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

MARRIAGENervous and inexperienced men are specially liable to it.Montaigne long ago pointed out in his essay on the forceof imagination that it ismerely due to fear, and he sagaciouslydescribed how, by ingenious methods of neutralizingthe fear, potency is perfectly restored.In some cases, however, the defect of potency rests onan acquired habit of the nervous system, that is to say, weare confronted not by psychic impotence but by neurasthenicimpotence. Chastity, masturbation, sexual excesssuch are the causes commonly arraigned for such a defectin potency. Moreover, the conditions of civilization arevery favorable to a general nervous excitability, an overhastyreaction to stimuli, which on the sexual side tendto produce an abbreviation of tumescence and a prematuredetumescence unfavorable to the satisfactory accomplishmentof the sexual act.I agree with Freud and others that the frequency ofpremature ejaculation is very great, though I do not agreewith Lowenfeld in attributing this in 75 per cent cases tomasturbation. In a certain proportion, no doubt, this playsan important part, but even an extreme degree of masturbationhas sometimes no serious effects on potency,while in any case it is so frequent that considerable cautionmust be exercised in asserting that it is the cause ofanything. Usually, it is probable, we must regard neurasthenicimpotence as in part a special manifestationof the general tendency to quick and sensitive reactionswhich marks all urban life under modern conditions(manifested in women by the tendency for pregnancy tocome to a termination before full term) and in ,part asthe result of ungratified desire during the period of adolescence,and beyond, leading to prolonged tumescencenot followed byits natural relief even in masturbation,[305]