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

CHAPTER VIITHE ART OF LOVEThe Sexual Impulsein Relation to LoveTHERE are many ways of regarding "marriage." In abald and abstract elementary form itbe defined asmaycohabitation." Under civilized conditions it be-'legalizedcomes a more complex part of the mores or moral customs(morality being essentially custom) of a country, and isthen a contract, and, as Max Christian puts it, "not onlya contract to exercise and maintain a sexual relationshipbut also a true life community with economic and psychicfoundations and moral (that is to say social) obligations.Yet more intimately, however, it is the association by freechoice of two persons who suit each other, with the objectof finding an unhamperedfield of exercise for all thevaried manifestations of love."By a common euphemism the word "love" is used tocover any manifestation of the sexual impulse. That is,needless to say, incorrect. We must distinguish betweenlust f or the physiological sexual impulse, and love, or thatimpulse in association with other impulses.There is no verbal agreement as to the best definitionof the distinction between love and lust. It may, indeed,be said that many of the definitions offered may be acceptedas expressing some part of the distinction. Lovemay be regarded, roughly speaking, as a synthesis of lustand friendship. Or looking at the matter physiologically,we may say, with Forel, that love is the sexual instinct as[3*3]