Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/54

 picture of the mother in the background remains a pattern to measure the prospects of future comforts and satisfactions.

From the standpoint of the sexual problem as such, the male child specifically carries this mother image in his psyche, without, of course, realizing it, as the instinctive guide in his future seeking for the love-object.

The character of this mental picture largely governs his future attitude toward all members of the opposite sex. Its normal characteristic is flexibility, and adaptation, and like all other primitive human qualities, it should develop and run its course. Nevertheless, in a more general way, it always remains as an index to determine the man's preferences among the members of the opposite sex, and for the specific object of his love in particular.

Now from the standpoint of food and physical comforts the girl infant should be, and is, as much attached to the mother as the male child. But here is where those subtle factors of the sex or love-life enter in. We know that at a very early age, the girl child shows a disposition, normally, to discriminate in expressing her affections in favor of the father.

Of course, the father, too, is a source of satisfaction and comfort, as he caresses the baby, often devoting much time to administering to its welfare and pleasure in his home hours, and in many ways identifies himself in the child's mind with loving care and protection. So, perhaps, he becomes to the little one a symbol of these desirable traits. The very fact that he acts as nurse extraordinary only part time—instead of being on twenty-four hour service, as is the case of the average mother—makes him more attentive to the child's wishes and more lenient with its faults, thus enhancing his nobility and grandeur in the child's eyes.

So we see how at a very early age, the little girl begins to