I think we now understand the answer to this problem, and I think it will be helpful for you to learn what we know about it. You will be able to see why the problem of frigidity is so basically psychological in nature, for one thing, and therefore why, when a woman's chief complaint is frigidity, we feel that if she really means business she can get over it. There are three major reasons why frigidity can develop in women. I am going to treat two of them here and reserve one of them for the next chapter. The Sexual Drive in Women
A lovely actress I was treating for a rather severe frigidity problem came for her regular hour one day and paused on the threshold of my office. She appeared different—her face was softer, her motions slower—she was elated, and I felt at once that she had experienced the first reward for the hard work she had put upon her problem.
I was right and shall never forget her method of telling it. She had on a lovely pink cape; its flowing lines and delicate color seemed to express the very essence of the feminine. As she stood smiling at me she unbuttoned the cape and with a beautiful gesture threw it on the floor between us. "Thus we can cast it away," she said. Then, stooping, she picked it up. "And thus," she said, "we can put it on again," and with a flourish she put it back on her shoulders. That hour was a celebration of her new-found capacity.
Her histrionic gesture, expressive of so much happiness in her, was not only graceful but was deeply symbolic of woman's sexual nature. To see why this is so, let us first turn our attention to the biological meaning of the sexual drive.
You perhaps know that every animal is motivated by a profound instinctual need to preserve his species. His nature has developed those characteristics that ensure the ongoing-
