Awakening Of The Sexual Passions

( Originally Published 1940 )

In order the better to understand the connection between psychic love and its material foundation, as this is manifested especially in the male, we must now turn our attention specially to this material aspect.

We must let our thoughts carry us back to the transition period, when we were too big to continue to play with children, and yet the adults would not acknowledge us.

Then we feel nervous and depressed ... until all at once there is a new impulse, and we feel that we are nearing manhood.

We have all been through that in our youth, not merely in imagination, but we have experienced it in our circulatory system, and felt it in our sensory nervous system. The external congestive phenomena, which are caused by the internal phenomena of congestion, further stimulated our heart and our whole circulation. Words fail to fully express our feelings at this time, but still we shall endeavour to analyse this new impulse.

We felt ourselves henceforward so courageous, so imbued with manly strength, and yet we felt a little shy even of ourselves. Whenever we blushed, we showed that we were betraying that which was burning within us, and feeling this, we only blushed the more. Oh, this troublesome blushing in the years of puberty, as the effect of that other congestion! We did not then realise how greatly other people envied us this flush of the dawn of our lives; it worried us so much, and we tried so hard to conquer the habit, all in vain. And the birds and the insects too, just like the flowers, show their brightest colours on reaching sexual maturity.

The beating pulse of our life is the blood pressure, just as in plants it is the osmotic pressure. Those of my readers who perhaps look upon our animal life with all these sexual changes of blood pressure as something improper, often prefer the vegetable kingdom all the more for that reason. But in this kingdom, erection plays the most striking part of all. Possibly not so impulsively as with us, yet to such an extent that rocks are split asunder by it, and paving-stones lifted right into the air.

But we warm-blooded creatures possess a circulatory system, with the heart as central point, and with microscopically fine ramifications in every organ, bringing nourishment, life and strength to every part, by means of which we are constantly renewed internally. As modern intellectuals, we believe that our psychic life centres in the brain, but that stimulation proceeds from deep breathing and increased blood pressure.

I have only gone into all these details in order to show quite clearly that we are dealing with a fundamental biological law; and it is only now that we can understand how the sexual urge, with its congestion of the blood vessels, represents the climax of our consciousness of happiness, and how, combined with it, love as its psychic phenomenon leads us to the acme of delight. But the most highly organised of all creatures with their higher differentiation, only have one specialised organ in which this phenomenon of the blood pressure reaches its climax every time, and that is the erectile tissue of the penis in man and the clitoris in woman. But these organs are specially organised to this end, and admirably fulfill their functions.

Which of us does not remember the occasion in his youth, when in the bath or by some other accidental touch, he was overtaken for the first time in his life by the sign of manhood, by the surprising sensation of this increased blood pressure so intimate and imperious; and he felt rather shy about it. His childish fancy had often imagined it in some form or other; but this surpassed every-thing, and was so unexpected! Only yesterday a child, and now a man. It is the relevation of an impulsive power within us. Just as a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly, and all these insects take wing, the sexually ripe young man will soon fly out on the wings of love, far from the parental roof.

Even the childish erection, this modest congestion, is felt from the earliest years to be something agreeable. I remember the case of a tiny boy still an infant, to whom I was called for inguinal hernia; the child was crying loudly, and this rendered my work most difficult; all at once there appeared a strong childish erection, at the same moment the child was quiet and happy, greatly to the relief of the neighbours who were standing round. He stopped crying and the hernia was reduced at once.

But the adult erection is something quite different: a voluptuous glow and pulsation that takes complete control and makes the breast swell with pride., In young girls, the breasts really do swell at this period of their life, and in their ease the swelling remains, internally and externally. This congestive delight may best be compared with the astonishing sensation in a hot bath, or the stimulating reaction after a cold one. The pulsation is not only local; for all our pulses beat, all our nerves are stimulated from delight, the whole spinal marrow is in ecstasy.

We can best see what an important part this ebb and, flow plays in our life, from the suffering that generally occurs, when erection disappears owing to advanced age. The well-known abdominal disorders then appear with venous stasis and a sluggish circulation, such as piles, hypertrophy of the prostate, hypochondria and constipation. The remedy furnishes the best proof. All these disturbances are best counteracted if we replace the failing erection in good time by stimulation of the circulation in other ways, such as: walks, home-gymnastics, massage, cold-water treatment, and stimulation of every sphere of our body. By using such substitutes we can keep young for a long while.

