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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXcians that many "perversions,"as such variations of sexualactivity are still usually called, have become more commonNumerous causes may contribute toduring recent years.this result. In part, significance is attached to a diminutionof prostitution,and to a greater repugnance to intercoursewith prostitutes, with the substitution of sexual gratifica-or fears oftion with women who, through moral scruplespregnancy, are unwilling to permit actual intercourse.In addition there isprobably to be considered a greaterdegree of refinement in the advance of civilization, whichleads lovers to find pleasure in ways which among primitivefolk, or even between themselves in the absence ofpassionate love, might appear disgusting. There are, ofsexual feeling,course, also, those who by some deep-rooted deviation ofsuch as inversion or masochism or fetichism,can only find sexual satisfaction possiblewhen thestimulus reaches them through some abnormal channel.Even here what we call a "perversion," when not carriedto an extreme point, is, as Wolbarst states, "often found asa normal constituent in the lives of normal individuals."Freud, indeed, has said, and probably with truth, thatthere is"perversity"no healthy person in whom some such element ofdoes not sometimes occur.The conclusion we are today slowly reachingis thatthe abnormal gratification of the sexual impulse, howeverunusual or even repugnant it may seem, calls for no condemnationor interference, except in two classes of cases,the one affecting medicine, and the other the law. Thatis to say, in the first class, the subject of the abnormalactivity may be injuring his health, in which case he needsmedical or psycho-therapeutic treatment. Or, in the secondcase, he may be injuring the health or the rights of hispartner or of a third party, in which case the law isentitled to interfere. There are a number of various ways