Studies_in_the_Psychology_of vol 1.pdf

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

Studies in the Psychology of Sex,

Volume 1

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

(of 6), by Havelock Ellis

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Title: Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6)

Author: Havelock Ellis

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

Release Date: October 8, 2004 [eBook #13610]

Language: English

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***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STUDIES IN

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME 1 (OF 6)***

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STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX, VOLUME I

The Evolution of Modesty The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity

Auto−Erotism

HAVELOCK ELLIS

1927

GENERAL PREFACE.

The origin of these Studies dates from many years back. As a youth I was

faced, as others are, by the problem of sex. Living partly in an Australian

city where the ways of life were plainly seen, partly in the solitude of the

bush, I was free both to contemplate and to meditate many things. A

resolve slowly grew up within me: one main part of my life−work should

be to make clear the problems of sex.

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

That was more than twenty years ago. Since then I can honestly say that in

all that I have done that resolve has never been very far from my thoughts. I

have always been slowly working up to this central problem; and in a book

published some three years ago−−_Man and Woman: a Study of Human

Secondary Sexual Characters_−−I put forward what was, in my own eyes,

an introduction to the study of the primary questions of sexual psychology.

Now that I have at length reached the time for beginning to publish my

results, these results scarcely seem to me large. As a youth, I had hoped to

settle problems for those who came after; now I am quietly content if I do

little more than state them. For even that, I now think, is much; it is at least

the half of knowledge. In this particular field the evil of ignorance is

magnified by our efforts to suppress that which never can be suppressed,

though in the effort of suppression it may become perverted. I have at least

tried to find out what are the facts, among normal people as well as among

abnormal people; for, while it seems to me that the physician's training is

necessary in order to ascertain the facts, the physician for the most part

only obtains the abnormal facts, which alone bring little light. I have tried

to get at the facts, and, having got at the facts, to look them simply and

squarely in the face. If I cannot perhaps turn the lock myself, I bring the

key which can alone in the end rightly open the door: the key of sincerity.

That is my one panacea: sincerity.

I know that many of my friends, people on whose side I, too, am to be

found, retort with another word: reticence. It is a mistake, they say, to try to

uncover these things; leave the sexual instincts alone, to grow up and

develop in the shy solitude they love, and they will be sure to grow up and

develop wholesomely. But, as a matter of fact, that is precisely what we can

not and will not ever allow them to do. There are very few middle−aged

men and women who can clearly recall the facts of their lives and tell you

in all honesty that their sexual instincts have developed easily and

wholesomely throughout. And it should not be difficult to see why this is

so. Let my friends try to transfer their feelings and theories from the

reproductive region to, let us say, the nutritive region, the only other which

can be compared to it for importance. Suppose that eating and drinking was

never spoken of openly, save in veiled or poetic language, and that no one

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

ever ate food publicly, because it was considered immoral and immodest to

reveal the mysteries of this natural function. We know what would occur. A

considerable proportion of the community, more especially the more

youthful members, possessed by an instinctive and legitimate curiosity,

would concentrate their thoughts on the subject. They would have so many

problems to puzzle over: How often ought I to eat? What ought I to eat? Is

it wrong to eat fruit, which I like? Ought I to eat grass, which I don't like?

Instinct notwithstanding, we may be quite sure that only a small minority

would succeed in eating reasonably and wholesomely. The sexual secrecy

of life is even more disastrous than such a nutritive secrecy would be;

partly because we expend such a wealth of moral energy in directing or

misdirecting it, partly because the sexual impulse normally develops at the

same time as the intellectual impulse, not in the early years of life, when

wholesome instinctive habits might be formed. And there is always some

ignorant and foolish friend who is prepared still further to muddle things:

Eat a meal every other day! Eat twelve meals a day! Never eat fruit!

Always eat grass! The advice emphatically given in sexual matters is

usually not less absurd than this. When, however, the matter is fully open,

the problems of food are not indeed wholly solved, but everyone is enabled

by the experience of his fellows to reach some sort of situation suited to his

own case. And when the rigid secrecy is once swept away a sane and

natural reticence becomes for the first time possible.

This secrecy has not always been maintained. When the Catholic Church

was at the summit of its power and influence it fully realized the magnitude

of sexual problems and took an active and inquiring interest in all the

details of normal and abnormal sexuality. Even to the present time there are

certain phenomena of the sexual life which have scarcely been accurately

described except in ancient theological treatises. As the type of such

treatises I will mention the great tome of Sanchez, De Matrimonio . Here

you will find the whole sexual life of men and women analyzed in its

relationships to sin. Everything is set forth, as clearly and as concisely as it

can be−−without morbid prudery on the one hand, or morbid sentimentality

on the other−−in the coldest scientific language; the right course of action

is pointed out for all the cases that may occur, and we are told what is

lawful, what a venial sin, what a mortal sin. Now I do not consider that

Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1

sexual matters concern the theologian alone, and I deny altogether that he is

competent to deal with them. In his hands, also, undoubtedly, they

sometimes become prurient, as they can scarcely fail to become on the

non−natural and unwholesome basis of asceticism, and as they with

difficulty become in the open−air light of science. But we are bound to

recognize the thoroughness with which the Catholic theologians dealt with

these matters, and, from their own point of view, indeed, the entire

reasonableness; we are bound to recognize the admirable spirit in which,

successfully or not, they sought to approach them. We need to−day the

same spirit and temper applied from a different standpoint. These things

concern everyone; the study of these things concerns the physiologist, the

psychologist, the moralist. We want to get into possession of the actual

facts, and from the investigation of the facts we want to ascertain what is

normal and what is abnormal, from the point of view of physiology and of

psychology. We want to know what is naturally lawful under the various

sexual chances that may befall man, not as the born child of sin, but as a

naturally social animal. What is a venial sin against nature, what a mortal

sin against nature? The answers are less easy to reach than the theologians'

answers generally were, but we can at least put ourselves in the right

attitude; we may succeed in asking that question which is sometimes even

more than the half of knowledge.

It is perhaps a mistake to show so plainly at the outset that I approach what

may seem only a psychological question not without moral fervour. But I

do not wish any mistake to be made. I regard sex as the central problem of

life. And now that the problem of religion has practically been settled, and

that the problem of labor has at least been placed on a practical foundation,

the question of sex−−with the racial questions that rest on it−−stands before

the coming generations as the chief problem for solution. Sex lies at the

root of life, and we can never learn to reverence life until we know how to

understand sex.−−So, at least, it seems to me.

Having said so much, I will try to present such results as I have to record in

that cold and dry light through which alone the goal of knowledge may

truly be seen.

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