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 more serious consideration is the method of investigation. A working
man, who is perhaps unintelligent outside his own work, and in many cases
married to a woman who is superior in refinement, may possibly be able to
arouse his wife's sexual emotions, and also able to ascertain what those
emotions are, and be willing to answer questions truthfully on this point,
to the best of his ability, but he is by no means a witness whose evidence
is final. While, however, Campbell's facts may not be quite
unquestionable, I am inclined to agree with his conclusion, and
Mantegazza's, that there is a very great range of variation in this
matter, and that there is no age at which the sexual impulse in women may
not appear. A lady who has received the confidence of very many women
tells me that she has never found a woman who was without sexual feeling.
I should myself be inclined to say that it is extremely difficult to find
a woman who is without the aptitude for sexual emotion, although a great
variety of circumstances may hinder, temporarily or permanently, the
development of this latent aptitude. In other words, while the latent
sexual aptitude may always be present, the sexual impulse is liable to be
defective and the aptitude to remain latent, with consequent deficiency of
sexual emotion, and absence of sexual satisfaction.
This is not only indicated by the considerable proportion of my
cases in which there is only moderate or slight sexual feeling. I
have ample evidence that in many cases the element of pain, which
may almost be said to be normal in the establishment of the
sexual function, is never merged, as it normally is, in
pleasurable sensations on the full establishment of sexual
relationships. Sometimes, no doubt, this may be due to
dyspareunia. Sometimes there may be an absolute sexual
anesthesia, whether of congenital or hysterical origin. I have
been told of the case of a married lady who has never been able
to obtain sexual pleasure, although she has had relations with
several men, partly to try if she could obtain the experience,
and partly to please them; the very fact that the motives for
sexual relationships arose from no stronger impulse itself
indicates a congenital defect on the psychic as well as on the
physical side. But, as a rule, the sexual anesthesia involved is
not absolute, but lies in a disinclination to the sexual act due
to various causes, in a defect of strong sexual impulse, and an
inaptitude for the sexual orgasm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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