Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 | Page 2

the hygienic and moral
problems of sex than the neglect of the psychological standpoint. They
may take, for instance, the side of sexual restraint, or the side of sexual
unrestraint, but they fail to realize that so narrow a basis is inadequate
for the needs of complex human beings. From the wider psychological
standpoint we recognize that we have to conciliate opposing impulses
that are both alike founded on the human psychic organism.
In the preceding volumes of these Studies I have sought to refrain from
the expression of any personal opinion and to maintain, so far as
possible, a strictly objective attitude. In this endeavor, I trust, I have
been successful if I may judge from the fact that I have received the
sympathy and approval of all kinds of people, not less of the
rationalistic free-thinker than of the orthodox believer, of those who
accept, as well as of those who reject, our most current standards of

morality. This is as it should be, for whatever our criteria of the worth
of feelings and of conduct, it must always be of use to us to know what
exactly are the feelings of people and how those feelings tend to affect
their conduct. In the present volume, however, where social traditions
necessarily come in for consideration and where we have to discuss the
growth of those traditions in the past and their probable evolution in the
future, I am not sanguine that the objectivity of my attitude will be
equally clear to the reader. I have here to set down not only what
people actually feel and do but what I think they are tending to feel and
do. That is a matter of estimation only, however widely and however
cautiously it is approached; it cannot be a matter of absolute
demonstration. I trust that those who have followed me in the past will
bear with me still, even if it is impossible for them always to accept the
conclusions I have myself reached.
HAVELOCK ELLIS.
Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England.

CONTENTS.




CHAPTER I.
THE MOTHER AND HER CHILD.
The Child's Right to Choose Its Ancestry--How This is Effected--The
Mother the Child's Supreme Parent--Motherhood and the Woman
Movement--The Immense Importance of Motherhood--Infant Mortality
and Its Causes--The Chief Cause in the Mother--The Need of Rest
During Pregnancy--Frequency of Premature Birth--The Function of the
State--Recent Advance in Puericulture--The Question of Coitus During
Pregnancy--The Need of Rest During Lactation--The Mother's Duty to
Suckle Her Child--The Economic Question--The Duty of the
State--Recent Progress in the Protection of the Mother--The Fallacy of
State Nurseries.

CHAPTER II.
SEXUAL EDUCATION.
Nurture Necessary as Well as Breed--Precocious Manifestations of the
Sexual Impulse--Are they to be Regarded as Normal?--The Sexual Play
of Children--The Emotion of Love in Childhood--Are Town Children
More Precocious Sexually Than Country Children?--Children's Ideas
Concerning the Origin of Babies--Need for Beginning the Sexual
Education of Children in Early Years--The Importance of Early
Training in Responsibility--Evil of the Old Doctrine of Silence in
Matters of Sex--The Evil Magnified When Applied to Girls--The
Mother the Natural and Best Teacher--The Morbid Influence of
Artificial Mystery in Sex Matters--Books on Sexual Enlightenment of
the Young--Nature of the Mother's Task--Sexual Education in the
School--The Value of Botany--Zoölogy--Sexual Education After
Puberty--The Necessity of Counteracting Quack Literature--Danger of
Neglecting to Prepare for the First Onset of Menstruation--The Right
Attitude Towards Woman's Sexual Life--The Vital Necessity of the
Hygiene of Menstruation During Adolescence--Such Hygiene
Compatible with the Educational and Social Equality of the Sexes--The
Invalidism of Women Mainly Due to Hygienic Neglect--Good
Influence of Physical Training on Women and Bad Influence of
Athletics--The Evils of Emotional Suppression--Need of Teaching the
Dignity of Sex--Influence of These Factors on a Woman's Fate in
Marriage--Lectures and Addresses on Sexual Hygiene--The Doctor's
Part in Sexual Education--Pubertal Initiation Into the Ideal World--The
Place of the Religious and Ethical Teacher--The Initiation Rites of
Savages Into Manhood and Womanhood--The Sexual Influence of
Literature--The Sexual Influence of Art.

CHAPTER III.
SEXUAL EDUCATION AND NAKEDNESS.
The Greek Attitude Towards Nakedness--How the Romans Modified
That Attitude--The Influence of Christianity--Nakedness in Mediæval
Times--Evolution of the Horror of Nakedness--Concomitant Change in
the Conception of Nakedness--Prudery--The Romantic
Movement--Rise of a New Feeling in Regard to Nakedness--The
Hygienic Aspect of Nakedness--How Children May Be Accustomed to
Nakedness--Nakedness Not Inimical to Modesty--The Instinct of
Physical Pride--The Value of Nakedness in Education--The Æsthetic
Value of Nakedness--The Human Body as One of the Prime Tonics of
Life--How Nakedness May Be Cultivated--The Moral Value of
Nakedness.




CHAPTER IV.
THE VALUATION OF SEXUAL LOVE.
The Conception of Sexual Love--The Attitude of Mediæval
Asceticism--St. Bernard and St. Odo of Cluny--The Ascetic Insistence

on the Proximity of the Sexual and Excretory Centres--Love as a
Sacrament of Nature--The Idea of the Impurity of Sex in Primitive
Religions Generally--Theories of the Origin