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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXwhich sex exists. To exclude procreation is perfectly legitimate,and under some circumstances morally imperative.But sexual activities entirely and by preference outsidethe range in which procreation isconsidered abnormal; they are deviations.possible may fairly beSexual deviations were formerly called "perversions."That word arose at a time when sexual anomalies wereuniversally regarded as sins or crimes, at the least as vices.It is still used by those whose ideas are rooted in traditionsof the past which they cannot outgrow. In earlieryears I have myself used it, though under protest, andwith explanations of what I thereby meant. I now realizethat (asDickinson also has pointed out) the time hascome to avoid the word, so far as possible, altogether.Even in the original Latin, peruersus sometimes conveysa moral judgment;it dates from days anterior to thescientific and medical approach to sexual matters, whichis concerned to understand sexual anomalies, and if necessaryto treat them, but not to condemn them. To retainhere a word which belongs to a totally different orderintroduces confusion, even apart from the undoubted andfact that it has unfortunate results onhighly importantthose persons who are told that they have been guilty o"perversion." The term is completely antiquated andmischievous, and should be avoided.The term "displacement" has sometimes been used toindicate an unusual fixation of the sexual impulse. Sucha term has the advantage of being morally neutral, butas it involves a static conception of the sexual impulse,which is really dynamic and living and liable to change,it is less satisfactory than "deviation" which is a termretaining dynamic force.For a long time past I have used the term "symbolism* *for many, or most, sexual deviations. By "erotic symbol-[148]