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

INTRODUCTIONand conventional dictates. That, however, is a shortsightedcourse of action which leads to many awkwardpositions, to all kinds of inconsistencies, not seldom to agreater evil than the evil it is sought to cure. For it is thespecial characteristic of the sexual impulse, as distinctfrom the nutritive impulse, that its normal gratificationinvolves another person. It leads directly into the socialsphere, into the sphereof morals. No one isentitled toseek his own good, or can be advised to seek his good, inany line of action which involves evil to other persons.Nor, indeed, can the patient's own good, in any comprehensiveand rational sense, be found in a line of actioninvolving injury to those nearest to him, or a violation ofhis own conscience and convictions. The wise physiciancannot afford to neglect these considerations, even thoughhe may be fully resolved that his advice shall not be basedon mere conventions. They are real and vital considerations,interwoven with the traditional social edifice inwhich we all live, and in innumerable cases they render itimpossible for the physician to follow purely biologicallines in framing his psychosexual therapeutics. He mustoften feel himself helpless because the condition beforehim is largely the result of factors over which he has nocontrol, just as he must feel himself helpless with patientswhose condition ismainly the result of overwork and underfeedingwhich the conditions of their lives have renderedinevitable.It may be desirable, at the same time, to point out that,while the patient's moral situation cannot be ignored,itwould be a mistake to regard the moral situation as absolutelyrigid and unchangeable. Morals are in perpetualtransition. Much that isregarded as moral today, or at allevents as permitted, was fifty years ago regarded as immoral,and was not openly permitted. In harmony with[5 ]