[29] ‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all....’
That the upbringing of young people at the present day conceals from
them the part sexuality will play in their lives is not the only
reproach we are obliged to bring against it. It offends too in not
preparing them for the aggressions of which they are destined to
become the objects. Sending the young out into life with such a false
psychological orientation is as if one were to equip people going on a
Polar expedition with summer clothing and maps of the Italian lakes.
One can clearly see that ethical standards are being misused in a way.
The strictness of these standards would not do much harm if education
were to say: ‘This is how men ought to be in order to be happy and make
others happy, but you have to reckon with their not being so.’ Instead
of this the young are made to believe that everyone else conforms to
the standard of ethics, _i.e._ that everyone else is good. And then on
this is based the demand that the young shall be so too.
[30] I mean in _The Future of an Illusion_.
[31] _Totem und Tabu_ (1912).
[32] In particular, in contributions by Ernest Jones, Susan Isaacs,
Melanie Klein; also, as I understand, in those of Reik and Alexander.