ABSTRACT
For both children and adults, the topic of sexuality is undeniably one of universal fascination. Even when that interest is repudiated by the vicissitudes of defenses, sexuality continues to exert a profound influence on the person and his or her relationships-sometimes because of the very denial or repression that attempts to remove it. Although young children are without the cognitive maturity to embrace its significance fully, we can witness the shadow of sexuality in their behavior and in their conversations with peers and siblings. When the child enters school, we are able to observe changes in what interests him and even what he speaks about as he becomes exposed to the fascinating social world existing outside the family, including the unconscious sexuality of each and every person that he will now encounter. Beginning in infancy and then evolving and maturing through childhood into old age, sexuality will continue to exert its impact. Even as it changes in the strength of its drive with the passage of years or when interrupted during times that preclude its more usual aim, channel, or capacity for discharge, its visage is always present as it continues to exert its ineluctable influence on human motivation.
