Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
A special and detailed study of the normal characters of the sexual
impulse in men seems unnecessary. I have elsewhere discussed various
aspects of the male sexual impulse, and others remain for later
discussion. But to deal with it broadly as a whole seems unnecessary, if
only because it is predominantly open and aggressive. Moreover, since the
constitution of society has largely been in the hands of men, the nature
of the sexual impulse in men has largely been expressed in the written and
unwritten codes of social law. The sexual instinct in women is much more
elusive. This, indeed, is involved at the outset in the organic
psychological play of male and female, manifesting itself in the phenomena
of modesty and courting. The same elusiveness, the same mocking mystery,
meet us throughout when we seek to investigate the manifestations of the
sexual impulse in women. Nor is it easy to find any full and authentic
record of a social state clearly founded in sexual matters on the demands
of woman's nature.
An illustration of our ignorance and bias in these matters is
furnished by the relationship of marriage, celibacy, and divorce
to suicide in the two sexes. There can be no doubt that the
sexual emotions of women have a profound influence in determining
suicide. This is indicated, among other facts, by a comparison of
the suicide-rate in the sexes according to age; while in men the
frequency of suicide increases progressively throughout life, in
women there is an arrest after the age of 30; that is to say,
when the period of most intense sexual emotion has been passed.
This phenomenon is witnessed among peoples so unlike as the
French, the Prussians, and the Italians. Now, how do marriage and
divorce affect the sexual liability to suicide? We are always
accustomed to say that marriage protects women, and it is even
asserted that men have self-sacrificingly maintained the
institution of marriage mainly for the benefit of women.
Professor Durkheim, however, who has studied suicide elaborately
from the sociological standpoint, so far as possible eliminating
fallacies, has in recent years thrown considerable doubt on the
current assumption. He shows that if we take the tendency to
suicide as a test, and eliminate the influence of children, who
are an undoubted protection to women, it is not women, but men,
who are protected by marriage, and that the protection of women
from suicide increases regularly as divorces increase. After
discussing these points exhaustively, "we reach a conclusion," he
states, "considerably removed from the current view of marriage
and the part it plays. It is regarded as having been instituted
for the sake of the wife and to protect her weakness against
masculine caprices. Monogamy, especially, is very often presented
as a sacrifice of man's polygamous instincts, made in order to
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