In fact, in times of crisis, it would appear that there can be a displacement of sexual energy which is beneficial. When men are under the unusual strain of a great task, abstinence often seems to help. Their whole energy becomes transformed into the task, which they can now do with greater freedom. Naturally, this is a detour, a forced march, and not a way of living. We find often in the case of great artists, that before beginning work on their masterpieces, they withdraw from sexual experience. Balzac, for instance, always cut himself off from society, put on a monk’s robe and secluded himself until the task was accomplished. It is obvious what the monk’s robe meant: it was a temporary renunciation of love as well as of the world. THE COMMON SENSE OF IT We now come to the common sense of it. Undoubtedly in a great number of cases of perversion and other sexual trouble, we need not search for the cause in a mother-attachment, an incest-wish, or an undeveloped function. The cause is often of a relatively simple nature. Perhaps at the top of the list we may put woman’s fear of being impregnated, of conceiving and bearing a child; a fear which a man who loves his wife often shares with her. Such fears are sometimes morbid, and are part of a general fear of life. Women who are made, as it were, to be mothers, may be evading their life-work and refusing pain and responsibility. That is quite possible. But, on the other hand, if we look at the matter in the light of common sense, we see, first, that to an imaginative person, the fear is perfectly natural, just as a perfectly natural fear may spring up in a man as he goes into battle; and that, second, circumstances may justify and deepen the fear to a point where it becomes a deterrent to normal sexuality. For instance, poverty might make it impossible for the parents to support children, or more than the one or two already born. Or the woman’s health or structure may be such as to make child-bearing a grave danger. Of course “birth control” is urged for such people; the use of contraceptives. However, not only are such things sometimes unreliable, but certain types of people find their use exceedingly unpleasant, turning what should be a joyous union, a spontaneous act, into something mechanical and self-conscious. Besides that, if the fear of impregnation is great, the use of contraceptives does not abolish it. It is no wonder then that very many married people turn from normal sexuality to something that comes under the heading of perversions. The whole aim is to get the glow and satisfaction by any means rather than that of normal entrance. Naturally, if either of the couple concerned is strongly normal in his sexual desire, there is a loss here; but whether that loss is as great as the loss through worry and fear, is open to question.