However, there are those who do not accept completely some of these
contentions. Recently, a well-known New York psychologist said before
a large audience that he and his colleagues in investigating a large
number of cases, found a surprising proportion of sensitive people who
had no interest in the sexual act itself, but only in certain phases
of the forepleasure. These people were, he said, found to be normal in
every other way, and he advocated lifting off the stigma of shame which
still attaches to such acts.
What Jung says in this connection is that it isn’t the _form_ of the
sexuality that matters, but rather the attitude we have toward the
sexual. And, if we bear in mind the mixed nature of men and women,
that some men are more feminine, for instance, and some women more
masculine, it will readily be understood that sexuality means different
things to different people. With some the forepleasure is negligible,
with others it is the chief thing. Some women are like men, swift and
immediate; some men like women, slow and passive. It remains in each
case for those concerned to find their own way.
SEXUALITY AND THE FOUR FUNCTIONS
But if sexuality means one thing to the introvert, and another to the
extravert, if also it means one thing to man and another to woman,
there are still other sharply marked differences of meaning, which lead
one to believe that in the matter of sexuality no one has a right to
lay down a general morality, a general rule of conduct. If it is wrong
for a so-called pure person to rule that all other persons must be
pure, it is equally wrong for those to whom sexuality is necessary to
rule that everyone must have sexual expression.
Before, however, going further in these differences of meaning, let us
look more closely at the difference between introvert and extravert in
reaction to sexuality.
If the extraverted attitude springs from the sexual instinct, it
is natural that in the average extravert, who has not, due to bad
teaching, distorted his nature, the sexual development has been normal
and reached a more or less strong maturity. But with the introvert
it is different. Since the introverted attitude arises from the
ego-instinct, the development is more along the lines of thought, idea,
philosophy, art, etc., and the sexual as a rule remains undeveloped. If
it is undeveloped, it is, in fact, childish.
In other words, what Freud explains as fixations, due to attachment to
the parent, Jung explains as simply that side of the nature which is
still undeveloped. Introverts who in many ways are highly developed,
may, at the same time, remain children when it comes to sexuality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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