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

THE SEXUAL IMPULSE IN YOUTHcommon in Englandor even in France asthe Americanpercentage might lead us to anticipate.It will be seen that these manifestations extend far beyondthe classic conception of ' 'masturbation" in its literaland commonly accepted sense, which cannot really be saidto constitute a separate group for it blends with the largergroup without definite frontiers.of manifestations as aWhen we thus view this groupwhole it is seen why we cannot properly term them "perverse/'They are natural; they are the inevitable resultof the action of the sexual impulse when working in theabsence of the object of sexual desire, occurring, undersuch conditions, even in some of the lower animals; andthey are emphatically natural when they occur beforeadult age. It is natural also that they should occur inadult age when the sexual urge seems irresistible andwhen normal sexual approaches are undesired or undesirable,although, it must be added, it isequally naturalwhen, under such circumstances, they are inhibited or repressedby other considerations which may seem of asuperior order.It is instructive to explore the attitude towards prepubertaland youthful sexuality in different stages of cultureand different periods of history. When we are concernedwith an impulse so primitive and fundamental asthat of sex we cannot decide what is "natural" and whatis "perverse" merely by the standard set up in accordancewith shifting fashions of thought, the religious or socialcustoms of one particular age. Least of all can it be saidthat the age we are ourselves emerging from, with itspeculiar and highly colored views of sex, furnishes anyuniversal standard.Let us, for instance, turn to almost the only race of aculture outside our own traditions, which has yet been[101]