DYSGENIC INFLUENCES OF THE INSTITUTIONAL TABOO
Taboo survivals act dysgenically within the family under present
conditions; Conventional education of girls a dysgenic influence;
Prostitution and the family; Influence of ancient standards of "good"
and "bad." The illegitimate child; Effect of fear, anger, etc., on
posterity; The attitude of economically independent women toward
marriage.
It is evident that in the working of old taboos as they have been
preserved in our social institutions there are certain dysgenic
influences which may well be briefly enumerated. For surely the test of
the family institution is the way in which it fosters the production and
development of the coming generation. The studies made by the Galton
Laboratory in England and by the Children's Bureau in Washington combine
with our modern knowledge of heredity to show that it is possible to cut
down the potential heritage of children by bad matrimonial choices. If
we are to reach a solution of these population problems, we must learn
to approach the problem of the sex relation without that sense of
uncleanness which has led so many generations to regard marriage as
giving respectability to an otherwise wicked inclination. The task of
devising a sane approach is only just begun. But the menace of
prostitution and of the social diseases has become so great that society
is compelled from an instinct of sheer self-preservation to drag into
the open some of the iniquities which have hitherto existed under cover.
In the first place, the education of girls, which has been almost
entirely determined by the standardized concepts of the ideal woman, has
left them totally unprepared for wifehood and motherhood, the very
calling which those ideals demand that they shall follow. The whole
education of the girl aims at the concealment of the physiological
nature of men and women. She enters marriage unprepared for the
realities of conjugal life, and hence incapable of understanding either
herself or her husband. When pregnancy comes to such a wife, the old
seclusion taboos fall upon her like a categorical imperative. She is
overwhelmed with embarrassment at a normal and natural biological
process which can hardly be classified as "romantic." Such an attitude
is neither conducive to the eugenic choice of a male nor to the proper
care of the child either before or after its birth.
A second dysgenic influence which results from the taboo system of
sexual ethics is the institution of prostitution, the great agency for
the spread of venereal disease through the homes of the community, and
which takes such heavy toll from the next generation in lowered vitality
and defective organization.
The 1911 report of the Committee on the Social Evil in Baltimore showed
that at the time there was in that city one prostitute to every 500
inhabitants. As is the case everywhere, such statistics cover only
prostitutes who have been detected. Hospital and clinic reports for
Baltimore gave 9,450 acute cases of venereal disease in 1906 as compared
with 575 cases of measles, 1,172 cases of diphtheria, 577 of scarlet
fever, 175 of chickenpox, 58 of smallpox and 733 cases of tuberculosis.
Statistics on the health of young men shown by the physical examinations
of the various draft boards throughout the country give us a more
complete estimate of the prevalence of venereal disease among the
prospective fathers of the next generation than any other figures for
the United States. In an article in the _New York Medical Journal_ for
February 2, 1918, Dr. Isaac W. Brewer of the Medical Reserve Corps
presents tables showing the percentage of rejections for various
disabilities among the applicants for enlistment in the regular army
from January 1, 1912, to December 31, 1915. Among 153,705 white and
11,092 coloured applicants, the rejection rate per 1,000 for venereal
disease was 196.7 for whites and 279.9 for coloured as against 91.3 for
whites and 75.0 for coloured for heart difficulties, next on the list.
In foreshadowing the results under the draft, Dr. Brewer says: "Venereal
disease is the greatest cause for rejection, and reports from the
cantonments where the National Army has assembled indicate that a large
number of the men had these diseases when they arrived at the camp. It
is probably true that venereal diseases cause the greatest amount of
sickness in our country."
Statistics available for conditions among the American Expeditionary
Forces must be treated with great caution. Detection of these diseases
at certain stages is extremely difficult. Because of the courtesy
extended to our men by our allies, cases were treated in French and
English hospitals of which no record is available. But it is fairly safe
to say that there was no such prevalence of disease as was shown by the
Exner Report to have existed on the Mexican Border. It may even be
predicted that the education in hygienic measures which the men received
may in time affect favourably the health of the male population and
through them their wives and children. But all who came in contact with
this problem in the army know that it is a long way to the
understanding of the difficulties involved before we approach a
solution. We do know, on the basis of the work, of Neisser, Lesser,
Forel, Flexner and others, that regulation and supervision seem to
increase the incidence of disease. Among the reasons for this are: (1)
difficulties of diagnosis; (2) difficulties attendant on the
apprehension and examination of prostitutes; (3) the infrequency of
examination as compared with the number of clients of these women; and
perhaps as important as any of these reasons is the false sense of
security involved.
The model woman of the past has known very little of the prostitute and
venereal disease. It is often stated that her moral safety has been
maintained at the expense of her fallen and unclean sister. But such
statements are not limited as they should be by the qualification that
her moral safety obtained in such a fashion is often at the expense of
her physical safety. If the assumption has a basis in fact that there is
a relation between prostitution and monogamic marriage, the complexity
of the problem becomes evident. It is further complicated by the
postponement of marriage from economic reasons, hesitation at the
assumption of family responsibilities at a time of life when ambition as
well as passion is strong, when the physiological functions are
stimulated by city life and there is constant opportunity for relief of
repression for a price. It is here that the demarcation between the
man's and the woman's world shows most clearly. It may well be that the
only solution of this problem is through the admission of a new
factor--the "good" woman whom taboo has kept in ignorance of a problem
that is her own. If it be true that the only solution for the double
standard whose evils show most plainly here is a new single standard
which has not yet been found, then it is high time that we find what
that standard is to be, for the sake of the future.
The third dysgenic influence which works under cover of the
institutional taboo is akin to the first in its ancient standards of
"good" and "bad." We are only recently getting any standards for a good
mother except a man's choice and a wedding ring. Men's ideals of
attractiveness greatly complicate the eugenic situation. A good
matchmaker, with social backing and money, can make a moron more
attractive than a pushing, energetic girl with plenty of initiative,
whose contribution to her children would be equal or superior to that of
her mate. A timid, gentle, pretty moron, with the attainment of a girl
of twelve years, will make an excellent match, and bring into the world
children who give us one of the reasons why it is "three generations
from shirt-sleeves to shirt-sleeves." For such a girl, the slave to
convention, exactly fits the feminine ideal which man has built up for
himself. And she will be a good wife and mother in the conventional
sense all her life. This following of an ideal feminine type conceived
in irrational processes in former days inclines men to marry women with
inferior genetic possibilities because they meet the more insistent
surface requirements. The heritage of our children is thus cut down, and
many a potential mother of great men remains unwed.
The same survival of ancient sex taboos is seen in the attitude toward
the illegitimate child. The marriage ceremony is by its origin and by
the forms of its perpetuation the only sanction for the breaking of the
taboo on contact between men and women. The illegitimate child, the
visible symbol of the sin of its parents, is the one on whom most
heavily falls the burden of the crime. Society has for the most part
been utterly indifferent to the eugenic value of the child and has
concerned itself chiefly with the manner of its birth. Only the
situation arising out of the war and the need of the nations for men has
been able to partially remedy this situation.
