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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXan opinion can properly be based is for a large numberof cases still imperfect and only now beginning to be coordinated,so that this whole subject belongs largely to afuture, perhaps not remote, when it may be possible toforecast the probable results of sexual unions with muchmore precision than can now be done. At present,asKarin Horney also concludes in studying this question,even psycho-analysis (in which nevertheless she has muchfaith) will not furnish the insight necessary to enable usto prophesy concerning the future of a marriage. Moreover,the subject is,for the most part, outside the scopeof the present chapter. There are, however, a few pointsin regard to which some indications may here be given.A simple case which not infrequently occurs isthat ofthe youth or girl who suddenly overwhelms relations andfriends by announcing an intention to enter on a marriagewhich is flagrantly unsuitable, although it may notobviously clash with any eugenic principle. The physicianis appealed to in order to ward off the dreaded marriageand is sometimes expected to declare that the imprudentlover is not mentally sound. That is a matter for investigation,but it may be said that in most cases of this kind,while there may be a slightly neurotic heredity, the aberration,if it is an aberration, so little overpasses physiologicallimits that it cannot safely be combated on thesegrounds. The Romeo and Juliet lovers who disregard thesocial barriers which oppose their union are overcomeby a temporary exaltation, but they are not insane, exceptin the sense in which Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholycopiously argued that all lovers are insane. In mostcases of this kind we are concerned with young peoplewho have not yet emerged from the storm and stressperiod of adolescence, and in whom the sudden eruptionof the new erotic life produces an almost physiological[266]