Freud's views on early female sexuality in the light of direct child observation.

Freud's writings on early female sexuality are reviewed in order to demonstrate which of his central assumptions are supported and which have been corrected by the direct observation of young children. The study of the emergence of core gender identity in little girls is a key to the modification of Freud's statements on the onset of and crucial factors in the development of femininity. Cognitive functions, learning experiences, and language are believed to be more important than Freud stressed, and penis envy and feelings of inferiority are relegated to a less universal and less necessary place in the onset of femininity. The role of the father is given different emphasis. Direct observation clarifies many aspects of masturbation or early genital self-stimulation in the young female: its onset; its feminine rather than masculine character; its early vicissitudes; its importance relative to other behavior; the impact of the discovery of anatomical difference; one special way it is affected by parental attitude; and how it contrasts with comparable behavior in the young male. Observation refutes Freud's often quoted statement that masturbation is further removed from the nature of women than of men.