The taboos on illegitimacy in the United States have been less affected
by the practical population problems growing out of war conditions than
those of other countries. As compared with the advanced stands of the
Scandinavian countries, the few laws of progressive states look
painfully inadequate. Miss Breckinridge writes:[1]
"The humiliating and despised position of the illegitimate child need
hardly be pointed out. He was the son of nobody, filius nullius, without
name or kin so far as kinship meant rights of inheritance or of
succession. In reality this child of nobody did in a way belong to his
mother as the legitimate child never did in common law, for, while the
right of the unmarried mother to the custody of the child of her shame
was not so noble and dignified a thing as the right of the father to the
legitimate child, she had in fact a claim, at least so long as the child
was of tender years, not so different from his and as wide as the sky
from the impotence of the married mother. The contribution of the father
has been secured under conditions shockingly humiliating to her, in
amounts totally inadequate to her and the child's support. In Illinois,
$550 over 5 years; Tennessee, $40 the first year, $30 the second, $20
the third. (See studies of the Boston Conference on Illegitimacy,
September, 1914, p. 47.) Moreover, the situation was so desperate that
physicians, social workers and relatives have conspired to save the
girl's respectability at the risk of the child's life and at the cost of
all spiritual and educative value of the experience of motherhood. This
has meant a greatly higher death rate among illegitimate infants, a
higher crime and a higher dependency rate."
The fifth of the dysgenic influences which has been fostered by the
institutional taboo is uncovered by recent studies of the effect of
certain emotions on the human organism. The life of woman has long been
shadowed by the fact that she has been the weaker sex; that even when
strong she has been weighted by her child; and that throughout the
period of private property she has been the poor sex, dependent on some
male for her support. In an age of force, fear has been her strong
emotion. If she felt rage it must be suppressed. Disappointment and
discouragement had also to be borne in silence and with patience. Of
such a situation Davies says:
"The power of the mind over the body is a scientific fact, as is
evidenced by hypnotic suggestion and in the emotional control over the
chemistry of health through the agency of the internal secretions. The
reproductive processes are very susceptible to chemic influences. Thus
the influences of the environment may in some degree carry through to
the offspring."[2]
The studies of Drs Crile and Cannon show that the effects of fear on the
ganglionic cells are tremendous. Some of the cells are exhausted and
completely destroyed by intensity and duration of emotion. Cannon's
experiments on animals during fear, rage, anger, and hunger, show that
the entire nervous system is involved and that internal and external
functions change their normal nature and activity. The thyroid and
adrenal glands are deeply affected. In times of intense emotion, the
thyroid gland throws into the system products which cause a quickened
pulse, rapid respiration, trembling, arrest of digestion, etc. When the
subjects of experiments in the effect of the emotions of fear, rage,
etc., are examined, it is found that the physical development,
especially the sexual development, is retarded. Heredity, age, sex, the
nervous system of the subject, and the intensity and duration of the
shock must all have consideration. Griesinger, Amard and Daguin
emphasize especially the results of pain, anxiety and shock, claiming
that they are difficult or impossible to treat.
To the bride brought up under the old taboos, the sex experiences of
early married life are apt to come as a shock, particularly when the
previous sex experiences of her mate have been gained with women of
another class. Indeed, so deeply has the sense of shame concerning the
sexual functions been impressed upon the feminine mind that many wives
never cease to feel a recurrent emotion of repugnance throughout the
marital relationship. Especially would this be intensified in the case
of sexual intercourse during the periods of gestation and lactation,
when the girl who had been taught that the sexual functions existed only
in the service of reproduction would see her most cherished illusions
rudely dispelled. The effect of this long continued emotional state with
its feeling of injury upon the metabolism of the female organism would
be apt to have a detrimental effect upon the embryo through the blood
supply, or upon the nursing infant through the mother's milk. There can
be no doubt that anxiety, terror, etc., affect the milk supply, and
therefore the life of the child.
The sixth dysgenic effect of the control by taboos is the rebellion of
economically independent women who refuse motherhood under the only
conditions society leaves open to them. The statistics in existence,
though open to criticism, indicate that the most highly trained women in
America are not perpetuating themselves.[3] Of the situation in England,
Bertrand Russell said in 1917: "If an average sample were taken out of
the population of England, and their parents were examined, it would be
found that prudence, energy, intellect and enlightenment were less
common among the parents than in the population in general; while
shiftlessness, feeble-mindedness, stupidity and superstition were more
common than in the population in general ... Mutual liberty is making
the old form of marriage impossible while a new form is not yet
developed."[4]
It must be admitted that to-day marriage and motherhood are subject to
economic penalties. Perhaps one of the best explanations of the strength
of the present struggle for economic independence among women is the
fact that a commercial world interested in exchange values had refused
to properly evaluate their social contribution. A new industrial system
had taken away one by one their "natural" occupations. In the modern
man's absorption in the life of a great industrial expansion, home life
has been less insistent in its claims. His slackening of interest and
attention, together with the discovery of her usefulness in industry,
may have given the woman of initiative her opportunity to slip away from
her ancient sphere into a world where her usefulness in other fields
than that of sex has made her a different creature from the model woman
of yesterday. These trained and educated women have hesitated to face
the renunciations involved in a return to the home. The result has been
one more factor in the lessening of eugenic motherhood, since it is
necessarily the less strong who lose footing and fall back on marriage
for support. These women wage-earners who live away from the traditions
of what a woman ought to be will have a great deal of influence in the
changed relations of the sexes. The answer to the question of their
relation to the family and to a saner parenthood is of vital importance
to society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER IV
1. Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Social Control of Child Welfare.
Publications of the American Sociological Society. Vol. XII, p. 23 f.
2. Davies, G.R. Social Environment. 149 pp. A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago,
1917.
3. Popenoe, Paul. Eugenics and College Education. School and Society,
pp. 438-441. Vol. VI. No. 146.
4. Russell, Bertrand. Why Men Fight. 272 pp. The Century Co., N.Y.,
1917.
PART III
THE SEX PROBLEM IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
BY
PHYLLIS BLANCHARD, PH.D.
CHAPTER I
SEX IN TERMS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
Bearing of modern psychology on the sex problem; Conditioning of the
sexual impulse; Vicarious expression of the sexual impulse; Unconscious
factors of the sex life; Taboo control has conditioned the natural
biological tendencies of individuals to conform to arbitrary standards
of masculinity and femininity; Conflict between individual desires and
social standards.
An adequate treatment of the sex problem in society must necessarily
involve a consideration of the sexual impulse in the individual members
of that society. Recent psychological research, with its laboratory
experiments and studies of pathology has added a great deal of
information at this point. The lately acquired knowledge of the warping
effect of the environment upon the native biological endowment of the
individual by means of the establishment of conditioned reflexes, the
discovery that any emotion which is denied its natural motor outlet
tends to seek expression through some vicarious activity, and the
realization of the fundamental importance of the unconscious factors in
shaping emotional reactions,--such formulations of behaviouristic and
analytic psychology have thrown a great deal of light upon the nature
of the individual sex life.
