Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 | Page 8

Havelock Ellis
seeks to overcome the reticence of the
female by the display of his charms and abilities. "And in the human
world," he continues, "it is the same; without the modest reserve of the
woman that must, in most cases, be overcome by lovable qualities, the
sexual relationship would with difficulty find a singer who would extol
in love the highest movements of the human soul." (Groos, Spiele der
Menschen, p. 341.)
I have not, however, been, able to find that the subject of modesty has
been treated in any comprehensive way by psychologists. Though

valuable facts and suggestions bearing on the sexual emotions, on
disgust, the origins of tatooing, on ornament and clothing, have been,
brought forward by physiologists, psychologists, and ethnographists,
few or no attempts appear to have been made to reach a general
synthetic statement of these facts and suggestions. It is true that a great
many unreliable, slight, or fragmentary efforts have been made to
ascertain the constitution or basis of this emotion.[1] Many
psychologists have regarded modesty simply as the result of clothing.
This view is overturned by the well-ascertained fact that many races
which go absolutely naked possess a highly-developed sense of
modesty. These writers have not realized that physiological modesty is
earlier in appearance, and more fundamental, than anatomical modesty.
A partial contribution to the analysis of modesty has been made by
Professor James, who, with his usual insight and lucidity, has set forth
certain of its characteristics, especially the element due to "the
application to ourselves of judgments primarily passed upon our
mates." Guyau, in a very brief discussion of modesty, realized its great
significance and touched on most of its chief elements.[2] Westermarck,
again, followed by Grosse, has very ably and convincingly set forth
certain factors in the origin of ornament and clothing, a subject which
many writers imagine to cover the whole field of modesty. More
recently Ribot, in his work on the emotions, has vaguely outlined most
of the factors of modesty, but has not developed a coherent view of
their origins and relationships.
Since the present Study first appeared, Hohenemser, who considers that
my analysis of modesty is unsatisfactory, has made a notable attempt to
define the psychological mechanism of shame. ("Versuch einer
Analyse der Scham," Archiv für die Gesamte Psychologie, Bd. II, Heft
2-3, 1903.) He regards shame as a general psycho-physical
phenomenon, "a definite tension of the whole soul," with an emotion
superadded. "The state of shame consists in a certain psychic lameness
or inhibition," sometimes accompanied by physical phenomena of
paralysis, such as sinking of the head and inability to meet the eye. It is
a special case of Lipps's psychic stasis or damming up (psychische
Stauung), always produced when the psychic activities are at the same
time drawn in two or more different directions. In shame there is

always something present in consciousness which conflicts with the
rest of the personality, and cannot be brought into harmony with it,
which cannot be brought, that is, into moral (not logical) relationship
with it. A young man in love with a girl is ashamed when told that he is
in love, because his reverence for one whom he regards as a higher
being cannot be brought into relationship with his own lower
personality. A child in the same way feels shame in approaching a big,
grown-up person, who seems a higher sort of being. Sometimes,
likewise, we feel shame in approaching a stranger, for a new person
tends to seem higher and more interesting than ourselves. It is not so in
approaching a new natural phenomenon, because we do not compare it
with ourselves. Another kind of shame is seen when this mental contest
is lower than our personality, and on this account in conflict with it, as
when we are ashamed of sexual thoughts. Sexual ideas tend to evoke
shame, Hohenemser remarks, because they so easily tend to pass into
sexual feelings; when they do not so pass (as in scientific discussions)
they do not evoke shame.
It will be seen that this discussion of modesty is highly generalized and
abstracted; it deals simply with the formal mechanism of the process.
Hohenemser admits that fear is a form of psychic stasis, and I have
sought to show that modesty is a complexus of fears. We may very well
accept the conception of psychic stasis at the outset. The analysis of
modesty has still to be carried very much further.
The discussion of modesty is complicated by the difficulty, and even
impossibility, of excluding closely-allied emotions--shame, shyness,
bashfulness, timidity, etc.--all of which, indeed, however defined,
adjoin or overlap modesty.[3] It is not, however, impossible to isolate
the main body of the emotion of modesty, on account of its special
connection, on the whole, with the consciousness of sex. I
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