152 SEX 



strong sexual desire in adolescence and the 

 possibility of regular gratification. Some are 

 able to make this dis -harmony an opportunity 

 for discipline in nobility, and they have their 

 reward. In other cases, the attempted re- 

 pression of chastity is biologically a failure ; 

 there is injury to body and mind, and some- 

 times the fixation of an infantile condition. 

 An artificial substitute may be found for the 

 repressed sexual gratification, and the result 

 is pitiable. In other cases the outcome is 

 neurasthenia due to a condition of the nervous 

 system induced by excessive masturbation, or 

 more spontaneously from frequent nocturnal 

 emissions, which in moderation are to be 

 regarded as a wholesome safety-valve. In 

 yet other cases, the solution is taken in sexual 

 gratification before marriage, which may result 

 in the same neurasthenia, or in sexual disease, 

 or in ethical and social disaster. 



But while the hot-blooded youth may land 

 himself in neurasthenia, it is more character- 

 istic of a maturer age to suffer from " anxiety- 

 neurosis." If we understand Prof. Freud 

 aright, his view is, to put it concretely, that 

 what is called the result of " overwork," for 

 instance, is often the result of a stifled or 

 neglected sexual life. The " anxiety-neuroses " 

 which make many people a little " queer " 

 are attempts often very curious to get at 

 substitutes for the omitted specific action 

 which should follow sex-excitement. The 

 " anxiety-dream " is the representation of a 

 suppressed or repressed sexual wish, but even 

 in the dream the sexual factor may have an 

 entirely non-sexual expression. 



