SEX BIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 151 



to such an extent within the last few years ; I can 

 only deal with it in the broadest way, and content my- 

 self rather with stating than with solving problems. 



As regards the place of sex in our mental organiza- 

 tion, there are two contradictory extremes possible. 

 Either all ideas connected with the physical side of sex 

 may be repressed with great vehemence, and the 

 sexual contribution to various emotions ignored or 

 dismissed, while a constant attempt is made at sub- 

 limation ; or else there is little or no repression beyond 

 that necessitated by convention and custom, sexual 

 matters are taken at their physical face value, and 

 sublimation is not consciously attempted and exists 

 only to a negligible amount. 



There is no doubt that the first alternative repre- 

 sents one of the commonest neuroses of modern life, 

 and one in which an interpretation on principles 

 made familiar by psycho-analysis is the most satis- 

 factory. Repression, through whatever cause initiated 

 (and psychologists, I understand, are coming more 

 and more to recognize that chronic misuse of the 

 mind as well as single violent shocks may be effective), 

 leads to a more or less complete dissociation of two 

 parts of the mind, of which one only is in the main 

 connected with the conscious personal life. As a 

 result, curious phenomena are met with. There 

 is, it is true, a constant effort necessary to keep life 

 a-going with the aid of an incomplete mental organ- 

 ization ; but when satisfaction is attained, its very 



