The sexual question : $b A scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological studyForel, Auguste
Science
The sexual question : $b A scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study
Forel, Auguste
Sex
Let us now examine some psychic phenomena more or less connected with
love. For reasons which we have mentioned the irradiations of sexual
love are on the whole less developed in man than in woman.
PSYCHIC IRRADIATIONS OF LOVE IN MAN
=Masculine Audacity.=--In the normal male the sentiment of sexual
power favors self-exaltation, while the contrary sentiment of
impotence, or even that of mediocre sexual power, depresses this
sentiment of exaltation. Yet, in reality, the sexual power of man has
not the capital importance for a normal and virgin woman that men
imagine, influenced as they are by self-exaltation; what imposes on
women is especially masculine audacity, and in sexual matters this
increases with experience and practice. The company of prostitutes
often renders men incapable of understanding feminine psychology, for
prostitutes are hardly more than automata trained for the use of male
sensuality. When men look among these for the sexual psychology of
woman they only find their own mirror.
Man's flirtation, and his art of paying court to women are naturally
combined with his audacity, as we have already observed in birds and
mammals, and some of the lower animals. The male seeks to please the
female to gain her favors. The brilliant colors of butterflies and
birds, song, skill and proof of strength, often come to the aid of the
male sexual instinct. Even in certain animals supplicant and plaintive
sounds assist the male after his repeated refusal, apparently or in
reality, by the female. We shall see in Chapter VI that savage men
have a much greater tendency to tattoo and adorn themselves than have
the women.
The art which man employs to seduce and conquer woman has been
described to satiety in romances and novels, as well as in
ethnographic works; so that we shall not dwell on it here. On the
contrary, we shall show that in higher civilizations man is in general
more sought after than woman, so that the latter has surpassed him in
the art of flirtation or sexual conquest.
It is also important to remark to what extent the increase of man's
mental complexity transforms his sexual tactics. The simple, natural,
and at the same time bashful, modest manner, in which a naïve young
man seeks to conquer a heart, usually produces no effect on the
fashionable young lady, experienced in all refined pleasures and
saturated with unhealthy novels. These young women are much more
easily seduced by the art of Don Juan and the old _roués_, who are
more adequate to deal with them because they have studied practically
the psychology of the modern woman.
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