MARRIAGE COUNSELLING 217 



length of time the maladjustment has existed. A difficulty that can be 

 removed easily a few months after marriage may have become hopelessly 

 involved after ten years. 



Not every sexual maladjustment leads to a broken home; but so far as our 

 experience indicates, almost every broken home is preceded by a sexual mal- 

 adjustment. The question is often raised: are the conflicts of personality 

 an effect, or a cause, of the sexual maladjustment? It is not easy to answer 

 the question dogmatically. On anything above an animal level, the whole 

 personality must enter into a sexual relationship. But innumerable cases 

 in which the straightening out of a sexual maladjustment has removed an- 

 tagonisms of conduct and resulted in harmonious personalities, bear witness 

 that useful results may be expected from education on this subject. 



In addition to this education on psychology and physiology of sex, there 

 is need of a more widespread education on the social basis of family life, 

 with study of successful instances of marriage on the part of other people. 

 Radical and destructive criticism of marriage and the family, virtually lack- 

 ing in real scientific basis, has confused many people during the last genera- 

 tion. Popularization of controversies and marital conflict, in fiction, on 

 the stage, at the movies, and through the columns of the newspapers, has 

 built up patterns of failure in the public mind, and patterns of success are 

 rather hard to find. There is a real need of further material of this sort, 

 not merely for education before marriage, but for treatment of difficulties 

 afterward. Often an understanding of the social background of family 

 life is more useful than any other knowledge in dealing with sexual problems 

 and conflicts. 



These two lines of activity — premarital conferences and marital adjust- 

 ments — make up much of the work of our Department of Personal Service, 

 but by no means all of it. In addition to the questions about heredity, 

 already mentioned, there is a continual stream of inquirers about sex prob- 

 lems. Problems of child welfare have also come to make up a large and un- 

 expected part of our work. It was unexpected because we had supposed 

 that we would refer all such applications to Los Angeles' Child Guidance 

 Clinic. It transpired, however, that there were many problems out of line 

 with the type for which the Child Guidance Clinic is intended; or not ac- 

 cepted by that clinic because the child was over their age or lived outside 

 of their territory. In addition, many of these cases are sent to us by other 

 agencies in the city, and involve illegitimacy, adoption, custody after di- 

 vorce, and the like. The European clinics seem pretty generally to have 

 had the same experience that we have had, that is, that one can scarcely 



