"SECOND ONLY TO THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS IN ITS IMPORTANCE TO FREUDIAN THEORY": THREE ESSAYS ON THE THEORY OF SEXUALITY, FIRST AUTHORIZED ENGLISH TRANSLATION, 1949
FREUD, Sigmund. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Authorized Translation by James Strachey. London: Imago, (1949). Slim octavo, original navy cloth, original dust jacket.
First English edition of the first authorized translation in English of Freud's essays on infantile sexuality and human psychosexual development, a fine copy in the original dust jacket.
Three Essays is "second only to the Interpretation of Dreams in its importance to Freudian theory. The work sets forth Freud's theory of infantile sexuality and psychosexual development, in which he postulated the existence of infantile erogenous zones, stated that an infant's first sexual objects are its parents, and described the four stages of human sexual development: oral, anal, phallic and genital. That infants and children experience sexual feelings had long been observed by parents and nursemaids, yet the analysis of this delicate subject in a scientific treatise centered Freud in a storm of criticism that has not yet fully abated" (Norman F55). The essays include "The Sexual Aberrations," "Infantile Sexuality," and "The Transformations of Puberty." First edition, first printing. First published in German in 1905; the first American edition was published in 1910 under the title Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory. Grinstein 79.
A fine copy.