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

MARRIAGEIt is not of course only on the sexual side that thismutual knowledgeis needed. Marriageis much more thana sexual relationship. There are many marriages nowadays,and not always the least happy provided there is fullmutual understanding, in which no sexual relationshipever takes place.It is, as so many investigations show,compatibility which is the chief clue to satisfaction in marriage.There are many temperaments which, howeverestimable in themselves, will not suit each other. Thismust be tested before marriage,it cannot safely be lefttill after. It isnecessary for the couple to live together forconsiderable periods under some of the ordinary aswellas extraordinary stresses of life in order for each to observethe other's reactions, not merely to each other forsuch reactions are too often liable to be modified aftermarriage but to outsiders. Such a noviciate, which theCatholic Church wisely regards as necessary before takingthe veil for the cloister, isequally necessary before takingthe veil before the altar of marriage, whether or not itiscarried so far as actual sex relationships.Not onlyiscompatibility of temperament, which by nomeans involves identity of temperament but may eveninvolve the opposite provided there isharmony, called forin marriage. A harmony of tastes and of interests isalsoin the highest degree desirable. A difference of temperamentas of extrovert with introvert may be harmoniousand complementary, and much more satisfactory to bothparties than a tendency to identity of reaction. But a harmony,not necessarily an identity, of tastes and interestsis essential to a complete marriage union. Thus a distastefor music is not easily associated with a devotion to music;a difference in politicalideals may not always be overbalancedby sexual compatibility; and where there arepronounced differences of religious conviction (such as[271]