Marie Carmichael Stopes - A fragment of the psychology of s**ual life. From Psychopathia Sexualis lyrics

I. A FRAGMENT OF A PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SEXUAL LIFE From Psychopathia Sexualis (1894) The propagation of the human species is not committed to accident or to the caprice of the individual, but made secure in a natural instinct, which, with all-conquering force and might, demands fulfillment. In the gratification of this natural impulse are found not only sensual pleasure and sources of physical well-being, but also higher feelings of satisfaction in perpetuating the single, perishable existence, by the transmission of mental and physical attributes to a new being. In coarse, sensual love, in the lustful impulse to satisfy this natural instinct, man stands on a level with the animal ; but it is given to him to raise himself to a height where this natural instinct no Longer makes him a slave : higher, nobler feelings are awakened, which, notwithstanding their sensual origin, expand into a world of beauty, sublimity, and morality On this height man overcomes his natural instinct, and from an inexhaustible spring draws material and inspiration for higher enjoyment, for more earnest work, and the attainment of the ideal. Maudsley {Deutsche Klinih, 1873, 2, 3) rightly calls the s**ual feeling the foundation for the development of the social feeling. "Were man to be robbed of the instinct of procreation and all that arises from it mentally, nearly all Poetry and, perhaps, the entire moral sense as well, would be torn from his life." Sexuality is the most powerful factor in individual and social existence; the strongest incentive to the exertion of strength and acquisition of property, to the foundation of a home, and to the awakening of altruistic feelings, first for a person of the opposite s**, then for the offspring, and, in a wider sense, for all humanity. Thus all ethics and, perhaps, a good part of aesthetics and religion depend upon the existence of s**ual feeling Though the s**ual life leads to the highest virtues, even to the sacrifice of the ego, yet in its sensual force lies also the danger that it may degenerate into powerful pa**ions and develop the grossest vices Love as an unbridled pa**ion is like a fire that burns and consumes everything; like an abyss that swallows all — honor, fortune, well-being It seems of high psychological interest to trace the developmental phases through which, in the course of the evolution of human culture to the morality and civilization of to-day, the s**ual life has pa**ed 1. On primitive ground the satisfaction of the s**ual appetite of man seems like that of the animal. Openness in the s**ual act is not shunned; man and woman are not ashamed to go naked. To-day we see savages in this condition; as, for example, the Australians, the Polynesians, and the Malays of the Phillipines. The female is the common property of the males, the temporary booty of the strongest, who strive for the possession of the most beautiful of the opposite s**, thus carrying out instinctively a kind of s**ual selection. Woman is a movable thing, a ware, an object of bargain and sale and gift ; a thing to satisfy lust and to work The appearance of a feeling of shame before others in the manifestation and satisfaction of the natural instinct, and modesty in the intercourse of the s**es, form the beginning of morality in the s**ual life. From this arose the effort to conceal the genitals and the secret performance of the s**ual act The development of this degree of culture is favored by the rigors of climate and the necessity for complete protection of the body thus entailed. Thus in part the fact is explained that among northern races modesty may be proved anthropologically earlier than among southern races A further stage in the development of culture in s**ual life is marked when the female ceases to be a movable thing. She becomes a person ; and if still for a long time placed far below the male socially, yet the idea that the right of disposal of herself and her favors belongs to her is developed. Thus she becomes the object of the male's wooing. To the barbarous sensual feeling of s**ual desire the beginnings of Ethical feeling are added. The instinct is intellectualized. Property in women ceases to exist. Individuals of the opposite s**es Feel themselves drawn toward each other by mental and physical qualities, and show love for each other only. At this stage woman has a feeling that her charms belong only to the man of her choice, and wishes to conceal them from others. Thus, by the side of modesty, the foundations of chastity and faithfulness — as long as the bond of love lasts — are laid Woman attains this degree of social elevation earlier when, at the transition from nomadic life to a state of fixed habitation, man obtains a house and home, and the necessity arises for him to possess in woman a companion for the household — a housewife Among the nations of the East, the Egyptians, the Israelites, and the Greeks, and among those of the West, the Germans, early attained this stage of culture. Among all these races, at this stage of advancement, the esteem in which virginity, chastity, modesty, and s**ual faithfulness are held is in marked contrast with other nations which offer the female of the house to the guest for his s**ual enjoyment. That this stage in the culture of s**ual morality is quite high and makes its appearance much later than other developmental forms of culture — as, for example, aesthetics — is seen from the condition of the Japanese, with whom it is the custom to marry a woman only after she has lived for a year in the tea-houses (which correspond with European houses of prostitution), and to whom the nakedness of women is nothing shocking. At all events, among the Japanese every unmarried woman can prostitute herself without lessening her value as a future wife a proof that with this remarkable people woman possesses no ethical worth, hut is valued in marriage only as a means of enjoyment, procreation, and work Christianity gave the most powerful impulse to the moral elevation of the s**ual relations by raising woman to social equality with man and elevating the bond of love between man and woman to a religio-moral institution. The fact that in higher civilization human love must be Monogamous and rest on a lasting contract was thus recognized. If nature does no more than provide for procreation, a commonwealth (family or state) cannot exist without a guaranty that the offspring shall flourish physically, morally, and intellectually. (...) If Mohammed was actuated by a desire to raise woman from her place as a slave and means of sensual gratification to a higher social and matrimonial plane, nevertheless, in the Mohammedan world woman remained far below man, to whom alone divorce was allowed and also made very easy. Islam kept woman from any participation in public life under all circumstances, and thus hindered her intellectual and moral development. In consequence of this the Mohammedan woman has ever remained essentially a means of sensual gratification and procreation ; while, on the other hand, the virtues and capabilities of the Christian woman, as housewife, educator of children, and equal companion of man, have been allowed to unfold in all their beauty. Islam, with its polygamy and harem-life, is glaringly contrasted with the monogamy and family life of the Christian world