There are certain modifications of the erotic life which are explicable
only when we recollect that under environmental influences situations
which originally did not call up an emotional response come later to do
so. This fact, which was first noted by Setchenov, was experimentally
demonstrated by Pavlov and his students.[7] They found that when some
irrelevant stimulus, such as a musical tone or a piece of coloured paper
was presented to a dog simultaneously with its food for a sufficiently
long period, the presentation of the tone or paper alone finally caused
the same flow of saliva that the food had originally evoked. The
irrelevant stimulus was named a _food sign_, and the involuntary motor
response of salivary secretion was called a _conditioned reflex_ to
differentiate it from the similar response to the biologically adequate
stimulus of food, which was termed an _unconditioned reflex_.
"The significance of the conditioned reflex is simply this, that an
associated stimulus brings about a reaction; and this associated
stimulus may be from any receptor organ of the body; and it may be
formed of course not merely in the laboratory by specially devised
experiments, but by association in the ordinary environment."[1] Thus it
is evident that the formation of conditioned reflexes takes place in
all fields of animal and human activity.
Watson has recently stated that a similar substitution of one stimulus
for another occurs in the case of an emotional reaction as well as at
the level of the simple physiological reflex response.[8] This means
that when an emotionally exciting object stimulates the subject
simultaneously with one not emotionally exciting, the latter may in time
(or even after one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional response
as the former. Kempf considers this capacity of the emotion to become
thus conditioned to other than the original stimuli "of the utmost
importance in determining the selections and aversions throughout life,
such as mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, professions,
religious and political preferences, etc."[5]
Just as Pavlov and his followers found that almost anything could become
a food sign, so the study of neurotics has shown that the sexual emotion
can be fixed upon almost any love object. For example, a single
characteristic of a beloved person (e.g.,--eye colour, smile posture,
gestures) can become itself a stimulus to evoke the emotional response
originally associated only with that person. Then it happens that the
affection may centre upon anyone possessing similar traits. In most
psychological literature, this focussing of the emotion upon some
particular characteristic is termed _fetishism_, and the stimulus which
become capable of arousing the conditioned emotional response is called
an _erotic fetish_. In extreme cases of fetishism, the sexual emotions
can only be aroused in the presence of the particular fetish involved.
Krafft-Ebing[6] and other psychopathologists describe very abnormal
cases of erotic fetishism in which some inanimate object becomes
entirely dissociated from the person with whom it was originally
connected, so that it serves exclusively as a love object in itself, and
prevents a normal emotional reaction to members of the opposite sex.
The development of romantic love has depended to a great extent upon the
establishment of a wide range of stimuli capable of arousing the erotic
impulses. As Finck has pointed out, this romantic sentiment is
inseparable from the ideals of personal beauty.[3] As criteria of beauty
he lists such characteristics as well-shaped waist, rounded bosom, full
and red underlip, small feet, etc., all of which have come to be
considered standards of loveliness because the erotic emotion has been
conditioned to respond to their stimulation. Literature is full of
references to such marks of beauty in its characters (_Jane Eyre_ is
almost the only well-known book with a plain heroine), and is therefore
one of the potent factors in establishing a conditioned emotional
reaction to these stimuli.
The erotic impulse may have its responses conditioned in many other ways
than the building up of erotic fetishes. Kempf has observed that the
affective reactions of the individual are largely conditioned by the
unconscious attitudes of parents, friends, enemies and teachers. For
instance, one boy is conditioned to distrust his ability and another to
have confidence in his powers by the attitude of the parents. Similarly,
the daughter whose mother is abnormally prudish about sexual functions
will surely be conditioned to react in the same manner towards her own
sexual functions, unless conditioned to react differently by the
influence of another person.[5] Through the everyday associations in the
social milieu, therefore, the erotic impulse of an individual may become
modified in almost any manner.
Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other
stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a
tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural
expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play
to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the
freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval
of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the
tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert
pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life,"
says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to
conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its
needs."[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels
of activity which have received the sanction of social approval.
It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual
activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more
frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological
expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to
envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It
may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the
religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in
language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and
day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose.
This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic
words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them.
According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions
inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be
explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can
say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off
through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make
possible.[8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual,
however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner
analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often
prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus.
Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of
vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological
levels outside the realm of consciousness, they are called unconscious
activities of the organism. There are many other unconscious factors
which also modify the sex life of the human individual. The most
fundamental of these are the impressions and associations of the infancy
period, which may well be classed as conditioned reflex mechanisms, but
are sufficiently important to receive separate consideration.
It is generally conceded by students of child psychology that the social
reactions of the child are conditioned by the home environment in which
the earliest and most formative years of its life are passed. It is not
surprising, therefore, that the ideal of the opposite sex which the boy
or girl forms at this time should approximate the mother or father,
since they are the persons best loved and most frequently seen. The
ideals thus established in early childhood are very often the
unconscious influences which determine the choice of a mate in adult
life. Or the devotion to the parent may be so intense as to prevent the
transference of the love-life to another person and thus entirely
prohibit the entrance upon the marital relation. Elida Evans has given
some very convincing cases in illustration of these points in her recent
book, "The Problem of the Nervous Child."[2]
On the other hand, in those unfortunate cases where the father or mother
is the object of dislike, associations may be formed which will be so
persistent as to prevent the normal emotional reaction to the opposite
sex in later years. This, too, results in the avoidance of marriage and
the establishment of vicarious outlets for the sexual emotions, or less
often in homosexual attachments or perversions of the sex life.
Conditioned emotional reactions such as these play a dominant role in
the social problem of sex, as will become apparent in succeeding
chapters.
In addition to the influences which naturally act to condition the
original sexual endowment of the individual, there are artificial forces
which still further qualify it. The system of taboo control which
society has always utilized in one form or another as a means of
regulating the reproductive activities of its members, has set up
arbitrary ideals of masculinity and femininity to which each man and
woman must conform or else forfeit social esteem. The feminine standard
thus enforced has been adequately described in Part II of this study. Dr
Hinkle has also described this approved feminine type, as well as the
contrasting masculine ideal which embodies the qualities of courage,
aggressiveness, and other traditional male characteristics. From her
psychoanalytic practice, Dr Hinkle concludes that men and women do not
in reality conform to these arbitrarily fixed types by native biological
endowment, but that they try to shape their reactions in harmony with
these socially approved standards in spite of their innate tendencies to
variation.[4]
The same conclusion might be arrived at theoretically on the grounds of
the recent biological evidence of intersexuality discussed in Part I,
which implies that there are no absolute degrees of maleness and
femaleness. If there are no 100% males and females, it is obvious that
no men and women will entirely conform to ideals of masculine and
feminine perfection.
