ood are of
brief duration. Separation at first gives rise to spiritual pain, but
this is as a rule soon forgotten; similarly when the beloved one is
snatched away by death, the child's grief is not enduring. Commonly such
painful emotions speedily pass away; and whether the parting is due to
death or to other causes, a new passion is apt shortly to replace the
old. In exceptional cases, however, the death of the beloved one, or
separation otherwise effected, may, even in the child lead to suicide or
to severe nervous disturbances.

Hitherto I have spoken of the processes of detumescence and
contrectation as isolated manifestations. As regards the relationships
between these respective processes, there are various possibilities. In
the first place, one may exist when the other is absent, that is to say,
the phenomena of detumescence or the phenomena of contrectation may
appear in isolation. Secondly, the two processes may be in complete
association each with the other. A boy of thirteen years feels the
impulse to draw near to a girl, and to kiss her; when this close contact
takes place, erection ensues. Of all the cases known to me, the earliest
age at which such a phenomenon occurred is given in a case published by
Fere.[37]

Two cousins, boy and girl, were playmates from the time they were both
about three years old. They played at being man and wife; and when they
were not actually together, the boy's imagination was occupied with the
subject. He thought continually about it, and when he was in bed at
night erection occurred, accompanied by an agreeable sensation. He went
to sleep, and dreamed that other persons got into bed with him and
touched him. Among these persons was the little girl, his cousin. Such
dreams recurred very frequently; the girl, moreover, was constantly in
his waking thoughts. As he grew older, his fondness persisted; but when
at the age of seventeen he made up his mind to tell his cousin of his
love for her, she became engaged to someone else. Consequently he
suffered from severe nervous shock.

In the third place, the two processes, contrectation and detumescence,
may occur simultaneously, without the detumescence being associated with
the object of the contrectation impulse. Thus cases occur in which boys
experience organic sensations in the genital organs leading them to
masturbate, and at the same time love someone; and yet when in the
company of, and even when embracing the beloved, such