240 TABOO AND GENETICS 



respond to some erotic fetishism or to a parent 

 ideal may be productive of individual un- 

 happiness, so it is also entirely a matter of chance 

 whether or not it leads to a eugenic mating. 

 Like romantic love, it is quite as apt to focus 

 upon a person who does not conform to eugenic 

 ideals as upon one who does. The mate selected 

 upon the basis of these unconscious motives 

 is very likely to bequeath a neurotic constitution 

 or an otherwise impaired physical organism 

 to the offspring of the union, since those pos- 

 sibilities were not taken into consideration 

 in making the choice. 



It becomes apparent that while certain forces 

 in the hfe of the individual and in the social 

 inheritance have united to condition the 

 emotional reactions of the sex life, these con- 

 ditionings have not always been for the benefit 

 of the race. Indeed, it would almost seem that 

 society has been more concerned with the manner 

 of expression of the love life in the individual 

 members than in its effects upon the next gen- 

 eration. In its neglect or ignorance of the 

 significance of artificial modifications of the 

 emotions, it has permitted certain dysgenic 

 influences to continue in the psychic life of 

 generation after generation, regarding with the 

 utmost placidity a process of sexual selection 

 determined by irrational and irresponsible 

 motives. 



