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| Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was a 1905 work by
Sigmund Freud which advanced his theory of sexuality, in
particular its relation to childhood. In short, Freud argued
that "perversion" was present even among the healthy, and that
the path towards a mature and normal sexual attitude began not
at puberty but at early childhood (see psychosexual
development). Looking at children, Freud claimed to find a
number of practices which looked innocuous but were really forms
of sexual activity (thumb sucking was a primary example, the
implications being fairly obvious). Freud also sought to link
his theory of the unconscious put forward in The Interpretation
of Dreams (1899) and his work on hysteria by means of positing
sexuality as the driving force of both neuroses (through
repression) and perversion. It also included the concepts of
penis envy, castration anxiety, and the yet-unnamed