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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXcultivation of the art of love is inseparably associated withthe cultivation of monogamy, because without it any satisfactorymarriage, as we now understand marriage, isscarcely practicable, while even with it marriage may stillfull of difficulties.proveIn its finest and subtlest manifestations the art of loveisthe outcome of a man's or a woman's most intimatepersonality. But in its lower rangesit is an extension ofsexual hygiene and comes properly within the sphere ofthe physician who is called upon to givevarious difficult situations which mayadvice in thearise in marital life.Our advocates of sexual hygiene still too often ignore thismatter, but such an attitude cannot be maintained and isindeed rapidly breaking down. It is no longer possible toassert that a knowledge of the methods of sexual courtshipand intercourse comes by Nature. As Paget remarkedmany years ago, it is certain that in civilization suchknowledge has to be taught. It may be added that the sameis even true, to a large extent, of uncivilized races, andtraining in these matters ispartof the serious initiationof life among various peoples. Moreover, it is not sufficientlyrealized that among peoples living in natural conditionsgreat attention is often paid to the preliminariesof intercourse, and a considerable variety of methods ofintercourse prevails.Both these points are highly important.The prolongation of the preliminary courtship beforethe act is necessary on the physical side,in order toensure tumescence; it isnecessary on the psychic sidebecause without it the ideal element of love, which isessential to real marriage, cannot well be developed. Therecognition that a number of methods of intercourse, farfrom being vicious "perversions," come within the normalhuman range of variation isrequired because it is oftenfound that when one method is unsuitable to secure grati-[346]