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

MARRIAGEEXNER, The Sexual Side of Marriage.R. L. DICKINSON, Premarital Examination.LOPEZ DEL VALLE, "Pre-Marital Medical Examination/World's Health, Sept. 1927.Satisfaction in MarriageIn old times marriage was regarded as a sacred duty,appointed divinely or by the State. We do not marry forourselves, said Montaigne. The question of satisfactionhardly entered, though it was assumed that happinessattended the fulfillment of an ordained duty, except forpersons who were exceptional and perverse. That was theview sanctified alike by religion and by art; reputablenovels of love ended in the unquestioned bliss of life-longunion, and the Church romantically refused to admit thatthe end could be otherwise. Such a view is now antiquated;real facts, partly because the facts had previously beendisguised, and partly because the conditions now haveit was bound not to be in accordance with theactually become more complex. Today many have goneto the opposite extreme of opinion and declared that, farfrom yielding life-long bliss, marriage hardly ever leads toeven moderate satisfaction and happiness."Spiritual disappointment and physical deprivation becomethe fate of most marriages/' declared Freud in 1908,and again, "a girl must be very healthy to 'stand* marriage/*Numberless statements by less eminent writerscould be quoted to the same effect.It is to be noted, however, that all such expressions conveypersonal impressions, which are notoriously liable tobe unreliable in scientific matters and are never placed ona statistical basis. Moreover, they do not coincide with thepersonal impression of other experienced observers. The