Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXtion under normal circumstances (there are always exceptions)and is quickly overcome when a fascinating newobject of desire from outside his own circle strikes theyoung beholder. There is no anti-incestuous instinct, nonatural aversion, but a deep stirring of the sexual instinctneeds a strong excitement, and for this a new object isrequired, not one that has become commonplace by familiarity.This is a view to which Westermarck shows himselffavorable in the later edition o his great work on marriageand had previously been accepted by Crawley, aswell as by Heape. It is clear to any one who grasps thephysiology of the sexual process and the psychology ofcourtship. A typical illustration may be quoted fromRestif de la Bretonne's autobiography, Monsieur Nicolas,a precious document for erotic psychology. We here learnhow an extremely precocious child was from the age offour in some degree sexually excitable by his female companionsand playmates, though he received their caresseswith much shyness. It was not till the age of eleven thathe became highly aroused, even to the extent of attainingcoitus, and losing all his early shyness, and this was witha girl who was a stranger and belonging to another village.Many bad theories might have been avoided had thispsychological fact been clearly understood. There is no"aversion to incest," but under natural conditions a deepsexual attraction requires a powerful stimulus, and thiscannot normally arise out of familiarity.Various objections have been brought against my statementof the psychological basis of exogomy, but they aredue to misunderstandings and also a failure to allow formany highly relevant considerations. Some critics havebeen misled by too exclusively thinking of the conditionsamong civilized man and domesticated animals. Somehave failed to see that there is no question of absolute in-[94]