of balance in the emotional sphere, which reflects itself in the woman's activities, however social-minded and idealistic she may be.
This type has its male counterpart, too, although the latter is not so characteristically exemplified as the former.
Of course, the majority of psychically inhibited women do not belong to this class. They are usually house-wives or maiden ladies exacting no attention beyond the commonplace. Their trouble is due in most instances to faulty education, or perhaps an asceticism which has warped their minds with the fixed doctrine that all expressions of a sexual nature are impure, sinful or shameful. When, in trying to live their lives in accordance with this irrational ideal, or at best grudgingly to compromise with an unpleasant marital situation, they are unwittingly flouting the universal laws of nature—and pay the price in soul-suffering for their lack of understanding.
Dr. Nystrom,[1] the Swedish authority, states in this connection: "The greatest number of 'cold natures' is to be found among women who are often so frigid that, during sexual intercourse, they are totally indifferent and are almost like corpses. They are born, go through life eating, drinking, dressing, etc., without a single ray of love to animate and brighten their colorless existence. A misguided, faulty education, founded upon ascetic, puritan principles, is often to blame for such an unnatural condition. There are married women, who feel and express disgust at sexual intercourse with their husbands, and who allow such acts to take place only as a sacrifice, believing themselves doing something sinful or wrong."
The faulty idealism that has been responsible for trying to separate sex from the love-life—a contradiction in itself—has succeeded only in creating incalculable harm. It is.
- ↑ The Natural Laws of Sexual Life, p. 24. St. Louis, 1919.
