AN INDICTMENT OF A GREAT SCIENTIST
HOW PSYCHO-ANALYSIS HAS OBSESSED THE
WORLD WITH SEX
FOR
an explanation of the
extent to which the thought of
the present day, as well as the
art and literature of the present
day, are obsessed with the
theme of sex, we are referred by The
British Medical Journal (London) to
the vogue of psycho-analysis. The
new psychology has been captured by
followers of the illustrious Freud of
Vienna. He, as is well known, traces
everything fundamental in life to sex.
The effect has been the creation of a
world-wide delusion even in minds with
a pretense to scientific attainment.
Instead of considering normal human life
as a carefully adjusted balance between
various activities, one of which — the
fact of sex — is of such importance that
the others are liable at times to overflow
into it, especially under the stimulus
of pathological conditions, the
Freudian produces the impression that
to him life is one long sex-pursuit.
Such a conception is pronounced by our
contemporary a "travesty of life." Sex
may play too large a part in some
lives; but in this it resembles any other
activity in which the individual becomes
too much absorbed.
By way of illustrating his attitude
to this school of psycho-analysis, the
writer in The British Medical Journal
mentions that he happened to be sitting
in a hotel lounging-room with a
work on the new psychology in his
hands. All about were many people
who, having eaten a good dinner and
drunk good wine, were enjoying a
newspaper or a cigar:
"All seemed to be under the influence
of a feeling of intense well-being. But
in none of them was there the slightest
sign that the feeling was due to gratification
of their sexual instincts. Neither
the dinner nor the alcohol nor the cigar
appeared to have the slightest erotic
effect upon them. In the meantime it
happened that a string band was discoursing
music of sorts, and in the course of the
program there occurred one of those
sensuous, semi-Oriental compositions, such
as are played at music halls what time a
so-called classical dancer disports herself.
Now the writer had heard this music
many times before; but as he is either
not fully appreciative of musical suggestion
or else is not super-erotic, he had
never really attached any particularly
sexual meaning to it. Nor was there the
slightest evidence that it had any influence
on the sexual feelings of the old
gentlemen in the room; they probably
regarded it is a pretty tune, and, like so
many other things in this life, it went
'in at one ear and out at the other.' But
the writer was reading Dr. Jones, who is
a Freudian; the word-association of Freud
is sex; and the erotic nature of the music
was suddenly borne in upon the mind.
Is it not possible that the explanation of
such a result is to be found in a conception
of the mind based upon the structure
of the central nervous system rather
than in the view that the sexual feelings
are always struggling to the surface, that
they are kept in a supposed state of
'repression' by a fictitious 'psychic censor,'
or that the appreciation of the erotic
nature of the music was some kind of
'fulfilment of a wish'?"
Now the whole of the nervous system
is regarded as built up of an
immense number of sensori-motor arcs,
tracks along which impulses for sensation and motion travel. The more
complicated the life of the individual, the
more numerous and complex the paths
which are laid down. Certain tracks
used habitually become pushed out of
their connection with consciousness.
They have to do with reflex and
automatic activities. The tracks which
have to do with more difficult and
complicated reactions are on a higher plane
and impulses passing through them
obtrude themselves into consciousness.
But the connection between the tracks
are numerous and irritation applied at
one end of a track, to which the
response is simple in normal conditions,
may overflow into other neighboring
tracks:
"Similarly with the mind, the sexual
path being of enormous importance to the
race is very open, and easily allows
influences from other paths to flow into it.
But this does not mean that it is
perpetually struggling into consciousness.
Sexual gratification gives rise to a feeling
of satisfaction; but this is not the
same as saying that all feelings of
satisfaction have a sexual basis. To pour out
one's woes to another and obtain his
sympathy gives a feeling of satisfaction. To
say that the friendships felt as a result
of this sympathetic attitude is due to
sexual libido is preposterous. In certain
perverted individuals it is conceivable that
the impulse passing through the reflex arc
of sympathy at the sight of a friend may
overflow into the ever-ready sexual arc,
and lead to homosexuality. But there is
not the slightest reason to write as if
homosexuality were the natural result of
friendship; rather it would seem that
friendship in the abnormal may lead to
homosexuality.
"Similarly with the so-called Oedipus
complex.... Why assume that the incestuous love of parents is a primitive
tendency of human beings? Why try to
twist nightmares into an explanation of
hatred of a father for interfering with
a son's assumed incestuous love for his
mother? In all these dreams great use
is made of 'symbolism'; but the impression
left on one's mind by reading books
on psycho-analysis is that a given object
may be symbolic of anything one may
want to make use of in interpreting the
dream."
