Anne could not have been more mistaken about the significance of her unresponsiveness. She had underestimated the depth of the blow the birth of such a child can have on a mother. Grief and other profound emotions incapacitate the ability to love; one’s entire confidence in oneself is shaken. It is perfectly normal under such circumstances to withdraw emotionally. In fact, it is even desirable. Wounded feelings must heal, and immobilizing oneself emotionally is good therapeutic procedure. Time is the only anodyne for this kind of normal emotional pull-back. In this case Anne’s child died within two months, as had been predicted. Her so-called situational frigidity lasted for three months after that and then disappeared entirely. Since the sexuality of women, as we have seen, is so “psychological” in its nature, these temporary situational frigidities are probably quite prevalent, though there are no final statistics on them. They can be caused by a wide variety of circumstances and can last for a week or two to several months, depending on the severity of the circumstance. I have seen this type of temporary frigidity brought on by such disparate causes as the death of a loved parent, the illness of a child (even a relatively slight illness), a husband’s economic worries, and a difficult birth, to name but a few. One very scrupulous wife, who took great pride in her ability to drive a car, even had a sexual blocking for a few nights when she was given her first traffic ticket. She had parked too long on the wrong side of the street, and the officer who gave her the ticket had also given her a stern talking-to. All one really has to know about situational frigidity is that it isn’t serious and that it’s well within the normal range of woman’s delicately balanced sexual nature and will most certainly pass. The only therapy one needs is patience. * * * * * These cases represent, then, the major forms of frigidity. My intent in presenting them has been threefold. In the first place, it is important to understand what type of frigidity you have. Second, it can be helpful to see the individual characteristics of each kind of frigidity. Third, it is necessary to understand that all of the frigidities have certain basic characteristics in common (with the exception of situational frigidity), for this latter fact will allow us to approach each individual type with one basic form of solution. With this final information in mind we are now ready to turn our attention to the means by which frigidity can be resolved. SECTION IV _The Bridge to Womanhood_ _Chapter 13_ THE POWER OF LOVE We have come now to the last and most important part of our journey together, to the point where we can examine the means by which real love can be achieved. Let us start by examining what real love is, its role in life and its component parts.