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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXwas much conventional restraint and beneath it muchconcealed license, each tending to produce its consequentreaction. The immediate effect of the liberation effectedby the Revolution was largely in the direction of license.To some extent that seems still to be felt, especially bythose who regard restraint and regulation as bourgeoistraits. But the main tendency now is a reaction againstlicense. Members of the Communist Party are expelledfor their private sexual behavior, as much as for politicalbad behavior. The situation resembles that in eighteenthcentury Calvinist Geneva, for Russian Marxism is as rigidand as austere as Calvinism. "Frivolity, promiscuity, libertinism,rape (which may include several marriages inquick succession) ," we are told, "are frowned on and theirperpetrators expelled from the Party because such behaviorbetrays the social purposes of the Party."These oscillations are the more or less unfortunate exaggerationof a virtue which is still to be cherished. It isnot only demanded for the sake of maintaining the vigorousactivity of the sexual function but also for maintainingits human dignity. Beyond that, it is essential to anygracious art of love, which is,as it has been put, "the artof touching the things of sex with hands that remembertheir aptness for all the fine ends of life."BIBLIOGRAPHYA. E. CRAWLEY, art. "Chastity," Hastings' Encyclopediaof Religion and Ethics,HAVELOCK ELLIS, Studies inthePsychology of Sex, Vol.VI, Chap. V, "The Function of Chastity."MARGARET MEAD, Growing Up in New Guinea.MALINOWSKI, Sex and Repression in Savage Society.