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

But it isMARRIAGEnot therefore to be denied that the difficultieso sexual abstinence, even though they do not involveany great risk to life or to sanity, are still very real toto cause minormany healthy and active persons.* It is aptdisturbances of physical well-being, and on the psychicside much mental worry and a constantly recurring strugglewith erotic obsessions, an unwholesome sexual hyperaesthesiawhich, especially in women, often takes the formof prudery. A student, for instance, who lives chastely,who is ambitious, vho wishes to put all his best energiesinto his studies, may endure great anxiety and mentaldepression from this struggle.Many young women, also,actively engaged in various kinds of work, suffer similarly,and are sometimes thereby stimulated to a feverishactivity in work and physical exercise which usuallybrings no relief. One is sometimes, indeed, inclined tothink that women have suffered more from this causethan men, not (asFreud believes) that sublimation isspecially difficult for women, or because their sexual impulsesare stronger, but because men have been and areeven still, more easily able to form sexual relationshipsoutside marriage, while the spontaneous orgasms whichin chaste men normally give relief during sleep are inwomen who have had no sexual experiences comparativelyrare, even when sexual desire is strong. It is often thesuperior women who suffer most from this cause and theyare precisely the women who are most anxious to concealthe factf*This has long been held by all competent authorities. Thus Nacke,a cautious and critical writer, stated over twenty years ago that theopinion that sexual abstinence has no bad effects is not today held bya single authority on questions of sex. The fight is concerned with thequantity and quality of the bad effects, which Nacke believed never tobe of a gravely serious character.in this way; they fre-fl hear from many women who suffer acutelyquently write from a distance or conceal their real names. One lady[259]