Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/83

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MAN'S SEXUAL NATURE
65

tacts with life, to keep the viewpoint fresh and receptive, and the mind clear and active.

Fresh air, sunshine and mild exercise will help the body and preserve the vitality, and even the state of mind will reflect itself in a general constitutional way. So in every sense it is necessary to keep from mental stagnation which so many people settle into at the period of life we are discussing, and the stage immediately preceding it.

With reference to this period, Dr. Hollander states: "One of the chief constitutional symptoms is a tired condition, often implying an instinctive feeling that work, exertion, and effort are not always entirely worth the doing. Physiologically and psychologically, energizing by itself is no longer felt to be so necessary. The tired feeling often leads to a lowering in the desires and ideals. Pleasures that cost little and imply small exertion are preferred to pleasures of the higher sort that need some strenuousness to attain them. Bad habits begin to show their cumulative effects, and the recovery after indiscretions is less certain and slower. There is a slackening of the intellectual powers with inability to concentrate the attention, and diminished energy. The intellectual processes are both retarded and more difficult. There is no longer the same initiative and inspiration and former concentration. In intellectual workers the imaginative power is diminished, hence it is difficult for them to originate new work. In consequence, they become dissatisfied with their occupation and lose self-confidence."

These symptoms and characteristics are not given as indications of senility, but of man's "change of life." It might be inferred from Dr. Hollander's statement that these tendencies are the inevitable consequences of that stage of life.

I believe it can be demonstrated, however, that they are