The sexual question

by Auguste Forel

Other causes are added to lucre, or are the consequences of it. A boy led to masturbation by pornographic pictures, or by the seduction of a corrupted individual, becomes in his turn the seducer of his comrades. Certain libidinous and unscrupulous women have often persuaded adolescents and schoolboys to sleep with them, thus awakening precocious and unhealthy sexual appetites.

Such habits which excite the sexual appetite and cause it to degenerate artificially, develop in their turn a mode of sexual boasting in men, the effects of which are deplorable. To appear manly, the boy thinks he ought to have a cigar in his mouth, even if it makes him sick. In the same way the spirit of imitation leads youth to prostitution. The fear of not doing as the others and especially the terror of ridicule constitute a powerful lever which is abused and exploited. Fearing mockery, a youth is the more easily seduced by bad example the less he is put on guard by parents or true friends. Instead of explaining to him in time, seriously and affectionately, the nature of sexual connection, its effects and dangers, he is abandoned to the chance of the worst seductions.

In this way the sexual appetite is not only artificially increased and often directed into unnatural channels, but also leads to the poisoning and ruin of youth by venereal diseases, to say nothing of alcoholism.

We have referred especially to educated youth, but the youth of the lower classes are perhaps in a still worse condition, owing to the promiscuity of their life in miserable dwellings. They often witness coitus between their parents, or are themselves trained in evil ways for purposes of exploitation.

It is astonishing that the results of such abominable deviation of the sexual appetite are not worse. No doubt excesses disturb the ties of marriage and of the family, and often provoke impotence and other disorders of the sexual functions. It must, however, be admitted that their satellites, the venereal diseases, and their most common companion, alcoholism, are in reality the greatest destroyers of health, and make much more considerable ravages in society than the artificial increase and abnormal deviations of the sexual appetite itself. However, the latter by themselves very often poison the mind and social morality, as we shall have occasion to see.

Immoderate sexual desire, provoked in men by the artificial excitations of prostitution, etc., is a bad acquisition. It renders difficult the accustomance to marriage, fidelity and ideal and life-long love for the same woman. It is true, that many old roués and habitués of brothels later on become faithful husbands and fathers, especially when they have had the luck to escape venereal disease.

But whoever looks behind the scenes may soon convince himself that the happiness of most unions of this kind is very relative. The degradation of the sexual sentiment of a man who has long been accustomed to live with prostitutes is never entirely effaced, and generally leaves indelible traces in the human brain.

I readily admit that a man with good hereditary dispositions, who has only yielded for a short time to seductive influences, may be reformed by a true and profound love. But even in him, excesses leave traces which later on may easily lead him astray when he becomes tired of the monotony of conjugal relations with the same woman. On the other hand, we must also recognize that sexual relations in themselves, even in marriage, create a habit which often urges a married man to extra-nuptial coitus, even when he had remained continent before marriage.

The tricks which are played on a man by his sexual appetite, especially by his polygamous instincts, must not, however, be confounded with the systematic, artificial and abnormal training of the same appetite. The physical and psychic attractions of a woman are capable of completely diverting the sexual desires of a man from their primary object, and of directing them on the siren who captivates his senses. The elements of the sexual appetite here form an inextricable mixture with those of love, and constitute the inexhaustible theme of novels and most true and sensational love stories.

Hereditary pathological dispositions play a considerable role in many cases of this kind. Also, marriages of sudden and passionate love (we are not dealing here with love marriages concluded after sufficient reflection and deep mutual acquaintanceship) are not more stable than the so-called "mariages de convenance," for passionate natures, usually more or less pathological, are apt to fall from one extreme to the other. The power exercised by sexual passion in such cases is terrible. It produces conditions that may lead to suicide or assassination. In men whose power of reason is neither strong nor independent, opinions and conceptions are frequently changed; love may change to hatred and hatred to love, the sentiment of justice may lead to injustice, the loyal man may become a liar, etc. In fact the sexual appetite is let loose like a hurricane in the brain and becomes the despot of the whole mind. The sexual passion has often been compared to drunkenness or to mental disease. Even in its mildest forms it often renders the husband incapable of sexual connection with his wife.