In addition to the imposition of these arbitrary standards of
masculinity and femininity, society has forced upon its members
conformity to a uniform and institutionalized type of sexual
relationship. This institutionalized and inflexible type of sexual
activity, which is the only expression of the sexual emotion meeting
with social approval, not only makes no allowance for biological
variations, but takes even less into account the vastly complex and
exceedingly different conditionings of the emotional reactions of the
individual sex life. The resulting conflict between the individual
desires and the standards imposed by society has caused a great deal of
disharmony in the psychic life of its members. The increasing number of
divorces and the modern tendency to celibacy are symptomatic of the
cumulative effect of this fundamental psychic conflict.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER I
1. Burnham, W.H. Mental Hygiene and the Conditioned Reflex. Ped. Sem.
Vol. XXIV, Dec, 1917, pp. 449-488.
2. Evans, Elida. The Problem of the Nervous Child. Kegan Paul & Co.,
London, 1920.
3. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.
4. Hinkle, Beatrice M. On the Arbitrary Use of the Terms "Masculine" and
"Feminine." Psychoanalyt. Rev. Vol. VII, No. 1, Jan., 1920, pp. 15-30.
5. Kempf, E.J. The Tonus of the Autonomic Segments as Causes of
Abnormal Behaviour. Jour. Nerv. & Ment. Disease, Jan., 1920, pp. 1-34.
6. Krafft-Ebing, R. Psychopathia Sexualis. Fuchs, Stuttgart, 1907.
7. Pavlov, J.P. L'excitation Psychique des Glandes Salivaires. Jour de
Psychologie, 1910, No. 2, pp. 97-114.
8. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist.
Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.
CHAPTER II
HOW OUR INSTITUTIONS FIT INDIVIDUAL SEX PSYCHOLOGY
Social institutions controlling sex activities based on the assumption
that _all_ women are adapted to as well as specialized for reproduction;
Neurotic tendencies which unfit women for marriage--the desire for
domination; Sexual anæsthesia another neurotic trait which interferes
with marital harmony; The conditioning of the sexual impulse to the
parent ideal and the erotic fetish as factors which determine mating;
Homosexual tendencies and their part in the sex problem; The conflict
between the desire for marriage and egoistic ambitions; The social
regulations from the viewpoint of individual psychology.
The institutionalized forms of social control into which the old sex
taboos have developed impose upon all members of the group a uniform
type of sexual relationship. These socially enforced standards which
govern the sex life are based upon the assumption that men and women
conform closely to the masculine and feminine ideals of tradition. The
emphasis is much more strongly placed on feminine conformity, however;
a great many sexual activities are tolerated in the male that would be
unsparingly condemned in the female. Thus the sex problem becomes in
large measure a woman's problem, not only because of her peculiar
biological specialization for reproduction, which involves an enormous
responsibility but also because her life has for so many generations
been hedged in by rigid institutionalized taboos and prohibitions.
The traditional conception of marriage and the family relation implies
that all women are adapted to as well as specialized for motherhood. In
reality, if the biological evidence of intersexuality be as conclusive
as now appears, there are many women who by their very nature are much
better adapted to the activities customarily considered as pre-eminently
masculine, although they are still specialized for childbearing. There
is no statistical evidence of any high correlation between the sexual
and maternal impulses. Indeed, a great many traits of human behaviour
seem to justify the inference that these two tendencies may often be
entirely dissociated in the individual life. Dr Blair Bell (as noted in
Part I, Chapter III) believes that it is possible to differentiate women
possessing a maternal impulse from those lacking such tendencies by the
very anatomical structure. It is obvious that a woman endowed with a
strong erotic nature requires a kind of sexual relationship different
from one whose interests are predominantly in her children. And both the
sexual and maternal types require different situations than the woman
who combines the two instincts in her own personality for a normal
expression of their emotional life.
According to social tradition, sexual activity (at least in the case of
women) is to be exercised primarily for the reproduction of the group.
Thus the institutions of marriage and the family in their present form
provide only for the woman who possesses both the sexual and maternal
cravings. Contraceptive knowledge has enabled a small number of women
(which is rapidly growing larger) to fit into these institutions in
spite of their lack of a desire for motherhood. There have been a few
hardy theorists who have braved convention to the extent of suggesting
the deliberate adoption of unmarried motherhood by women who are
consumed by the maternal passion but have no strongly erotic nature.
Whether their problem will be solved in this manner, only the course of
social evolution in the future can show.
Besides the differences in natural instinctive tendencies which make it
difficult for many women to fit into a uniform type of sexual
relationship, modern society, with its less rigid natural selection,
has permitted the survival of many neurotic temperaments which find
marriage a precarious venture. The neurotic constitution, as Adler[1,2]
has pointed out, is an expression of underlying structural or functional
organic deficiency. It is a physiological axiom that whenever one organ
of the body, because of injury, disease, etc., becomes incapable of
properly discharging its functions, its duties are taken over by some
other organ or group of organs. This process of organic compensation,
whereby deficiency in one part of the body is atoned for by additional
labours of other parts, necessarily involves the nervous mechanism in
ways which need not be discussed in detail here.
In children the process of compensation, with its formation of new
nervous co-ordinations, is manifest in the inability to cope with their
companions who have a better biological endowment. This gives rise to a
feeling of inferiority from which the child tries to free itself by
every possible means, ordinarily by surpassing in the classroom the
playmates whom it cannot defeat on the playground. The feeling of
inferiority continues throughout life, however, although the mechanism
of physiological compensation may have become so perfected that the
functioning of the organism is quite adequate to the needs of the
environment. As a result, the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the
desire to release the personality from this torturing sense of inability
by a constant demonstration of the power to control circumstances or to
dominate associates.
This abnormal will to power finds expression in the marital relationship
in the desire for supremacy over the mate. The domineering husband is a
familiar figure in daily life. The wife who finds it more difficult to
rule her husband by sheer mastery achieves the same ends by developing a
fit of hysterical weeping or having a nervous headache when denied her
own way in family affairs.
By far the easiest way for the woman to satisfy her craving for power is
the development of an interesting illness which makes her the centre of
attention. The history of nervous disease furnishes many cases of
neurosis where this uncontrollable longing for domination is the chief
factor in the etiology of the illness. It is not at all unusual to meet
wives who hold their husbands subservient to every whim because of
"delicate nervous organizations" which are upset at the slightest
thwarting of their wishes so that they develop nervous headaches,
nervous indigestion, and many other kinds of sickness unless their
preferences meet with the utmost consideration. This tendency often
becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at the same time that it brings
the longed-for attention, incapacitates the individual for sexual and
maternal activities and makes the married life an abnormal and unhappy
one.
Another more or less neurotic trait which acts as a cause of disharmony
in the marital relationship is the sexual anæsthesia which is not at all
uncommon in modern women. The absence of any erotic passion is held to
be a matter of physiological makeup by many authorities, but it is
probably more often due to the inhibition of natural tendencies in
accordance with concepts built up by social tradition. In order to
understand how social suggestion can have so powerful an effect upon the
reactions of the individual, we must revert once more to the principles
of behaviouristic psychology.
