190 AUGUST STARCKE
can be differentiated in the same way as the energy of two hojrses that are together drawing a waggon.
The ego here coincides with the libidinous personality, that is to say, there is no doubt that the nipple in the mouth of the sucking child leaves behind engrams which by their later ecphoria give rise to something psychical, which, translated into the language of later life, would be something like: the memory of having possessed a nipple-like organ, and, moreover, a perfect one.
The question arises: How is it that the castration complex does not complain about the absence of the nipple in the child or man, but rather the absence of the penis in the woman; and why is this deficiency referred to the genitals and not to the mouth?
I do not venture to assert that the answer to these questions will be entirely satisfactory. However, we need not be discouraged if we are convinced that our hypothesis is a useful one; and that the apparent contradictions have to be attributed to the complex- ity of the subject.
In the first place the child will undoubtedly observe that people's mouths are almost aU alike, and that their genitals vary- Any envy, from whatever source it may come, will be most easily directed towards the genitals.:
A further cause of this envy may be the fact that girls can only feebly direct their stream of urine; but I do not consider this the main cause. It is the feeling of the loss of the nipple in the mouth zone that is displaced to the genital region in virtue of the difference of the genitals; perhaps also it is directed by a common third reason of a genital feeling during sucking, ana- logous to that during kissing. ^
Secondly it is doubtful whether feelings of loss do not actually continue to exist in the mouth. Hunger and appetite not only stand for intestinal sensations, but also for mouth sensations in the sense of the perception of the difference between the real actuality of the gratification of the mouth libido, and the infantile situation, the repetition of which is desired. *
In these mouth sensations we have to look for that part of the
- After being at the breast the infant generally empties its bladder:
there are therefore connections.
- See Abraham: "Untersuchungen flber die frflheste prSgenitale Entwick-
lungsstnfe der Libido." Internat, Zeitschr. f. drztl. Psychoanalyse, Bd. IV, S. 71.
