The presence of that man had aroused her so powerfully that for a few minutes she had been on the point of making advances to him. She fortunately came to her senses and fled from what had always been to her an unconscious temptation.
Such incidents as that make one wonder how many lynchings have been precipitated by the hysterical actions of neurotic women.
It may be stated broadly that every exaggerated attempt at protecting ourselves against a danger or a temptation is a confession on our part that the danger or the temptation is very fascinating to us.
Reformers. Many "bold" reformers are merely very weak individuals struggling against sexual temptation and hating some vice which holds them in its power. The biography of Anthony Comstock which I have reviewed in detail in "Psychoanalysis and Behavior" proves that the obscenity he was so stubbornly ferreting held a strange fascination for him.
I must not create the absurd impression, however, that all reformers are abnormal and moved by neurotic impulses. But between the scientist who warns people of venereal disease and combats it whenever possible and the so called "syphilophobiac" who sees everywhere chances for infection and would jail every prostitute, there is a great difference.
The Syphilophobiac is always a weak, oversexed individual, whose only protection against his promiscuous cravings is the fear of disease and the absurd assumption that every woman is infected.
The syphilophobiac hates prostitutes because he would love them too well but for the protection he erects between their body and his desire. The feverish energy displayed by many prohibition enthusiasts is at bottom the hurrying away from a temptation to which they know they would have to yield. The great prohibitionists crave alcohol and could not, without a terrible struggle, protect themselves against the lure of drunkenness if strong beverages were available.
The stage has pictured many times the crusty old bachelor who is a ferocious woman hater. In the end he succumbs to the wiles of the ingénue, who is generally the first woman he ever associated with.
The poor devil realised too well all his life the irresistible charm of women as well as his overwhelming craving for love and the joys of the flesh. Some neurotic incest fear, or craving for selfish pleasures, or money complex, however, caused him to avoid women and to protect himself against them by a display of hostility. The first time, however, when fate forces him into close contact with temptation he has to yield.