The sexual erection has also another quite special task to perform. In the lower species of animals with their limited brain capacity, this strong erection does not exist; it is only amongst the highest categories, on account of their immense brain power, that this counterpoise is necessary. Especially in man, because his triumph in the struggle for existence depends chiefly on his higher mental faculties. Thus the object of our whole life is the maintenance of this mental efficiency. All our beverages such as coffee, tea, cocoa, alcohol, etc., are only enjoyable because they specially stimulate these faculties. They cause a dilation of the blood-vessels of our brain, and the increased blood pressure renders us lively.

And what drug have we at our disposal, capable of diverting the blood from the brain if necessary? Not one! Even if we offered a fortune for it, it does not exist. Cold applied locally to the head, rest for the brain, energetic exercise of the muscles, all these may bring us a little relief in this respect; but above all we may be involuntarily rescued by erection, especially at night, which diverts the greater part of the blood pressure to the opposite pole of the body.

When this occurs, it is so beneficial that, quite apart from any associated thoughts of sexual things, it fills us with pleasure. Erection is one of the most important phenomena of life; and the more so, the more highly the brain is developed.

It is on that account that total impotence is so serious a disorder, and eunuchs are so greatly to be pitied. But even under normal conditions, as soon as this counterpoise fails owing to advanced age, we often see cases of the bursting of blood-vessels in the brain, which leads to apoplexy, or attacks of paralysis whenever one of the cerebral vessels, which has become brittle through arteriosclerosis, gives way. For the circulation has lost its regulator, and this loss becomes more and more painfully noticeable until finally the circulation ceases altogether.

We best realised how greatly this feeling of manly strength filled us with energy and pleasurable sensations in our adolescence, when for the first time one night, the reaction came as great a surprise to us as the joy of the ecstasy itself.

After the pleasant surprise of the first voluptuous sensation, and after these feelings had been experienced several times, we found to our great dismay, one morning on waking up, that half in sleep and half in a dream, the whole structure of our manly strength had collapsed like a house of cards, only leaving a sad memory as of tears behind. Our ecstasy had vanished into thin air, and we felt once again like a puling babe. And how glad we were, when after a little time our manly vigor blossomed forth again, as though nothing had happened!

I should here like to give a little good advice. If you want to remain young a long time, you must never purposely hasten this natural catastrophe. Do not awaken the next period of life too soon through intentional increase of the sexual stimulus, the period of sexual activity, that we are next going to describe. Husband your strength, so that only in due time your entire physical and mental faculties may reach their full development, and your sexual life may attain its full power. And even if at the present time the sexual urge is sometimes felt to be overwhelming, stand firm, and be glad of it; it is only now that the whole magic world of expansion will really reach its maximal point.

This period of our life is certainly the most difficult one of our whole existence. After the depression and apathy of the period just before puberty, which are sufficiently evident to every teacher, there succeeds a period of increased excitability, of exaltation, of enthusiasm, which often leads to remonstrance from the superiors. Especially in the case of young people who suffer from neurasthenia or a weak heart, these powerful impulses and sudden transitions are very hard to bear; and it is still worse if they are already in the habit of masturbation or addicted to alcohol or tobacco. Certain signs of fatigue, exhaustion and over-tension are often displayed, which may lead to a loss of all interest in life, so that at this critical period cases of suicide are frequent.

This ill-humour in adolescence may easily be confused with the depression consequent on prolonged abstinence at the adult period. It might be thought that the state of things would improve if sexual intercourse were allowed during the years of puberty. But that is not the case. On the contrary, if sexual desire is found too fatiguing, sexual activity would only aggravate matters.

It is most necessary duly to recognise the painful situation of young people, and to show them all affection and sympathy. Everything that can make them happier and increase their strength at this time of their lives, will comfort them. It is most important to calm the psychic nature, and to avoid mental strain and overwork. And it is a cruel wrong that just at this critical age, young people in schools and colleges especially, are almost always so crammed and wearied and fatigued, both by sitting too long and by over-study, while those of the poorer classes are often industrially exploited at the same age.

The real cause of all these unpleasant sensations lies far more often in our training than in the sexual life itself; but even if human society were so well organised and our training so healthful that the sexual urge and all sexual activity could occur at the same age, still, as we have explained in Chapter 40, the sudden change from the vegetative to the sexual life-period must always he a crucial moment in our lives.

In the foregoing lines, we have only been speaking of the young man. The grown girl feels these increases of blood pressure more intimately, and often far more deeply than he. But what she feels, she does not understand, she dare not understand it, and no one dares to explain it to her.