Note 81 — Chapter IX · THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES

In many of these, as for instance the nautical practice of ducking or "keel hauling" those who are crossing the equator for the first time, it is possible also to trace certain typical symbols of the re-birth phantasy.

The sexual aspects of initiation are apt to be particularly prominent in the case of boys entering a criminal or anti-social "gang". Thus an acute student of this subject writes to me: "I have often found that a delinquent boy was initiated into sexual knowledge and practices on the first evening that he joined his "gang"; e.g. in one such gang every new member had to exhibit himself. He was asked if he knew "what it (the penis) was for"; this was explained; and after certain criticisms were passed, the leader, after a thorough inspection, declared "you will do". There was also a catechism: "Do you know what your mother and father do..." etc; the result being to discredit them in the eyes of the boy and to lead him to emulate them or at least to defy and despise them."