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

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXspecialized kind of skin reflex, between the generalizedskin sensations and the great primary sexual center ofsensation there are certain secondary sexual centers whichhave already been brought forward in their general aspectas to be included among erogenic zones.These secondary centers have in common the fact thatthey involve the entrances and the exits of the body re-that is, where skin merges into mucous membrane,gions,and where, in the course of evolution, tactile sensibilityhas become highly refined. It may, indeed, be said generallyof these frontier regions of the body that their contactwith the same or a similar frontier region in anotherperson of opposite sex, under conditions otherwise favorableto tumescence, will tend to produce a minimum andeven sometimes a maximum degree of sexual excitation.Contact of these regions with each other or with thesexual region itself so closely simulates the central sexualreflex that channels are set up for the same nervous energyand secondary sexual centers are constituted.It isimportant to remember that these phenomena areessentially normal. Many of them are commonly spokenof as "perversions." In so far, however, as they are aidsto tumescence, they must be regarded as coming withinbe consideredthe range of normal variation. They mayunesthetic, but that is another matter. It has, moreover,to be remembered that esthetic values are changed underthe influence of sexual emotion; from the lover's point ofview, many thingsare beautiful which are unbeautifulfrom the point of view of him who is not a lover, and, thegreater the degree to which the lover is swayed by hispassion, the greateresthetic standard isthe extent to which his normalliable to be modified. From the nonsexualstandpoint, indeed, the whole process of sex may[46]