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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXThus understood it is notpulses. a negative state, but anactive virtue. I once overheard a girl of about fourteenreproaching a companion of about the same age for greediness:"You have never learnt self-restraint!" 'It's not necessary,"replied the other. "It's not necessary," retortedthe first, "it's nice." That girlwould in later life have nodifficulty in understanding chastity. It is the manifestationof temperance, of the Greek sophrosyne,in the sphereof sex.Chastity is a virtue independent of all creeds and religions.It is true that in many parts of the world there havebeen religious sanctions to hold lust in check. That is tosay that the exercise of sexual activity outside certain prescribedlimits has been held to be a "sin." It was inevitablethat religious communities, Christian or other, shouldtake this attitude. But, on a purely human basis, chastityhas been and still remains a virtue.Among savages, in many parts of the world, young childrenare freely allowed to play at sex and even to practiceit. That indicates that there is no abstract prohibition ofsexual activity.But, as soon as the child approached puberty,even in what we consider the primitive mind, a newattitude towards sex seems necessary: an attitude of control.Among peoplesof low culture it is common to findsexual activity hedged in by a great number of limitations,quite apart from the formal Christian prohibitionsof "fornication" and "adultery." And these limitationsare for a large part conducive to the highestimation ofsex, not only through the avoidance of it when its exerciseisregarded as dangerous but by prescription whenthat influence isregarded as beneficial, and by associatingits manifestations with sacred festivals. This kind of control,this regulated exercise accepted as good, we mayproperly call chastity, and it may be regarded as already[314]