According to Watson,[4] whenever the environmental factors are such that
a direct expression of an emotion cannot occur, the individual has to
have recourse to implicit motor attitudes. The best example in everyday
life is probably seen in the case of anger, which can seldom be
permitted to find an outlet in the natural act of striking, etc. It is
apparent, however, in the facial expression and in a certain muscular
posture which can best be described as a "defiant" attitude. Another
good example is the submissive attitude which often accompanies the
emotion of fear. It is manifest in shrinking, avoiding movements,
sometimes of the whole body, but more often of the eyes or some other
special organ.
"In the sphere of love," Watson remarks, "there are numerous attitudes
as shown by the popular expressions lovelorn, lovesick, tenderness,
sympathy. More fundamental and prominent attitudes are those of shyness,
shame, embarrassment, jealousy, envy, hate, pride, suspicion,
resentment, anguish, and anxiety."[4]
The significant fact is that these attitudes function by limiting the
range of stimuli to which the person is sensitive. The attitude of shame
concerning their sexual functions, which has been impressed upon women
as a result of ages of thinking in harmony with taboo standards, thus is
able to prevent the normal biological response to a situation which
should call out the emotions of love. In women who have an unstable
nervous system this shameful feeling often results in a definite
physiological shrinking from the physical manifestations of sexuality
and renders the individual insensitive to all erotic stimulation.
This attitude of shame in connection with the love life came into
existence as a socially conditioned emotional reaction set up under the
influence of the traditional ideal of the "model woman" who was pictured
as a being of unearthly purity and immaculacy. It has been passed on
from generation to generation through an unconscious conditioning of the
daughter's attitude by suggestion and imitation to resemble that of the
mother. Thus it happens that although an increasing amount of liberty,
both social and economic, and a more rational and scientific
understanding of the womanly nature, have quite revoked this ideal in
theory, in actual practice it still continues to exert its inhibitory
and restrictive influence.
Because the standardized family relationship involves so much more
radical a readjustment in the life of woman than of man, it has almost
always been the feminine partner who has taken refuge in neurotic
symptoms in order to escape the difficulties of the situation. After the
marriage ceremony, the man's life goes on much as before, so far as his
social activities are concerned, but woman takes up the new duties
connected with the care of the home and her child-bearing functions.
Moreover, the sexual life of woman is in many ways more complex than
that of man. She has been subjected to more repressions and inhibitions,
and as a result there has been more modification of her emotional
reactions in the field of love. This greater complexity of her love life
makes adaptation to marriage more problematical in the case of woman.
Although the neurotic tendencies of modern women have been an important
factor for the production of disharmony in the family life, there are
certain variations of the individual sex life which are more universally
significant. The conditioned emotional reactions which environmental
influences have built up around the sexual impulse of each member of
society invariably determine the choice of the mate and give rise to
extremely complicated problems by the very nature of the selective
process. It is largely a matter of chance whether the mate chosen in
accordance with the ideals of romantic love and because of some
fascinating trait which acts as an erotic fetish or in conformity with a
parental fixation will prove a congenial companion through life.
But the complexity of the situation lies in the fact that the erotic
impulses may become conditioned to respond to an indefinite number of
substituted stimuli. For example, the parental fixation may become
reconditioned by focussing upon some special characteristic of the
father or mother, which becomes an erotic fetish. If the mate is
selected on the basis of this fetishistic attraction, he (or she) may
prove to be so unlike the parent in other respects as to lose all the
affection which was originally inspired. A concrete illustration of
these conflicting emotional reactions is the case of the girl who
declared that she feared her fiancé as much as she loved him, but felt
that she must marry him nevertheless. An investigation showed that her
almost compulsive feeling about her lover was due to the fact that his
gestures and manner of regarding her, in fact his whole bearing,
reminded her of her dead father, while in other respects he was totally
repugnant to her because his character traits were so far removed from
those of her father ideal.
The conflict between the parental ideal and other phases of the sexual
impulse is even more pronounced in men than in women, for two reasons.
In the first place, the mother plays by far the largest part in the life
of her children, so that the son's fixation upon her is necessarily more
intense than the daughter's affection for the father. Yet on the other
hand, the sexual desire of the male is more easily aroused than that of
the female, and is more apt to centre upon some member of the opposite
sex who possesses certain physical attractiveness but is not at all like
the mother ideal. Thus it happens that men often enshrine on their
hearthstone the woman who approximates the worshipped mother, while they
seek satisfaction for their erotic needs outside the home. In other
words, in the masculine psyche there is often a dissociation of the
sexual impulse in its direct manifestations and the sentiment of love in
its more idealistic aspects. This partially explains the fact that it
is possible for a man to be "unfaithful" to his wife while actually
loving her devotedly all the time.
A different solution of the unconscious conflict between the mother
fixation and the sexual desires at lower levels is seen in those cases
in which the man impulsively marries the woman who has this transient
attraction for him. When the first passion of such an alliance has worn
away, there is no lasting bond to take its place, and the man must find
solace in some such way as an intimate friendship with a woman who
recalls the maternal impressions of his childhood. A famous example of
this is found in the beautiful affection of Auguste Comte for his
idolized Clotilde de Vaux. Although Comte was bound to a woman whom he
had married in the flush of erotic desire and whom he found entirety
uncongenial, Clotilde became the inspiration of his later life, and held
his affection without the aid of any material bond because she so
closely resembled the dead mother whom he adored.[3]
It is evident that the selection of a mate who is erotically attractive,
but proves to be very similar to a parent who was disliked instead of
loved, is as unfortunate as the choice of a partner who is utterly
unlike a beloved father or mother. Indeed, when all the possible
complications are clearly visualized, taking into account the numerous
ways in which the sexual emotions can be modified, it is plain that
these unconscious factors which determine the choice of a mate are not
always conducive to a happy married life.
Quite recently the tendency to homosexuality has been emphasized as an
important factor in the psychological problem of sex. At the
International Conference of Medical Women (New York, 1919) it was stated
that homosexual fixations among women are a frequent cause of female
celibacy and divorce. This view was upheld by such authorities as Dr.
Constance Long of England, and other prominent women physicians.
Although a certain percentage of female homosexuality is congenital, it
is probable that by far the largest part is due to a conditioning of the
sexual impulse by the substitution of members of the same sex as the
erotic stimulus in place of the normal response to the opposite sex.
This substitution is facilitated by certain facts in the social life of
women. The frequent lack of opportunity to be with men during adolescent
school days, and a certain amount of taboo on male society for the
unmarried woman, are in direct favour of the establishment of homosexual
reactions. There is also an increasing sex antagonism, growing out of
woman's long struggle for the privilege of participating in activities
and sharing prerogatives formerly limited to men, which acts as an
inhibitory force to prevent the transference of the sexual emotion to
its normal object in the opposite sex. Moreover, the entrance of woman
into a manner of living and lines of activity which have heretofore been
exclusively masculine, has brought out certain character traits which in
other times would have been repressed as incompatible with the social
standards of feminine conduct, but which are conducive to the formation
of homosexual attachments, since the qualities admired in men can now be
found also in women.
