories and practice]

Based on Parin's statement that sexuality has disappeared in psychoanalysis both in theory and practice, the classical libido theory is compared to empirical observations made in infants and here especially the theories of Bowlby. Both the concept of sexual climax in early childhood and the concept of sexual drives as a fundamental motivation for the psychic development are not on agreement with empirical studies carried out in infants and the findings of psychobiology and ethology. Bowlby describes the relationship between infant and mother as a bipersonal binding which begins during the first months of life. The child does not strive for sexual stimulation of erogenous zones but rather for tactile, acoustic and visual responses as well as physical contact and tranquility related to one known and trustworthy person. This binding is totally different to the sexual relationship which evolves during adolescence and in which binding takes place between persons of the same species but to whom no relation had existed during early and later childhood. It is important for the psychotherapist that he be able to distinguish between being an object of the childish wish for binding or of adult sexual desires.