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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXthe symbol of his country, but his devotion to it is not thethe sailorconquest of an inhibition, and when in old daysnailed the flag to the mast in battle it was certainly notbecause he feared to give free expressionto his love forhis country. A fundamental significance of the symbol is(as this example indicates) that it gives concrete shape toa more abstract feeling-idea. When a lover concentrateshis attention on some special feature of his mistress or herbelongings her hair or her hand or her shoes he is notovercoming an inhibition; he isbringing to a more manageableconcrete focus the diffused emotions which hefeels for the beloved's whole personality.There is neverthelessa specialclass of symbols by which an indirectrepresentation replaces something hidden which is thereal motive force, because it has characteristics in commonwith it and can thus give a satisfaction which is reallyEven ifimparted by the hidden thing it represents.psycho-analysts have sometimes exaggerated the extent ofthis class of it existssymbolisms, and must not be overlooked.The extent of erotic symbolism is seen when we attemptto group and classify the phenomena which may bebrought under this head. Such phenomena may be con-on the basis ofveniently arranged in three great classes,the objects which arouse them.i. PARTS OF THE BODY (A), Normal: Hand, foot,breasts, nates, hair, secretions and excretions, odor(ophresiolagnia) . (B) Abnormal: Lameness, squinting,.pitting of smallpox, etc., Paidophilia, or the sexual loveof children, 1presbyophilia, or the love of the aged, and1 Paidophilia is sometimes regarded as a separatedeviation. Medicolegallyit is convenient so to regard it I am, however, inclined to agreewith Leppmann, who has carefully studied sexual outrages on children,that, psychologically, there is no definite deviation on a congenital basisinvolving an exclusive sexual attraction to unripe girls. It may easily