CHAPTER XII

DISEASES OF THE REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT

I. Should an individual be lacking in vigour, he may fail to reach his full psychic development, and stick fast at one of the earlier phases. The adult sex force therefore manifests itself in an immature form, and the individual is a pervert of a congenital type. Strange as it may seem, his peculiarity will appear to him as normal and natural, and will not interfere with the development of a high type of character and perfect health, though his path through life is rendered a difficult one owing to the insuperable obstacles to the satisfaction of his love nature.

Two courses are open to him. He may become an actual pervert, in which case he incurs the censure of society, because he is unfaithful to his trust in not using the overflow of his life force for the upbuilding of the herd, but expends it through channels that cannot lead to reproduction and thus wastes it; also because any sexual abnormality is exceedingly infectious, owing to the force of suggestion, whether by example or precept, and would lead other and normal individuals to similar antisocial action. It is this strong race-preservation instinct that gives rise to the disgust and anger of the normal individual at all forms of abnormality.

The unfortunate, however, may instead become a potential pervert, and repress into his subconscious mind desires which he feels to be wrong; he tries to lead a normal life, but the adult form of sex does not satisfy him, and in his heart he really desires the abnormal form which he should have outgrown and left behind. This wish, not being allowed by the censor to enter consciousness, has recourse to symbolic expression, and gives rise to many forms of insanity and neuroticism.

II. An individual may be developing quite normally, when some shock, often quite slight, or some undue pressure of environment, may artificially arrest his development, and he will go through much the same phases as the potential pervert, but being of better mental material to begin with, he will usually incline towards neurotic disease rather than insanity.

Those who have the care of children should be careful not to give the child a shock by administering a severe reprimand when his curiosities and activities take an undesirable form; such action gives the matter undue prominence in the child’s mind, and may lead to a stoppage of development at the phase represented by the undesirable activity. Explanation and counsel will be more effective than a scolding, and leave no undesirable after effects.

III. An individual may reach normal adulthood quite safely, but, his energies finding no outlet on that level owing to force of circumstances, they may revert to one of the primitive phases through which he has passed, and he may acquire a perversion of sexual habit with the same liabilities to disease that we have noted above.

IV. Excessive sexual activity may lead to jaded powers of response to normal sexual stimuli, and the individual may then deliberately turn to abnormal forms of gratification in the hope of obtaining satisfaction.