In this connection the term _homosexuality_ is used very loosely to
denote any type of emotional fixation upon members of the same sex which
is strong enough to prevent a normal love life with some individual of
the opposite sex. Among American women, at least, this tendency is
seldom expressed by any gross physical manifestations, but often becomes
an idealized and lofty sentiment of friendship. It is abnormal, however,
when it becomes so strong as to prevent a happy married life.
The tendency of emotions to seek a vicarious outlet must also be
considered in any inclusive attempt to explain the homosexual attachment
of women. The woman who, on account of lack of attraction for men or for
any other reason, is denied the normal functioning of the love life in
marriage, is forced to find some other expression for her erotic
emotions, and it is only natural that she should find it in an affection
for other women. Again, the voluntary celibacy of a large class of
modern women, who prefer to retain their economic independence rather
than to enter into family life, also necessitates finding vicarious
emotional activities. Whenever their work throws a number of these women
into constant association, it is almost inevitable that homosexual
attachments will spring up.
We meet all these types of homosexual fixations in daily life. The
college girl who is isolated from men for four years has her sworn
comrade among the girls, and is sure that she will never marry but will
love her chum always. Very often it is some time after she leaves
college before she begins to take an interest in male companionship. The
young professional woman looks up to the older woman in her line of work
with the same admiration for her courage and brilliancy that used to be
reserved for the husband alone in the days when women were permitted
only a strictly feminine education and occupation. The business woman
refuses to give up her high salaried position for marriage, and consoles
herself with her feminine friends. These are the common manifestations
characteristic of female homosexuality. As has been suggested, the term
is loosely applied to such cases as these, but the tendency of recent
psychological literature is to consider them as highly sublimated
expressions of this tendency.
As has been intimated, the modern woman who has entered into the
economic competition is often reluctant to abandon this activity for the
responsibilities of wifehood and motherhood, which involve a withdrawal
from the business world. Just as the materialistic rewards of economic
activities often prove more attractive than the emotional satisfactions
of family life, so, too, the intellectual ambitions of the professional
woman may deter her from the exercise of her reproductive functions.
Thus the egoistic and individualistic tendencies which modern social
organization fosters in the personality of its feminine members makes
them unwilling to sacrifice their ambitious plans in the performance of
their natural biological functions.
In the present speeding up of competition, the entrance upon family life
becomes almost as burdensome to man as to woman, although in a different
manner. Free as he is from the biological responsibilities connected
with childbearing which fall to a woman's lot, he finds the economic
responsibilities which the care of children entails equally grilling.
His choice of a profession can no longer be decided by his own
preferences, but must be determined by the economic returns. He can
never afford to sacrifice financial gain for personal recognition,
because of his obligation to provide for his family. Thus it happens
that marriage often presents a situation in which no outlet for personal
ambitions is possible and the egoistic desires and emotions must be
sternly repressed. There is therefore an increasing hesitancy on the
part of the men of to-day to assume responsibilities so grave and
involving so much personal sacrifice.
It is evident from even such a casual inquiry as this, that there are
many facts of individual psychology which have not been taken into
account by society in the development of the mores which govern the
sexual relationships of its members. The traditional institution of the
family, which would shape all women into model wives and mothers, has
neglected to consider the fact that not all women are biologically
adapted for these particular activities. The choice of a mate which is
determined by irrational and unconscious motives may or may not prove to
be a wise selection, as we have seen in the course of our discussion.
Most significant of all for the social problem of sex, is the
overwhelming tendency to individuation which is making both men and
women frankly question whether marriage and parenthood are worth while
when they involve so much personal sacrifice.
From the viewpoint of psychology, we may briefly summarize the whole
situation by saying that society has imposed upon its members a uniform
and inflexible type of sexual relationships and reproductive activities
with a total disregard of individual differences in its demand for
conformity to these traditions. When the infinite number of variations
and modifications possible in the sexual life of different individuals
is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there must be a certain
disharmony between personal inclinations and social standards. Because
the power of the group control is very great, its members usually
repress emotions which are not in accord with its regulations, and shape
their conduct to meet with its approval. If such a restriction of the
personality and emotional life of the individual is necessary for the
welfare of the whole race and for social progress, its existence is
entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore, to determine in what
respects a rigid and irrational social control is conducive to human
betterment, and wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER II
1. Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution. Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917.
(Kegan Paul & Co., 1921.)
2. Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority and Its Psychic
Compensation. Nervous & Mental Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917.
3. Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste Comte. Am. Jour.
Psy., April, 1918.
4. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviourist.
Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1919.
CHAPTER III
DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY AND NECESSITY FOR A
SOCIAL THERAPY
Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives instead of
eugenic considerations; Some of the best male and female stock refusing
marriage and parenthood; The race is reproduced largely by the inferior
and average stocks and very little by the superior stock; As a
therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological knowledge as a
new method of control; Romantic love and conjugal love--a new ideal of
love; The solution of the conflict between individual and group
interests.
From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological situation
of human reproductive activities undoubtedly has its detrimental
aspects. As we have seen, the choice of a mate is determined by
irrational motives which lie far below the levels of consciousness.
These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection far outweigh the
more rational considerations of modern eugenic thought. The marks of
personal beauty around which romantic love centres and which therefore
play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily indicative of
physical and mental health that will insure the production of sound
offspring. The modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as
feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from the ancient Grecian
type of physical perfection. Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals
of "the lady," the demand is rather for a delicate and fragile
prettiness which has come to be regarded as the essence of femininity.
The robust, athletic girl must preserve this "feminine charm" in the
midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she stands in great danger of
losing her erotic attraction.
Surface indications of the truth of this statement are easily
discovered. The literature which before the war ran riot with athletic
heroines pictured them with wind-blown hair and flushed cheeks receiving
the offer of their male companion's heart and hand. The golf course or
the summer camp was simply a charming new setting for the development of
the eternal love theme. Even fashion has conspired to emphasize the
feminine charm of the girl who goes in for sports, as a glance at the
models of bathing costumes, silken sweaters, and graceful "sport" skirts
plainly reveals.
Just as the love which is directed in accordance with an emotional
reaction conditioned to respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent
ideal may be productive of individual unhappiness, so it is also
entirely a matter of chance whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating.
Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus upon a person who does
not conform to eugenic ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected
upon the basis of these unconscious motives is very likely to bequeath a
neurotic constitution or an otherwise impaired physical organism to the
offspring of the union, since those possibilities were not taken into
consideration in making the choice.
It becomes apparent that while certain forces in the life of the
individual and in the social inheritance have united to condition the
emotional reactions of the sex life, these conditionings have not always
been for the benefit of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that
society has been more concerned with the manner of expression of the
love life in the individual members than in its effects upon the next
generation. In its neglect or ignorance of the significance of
artificial modifications of the emotions, it has permitted certain
dysgenic influences to continue in the psychic life of generation after
generation, regarding with the utmost placidity a process of sexual
selection determined by irrational and irresponsible motives.
