SEX BIOLOGY AND SEX PSYCHOLOGY 157 



believe that to ascribe this huge role to sex in the 

 genesis of our psyche is a repulsive degradation. 



To my mind there are two very general questions 

 which the student of human sex psychology now 

 has to face, if he takes not necessarily the whole but 

 the central theses of psycho-analysis, however much 

 pruned, as proven. The first is this: granted that 

 sex does play such a large part, especially in early 

 years, in the genesis of our mental organization, is 

 it desirable that the average adult or adolescent 

 should, by analysis, be given full self-knowledge on 

 the subject? 



The second is this : granted that sex does penetrate 

 into more corners of mind in man than in lower 

 organisms, is this really a regrettable thing, or can 

 we fmd any grounds for believing it to be desirable 

 or biologically progressive? 



To answer this we shall have to go back a little 

 to first principles, and consider, however briefly, cer- 

 tain facts as to the march of evolution. 



Evolution is essentially progressive. It proceeds 

 on the whole in a certain direction, and that direc- 

 tion is on the whole towards a realization of what 

 seems to us to have positive value. The direction, 

 however, as a matter of fact, is most striking when 

 we consider the maximum level attained, much less 

 so when we consider the average, not at all when 

 we look at the minimum. 



The method or mechanism of progress may differ 

 in different types, and it does differ in man from 



