Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6: Sex in Relation to SocietyEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6: Sex in Relation to Society
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
It will be seen that the definition of chastity remains somewhat
lacking in precision. That is inevitable. We cannot grasp purity
tightly, for, like snow, it will merely melt in our hands.
"Purity itself forbids too minute a system of rules for the
observance of purity," well says Sidgwick (_Methods of Ethics_,
Bk. iii, Ch. IX). Elsewhere (op. cit., Bk. iii, Ch. XI) he
attempts to answer the question: What sexual relations are
essentially impure? and concludes that no answer is possible.
"There appears to be no distinct principle, having any claim to
self-evidence, upon which the question can be answered so as to
command general assent." Even what is called "Free Love," he
adds, "in so far as it is earnestly advocated as a means to a
completer harmony of sentiment between men and women, cannot be
condemned as impure, for it seems paradoxical to distinguish
purity from impurity merely by less rapidity of transition."
Moll, from the standpoint of medical psychology, reaches the same
conclusion as Sidgwick from that of ethics. In a report on the
"Value of Chastity for Men," published as an appendix to the
third edition (1899) of his _Konträre Sexualempfindung_, the
distinguished Berlin physician discusses the matter with much
vigorous common sense, insisting that "chaste and unchaste are
_relative ideas_." We must not, he states, as is so often done,
identify "chaste" with "sexually abstinent." He adds that we are
not justified in describing all extra-marital sexual intercourse
as unchaste, for, if we do so, we shall be compelled to regard
nearly all men, and some very estimable women, as unchaste. He
rightly insists that in this matter we must apply the same rule
to women as to men, and he points out that even when it involves
what may be technically adultery sexual intercourse is not
necessarily unchaste. He takes the case of a girl who, at
eighteen, when still mentally immature, is married to a man with
whom she finds it impossible to live and a separation
consequently occurs, although a divorce may be impossible to
obtain. If she now falls passionately in love with a man her love
may be entirely chaste, though it involves what is technically
adultery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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