The most potent dysgenic influence in the present phase of the sex
problem is the conflict between the interests of the individual and the
group regulations. The traditional type of marriage and family life has
a cramping effect upon the personal ambitions which lessens its
attractiveness materially. The enterprising young business or
professional man has no desire to restrict his opportunities by the
assumption of the responsibilities that accompany family life. He must
be free to stake all his resources on some favourable speculation
without the thought that he cannot take chances on impoverishing his
wife and children. Or if he has professional aspirations, he must be
able to take the long difficult pathway of scientific research with no
anxiety about the meagre salary that is insufficient for the support of
a home. Thus the most vital and aggressive male stocks as well as the
most highly intelligent tend to avoid the hampering effects of family
life, and their qualities are often lost to the next generation, since
even if they marry they will feel that they cannot afford offspring.
As women enter more and more into the competition for economic and
social rewards, this becomes equally applicable in their case. Indeed,
it would be strange were there not an even greater tendency to shun the
ties of family life on the part of ambitious women than of men, since
it involves greater sacrifices in their case on account of their
biological specialization for motherhood. It appears, therefore, that we
are losing the best parental material for the coming generations on both
the paternal and maternal sides. Thus the conflict between the egoistic
desires and the social institution of the family is segregating just
those energetic, successful individuals from whom the race of the future
should spring if we hope to reproduce a social organism capable of
survival in the inter-group struggle.
If it be true that the best stock, both male and female, for various
reasons refuses to assume the duty of reproduction, the group will
necessarily be replaced from individuals of average and inferior (but
not superior) eugenic value. Even within these limits there is at
present no conscious eugenic selection, and the irrational and
unconscious motives which govern sexual selection at the present time
may induce the choice of a mate from among the weaker individuals. Once
again it becomes a matter of chance whether or not the matings prove to
be for the welfare of the group and of the race.
It might be contended that the very fact that certain individuals
withdraw from reproductive activities is sufficient proof of their lack
of normal emotional reactions adapting them to the performance of those
functions. But a clearer insight shows that the group standards permit
the exercise of the reproductive activities only in accord with
arbitrary regulations which have coalesced in the institutions of
marriage and the family. These institutions have been developed to fit a
definite ideal of manhood and womanhood which grew up out of a manner of
thinking in accord with taboo control and ignorant superstitions rather
than in harmony with the actual facts of the situation. Now that we are
facing reality and trying to rationalize our thinking, we find that the
variation from these masculine and feminine ideals does not necessarily
imply biological or psychological abnormality, since the ideals were
themselves established without reference to biological and psychological
data.
The traditional marriage and family arrangement tends to enforce a
selection of individuals who conform most nearly to these artificial
types as parents for the succeeding generations. It is not at all
certain that such a selection is advantageous to the group. It would
seem rather that in so complex a social system as that of the present
day with its increasing division of labour on other than purely sexual
distinctions, we need a variety of types of individuals adapted to the
varied activities of modern life.
If society is to successfully meet the present situation it must
utilize its psychological insight to remedy conditions which are
obviously dysgenic and detrimental to the welfare of the race. If the
egoistic and highly individualized modern man and woman are induced to
sacrifice personal ambitions in the interests of reproduction, for
instance, it will only be because society has learned to turn those same
egoistic impulses to its own ends. This will never be accomplished by
the forces of tradition or by any such superimposed method of control as
conscription for parenthood. There is too much of a spirit of freedom
and individual liberty in the social mind to-day for any such measure to
meet with success. The same spirit of freedom which formerly burst the
bonds of superstition and entered into the world of science is now as
impatient of restraint of its emotional life as it formerly was of
restriction of its intellectual search for the truth.
Therefore society can no longer depend upon taboo standards crystallized
into institutionalized forms as a means of control. It must appeal to
more rational motives if it expects to have any degree of influence over
its most intelligent and energetic members. Only when the production of
eugenic offspring brings the same social approval and reward that is
meted out for other activities will the ineradicable and irrespressible
egoistic desires that now prevent individuals from assuming the
responsibilities of family life be enlisted in the very cause to which
they are now so hostile. When the same disapproval is manifested for the
shirking of reproductive activities by the eugenically fit that is now
directed toward lack of patriotism in other lines, the number of
voluntary celibates in society will be materialy decreased.
The greatest triumph of society in the manipulation of the sexual and
reproductive life of its members will come when it is able to condition
the emotional reaction of the individual by the substitution of the
eugenic ideal for the parental fixation and to focus the sentiment of
romantic love upon eugenic traits. When this is accomplished, the
selection of the mate will at least be favourable for racial
regeneration even if individual disharmonies are not entirely
eliminated. That there are great difficulties in the way of this
accomplishment may be admitted at the outset. The conditioned responses
to be broken down and replaced are for the most part formed in early
childhood, and have had a long period in which to become firmly
impressed upon the organism. But psychological experiments have proven
that even the best established conditioned reactions can be broken down
and others substituted in their place, so that the situation is not so
hopeless. When we recollect that for ages the traditional ideals of
masculinity and femininity have been conditioning the emotional life of
men and women to respond to their requirements with a remarkable degree
of success, there is ground for the belief that the same forces of
suggestion and imitation may be turned to more rational ends and
utilized as an effective means of social therapy.
If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it
will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the
socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life. The importance
of the emotional reactions for social progress has been very well
summarized by Burgess, who says that emotion can be utilized for
breaking down old customs and establishing new ones, as well as for the
conservation of the mores. Society can largely determine around what
stimuli the emotions can be organized, this author continues, and the
group has indeed always sought to control the stimuli impinging upon its
members. One policy has been to eliminate objectionable stimuli, as in
the outlawing of the saloon. The other is to change the nature of the
affective response of the individual to certain stimuli in the
environment where the natural or organic responses would be at variance
with conduct considered socially desirable.[3]
Modern psychological knowledge enables us to understand the mechanism
of this last method of social control as the building up of the
conditioned emotional response. If our civilization is to endure it must
learn to apply this method of control to the sex life of the individual
so that reproduction will fall to the lot of the most desirable eugenic
stock instead of being left to the workings of chance as it is at the
present time.
From the viewpoint of individual psychology, one of the principal
problems of the erotic life is to find a smooth transition from the
romantic love of the courtship period to the less ethereal emotions of
the married state. Indirectly, this is also socially significant,
because of the overwhelming effect of the home environment in shaping
the reactions of the next generation. As a rule, only the children who
have grown up in a happy and wholesome atmosphere of sincere parental
comradeship and affection can have an entirely sane and healthy reaction
to their own erotic functions in later years.
Although romantic love in its present expression may often lead to
uncongenial marriages and even involve dysgenic mating, its æsthetic and
refining influences are such as to make it desirable in spite of these
drawbacks. Its influence upon literature has been noted by Bloch[2]
while its potency in the formation of a deep and tender feeling between
men and women has been elaborately discussed by Finck.[4] Thus it is
evident that its individual and social advantages more than balance its
disadvantages.
