PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 



Although I have indicated incidentally the fact that 

 the psychical functions are related to the physical, it 

 will be necessary briefly to consider whether we have 

 any grounds for believing in what may be called the 

 4 psychology of sex ' ; and, if so, what the special 

 attributes may be. I shall endeavour to present the 

 case as it appears to me and, I believe, totnost unbiassed 

 scientists. 

 The basis In attempting this task I must insist, for the benefit 



psychology. °f certam critics, that I am concerned neither with the 

 effects of time and environment on mental processes, 

 nor with the sociological and economic problems sur- 

 rounding the subject. If I can show that the differ- 

 ences in metabolism which result from differences in the 

 activities of the internal secretions — that is, biochemical 

 stimuli — influence the psychology of the individual my 

 task will have been accomplished. 



Completely to explain sex-psychology we should in 

 the first place be obliged to study the nature of psychical 

 processes. This difficult task I shall not attempt ; it 

 is one that belongs to the domain of the pure psychologist, 

 and it is one which has for its primary basis either purely 

 material or partly 'spiritual' conditions. By saying 

 "partly spiritual" — for want of a better term — as op- 

 posed to "purely material", I leave undecided the 

 general aspects of the stormy disputation concerning 

 the connexion of ' spirit ' with matter ; yet any views I 

 shall put forward will not be affected — they are equally 

 applicable whatever may be the opinions held concerning 

 this question. I cannot, however, hope to accommodate 

 those who assert that the mental functions are entirely 

 * spiritual '. 