Unfortunately, with the entrance into the marital relationship and the
release of the erotic emotion into natural channels so that it no longer
seeks the vicarious outlets which were partly supplied in the
idealization of the lovers, there is a tendency for this romantic
element to fade from their affection. The conjugal affection which
replaces it is built on quite other foundations. It is not composed of
day dreams about the beloved, but is wrought out of mutual interests, of
joys and sorrows shared together, of the pleasure of unrestricted
companionship, and of the common care of offspring. The danger lies in
the possibility that these foundations for conjugal love will not have
been lain by the time that romantic sentiments begin to grow dim. It is
this crisis in the married life which seems disappointing in the
afterglow of the engagement and honeymoon.
Of late there have been attempts to build up a new conception of love
which shall incorporate the best features of romantic love and at the
same time make the transition to the conjugal affection less difficult.
This new conception has grown up through the increasing freedom of
women and the constant association of the sexes in the educational and
business world as well as in the social life. This free companionship of
men and women has done much to destroy the illusions about each other
which were formerly supposed to be so necessary a component of romantic
love, but it has also created the basis for a broader sympathy and a
deeper comradeship which is easily carried over into the married
relation.
The new ideal of love which is being thus developed combines complete
understanding and frankness with erotic attraction and the tenderness of
romanticism. It implies a type of marital relationship in which there is
preservation of the personality and at the same time a harmony and union
of interests that was often absent from the old-fashioned marriage, when
the wife was supposed to be more limited in her interests than her
husband. It may well be that the evolution of this new ideal of love,
which grants personal autonomy even within the marriage bond, will solve
a great deal of the present conflict between the individualistic
impulses and the exercise of the erotic functions as permitted by the
group.
It is, of course, an open question as to how far the interests of the
individual and the group can be made to coincide. Group survival demands
that the most vital and intelligent members shall be those to carry on
the reproductive functions. Therefore from the social viewpoint, it is
quite justified in setting up the machinery of social approval and in
establishing emotional attitudes by this means that will insure that
this takes place. On the other hand, it may be that the individuals who
will be thus coerced will be as rebellious against new forms of social
control as they are restless under the present methods of restraint.
If we free ourselves from a manner of thinking induced by inhibitions
developed through ages of taboo control, and look at the problem
rationally, we must admit that the chief interest of society would be in
the eugenic value of the children born into it. At the present time,
however, the emphasis seems to be chiefly upon the manner of birth, that
is, the principal concern is to have the parents married in the
customary orthodox fashion. Only in view of the necessities of the
recent war have the European nations been forced to wipe out the stain
of illegitimacy, and in America we are still blind to this necessity.
Only Scandinavia, under the leadership of such minds as Ellen Key's, was
roused to this inconsistency in the mores without external pressure, and
enacted legislation concerning illegitimacy which may well serve as a
model to the whole world. The main points of the Norwegian Castberg bill
are as follows: The child whose parents are unmarried has a right to
the surname of the father, and the right of inheritance from a
propertied father; the court has full power to clear up the paternity of
the child; the man is held responsible for the child's support even if
other men are known to have had intercourse with the mother. In order to
discourage immorality in women for the purpose of blackmailing wealthy
men, the mother is also compelled to contribute to the child's
support.[1]
No psychologist of discernment, in insisting on eugenic standards rather
than a marriage certificate as the best criterion for parenthood would
encourage any tendency to promiscuous mating. The individual suffering
involved in such a system of sexual relationships would be too great to
permit its universal adoption even if it should be found to have no
deleterious social effects. But the very fact that transient mating does
involve so much human agony, especially on the part of the woman, is all
the more reason why it is needless to add artificial burdens to those
already compelled by the very nature of the emotional life.
The study of child psychology, too, would tend to discourage any general
tendency to temporary sexual relationships. Modern research has shown
that nothing is more necessary for the normal development of the child's
emotional life than a happy home environment with the presence of both
father and mother. Only in these surroundings, with the love of both
parents as a part of the childhood experience, can the emotional
reactions of the child be properly conditioned to respond to the social
situations of adult life.
In one respect, at least, society can do a great deal to better the
existing situation, and to solve the struggle between the individual and
group interests. At the same time that it endeavours to set up emotional
responses that shall be conducive to eugenic mating and to a happy love
life, as well as for the welfare of the child, it should also leave a
wide margin of personal liberty for the individuals concerned to work
out a type of sexual relationship which is in harmony with their natural
inclinations. The institution of monogamy is too deeply founded in the
needs of the individual and of the child to suffer from this increase in
freedom and responsibility. Were it so frail a thing as to need the
protection of the church and state as well as public opinion to insure
its survival, it would be so little adapted to the needs of humanity
that it might better disappear.
There are no indications that there would be any wider deviation from
the monogamous relationship were variations frankly recognized that now
take place in secret. By its present attitude, society is not
accomplishing its purpose and preventing all sexual relationships except
those which conform to its institutionalized standards. It is merely
forcing what should be always the most dignified of human relationships
into the shamefulness of concealment and furtiveness. Moreover, because
it visits its wrath on the child born of unions which are not strictly
conventionalized, it prevents the birth of children from mothers who
might be of great eugenic value, but whom fear of social disapproval
keeps from the exercise of their maternal functions but not of their
sexual activities.
In the final analysis, it will probably be demonstrated that for a
certain type of personality there can be no compromise which will
resolve the conflict between the egoistic inclinations and the interests
of the group. For those whose deepest desires are so out of harmony with
the social life of the times there is no alternative but to sacrifice
their personal desires or to forfeit the pleasure of feeling in complete
rapport with their fellows. In such natures, the ultimate course of
conduct will be determined by the relative strengths of the
individualistic and gregarious impulses, other things being equal. In
some instances this will mean the choice of a line of conduct out of
harmony with the general trend of group life; in others, it will mean
the repression of personal inclinations and conformity to social
standards.
For the majority of people, however, it is likely that a more rational
form of social control, freed from the long ages of taboo restrictions,
and based upon accurate biological and psychological knowledge, will
solve the disharmony between the individual and the group to a great
extent. Such a rationalization will take into account the value of a new
ideal of love which shall be built up from a sane relationship between
the sexes and in accordance with eugenic standards. It will also grant a
great deal of personal autonomy in the determination of sexual
relationships in so far as this can be correlated with the welfare of
the children of the race. Last of all, it will attempt to condition the
emotional reactions to respond to stimuli which shall insure eugenic
mating naturally and without the intervention of legislation.
Unless modern civilization can set up some such form of rational control
for the sexual and reproductive life of its members, the present
conflict between individuation and socialization will continue and the
dysgenic factors now operative in society will steadily increase. In the
end, this internal conflict may become so powerful as to act as an
irresistible disintegrating force that will shatter the fabric of modern
social organization. Only the evolution of a rationalized method of
control can avert this social catastrophe.
BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR CHAPTER III.
1. Anthony, Katharine. Feminism in Germany and Scandinavia. Henry Holt,
N.Y., 1915.
2. Bloch, Ivan. Sexual Life of Our Time. Rebman, London, 1908.
3. Burgess, E.W. The Function of Socialization in Social Evolution.
Univ. Chicago Press, 1916.
4. Finck, H.T. Romantic Love and Personal Beauty. Macmillan, N.Y., 1891.