How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

you live. If you feel you are not in full possession of the facts, a conference with a reputable psychiatrist, or a successfully and happily married couple, when no expert aid is available, may often serve to throw valuable light on a problem which at first glance seems insuperable. The correct solution of any individual sex problem is often complicated by the petty annoyances of daily life. Love affairs have been wrecked because of the too close proximity of the contracting parties for too long a time. We believe in the prophylactic value of an occasional separation of married couples, in which each partner plans a little holiday for himself, and carries out his plans without interference from the other partner. In normal people this separation should lead to a renewal of interests, and a strengthening of affections. Where it leads to jealousies, worries, suspicions, and the like, it is a sign of an unhappy possessiveness on the part of one partner or the other. Possessiveness, jealousy, sexual envy, sexual over-solicitude are further signs of romantic infantilism. The jealous man exposes his own sense of inferiority, just as the possessive mate broadcasts his own sense of insecurity by attempting to chain his beloved. Love may be shared, love may be bestowed, but it can never be demanded. I have known wives complain bitterly that their husbands did not love them any more, as if this were a sign of some defect in their husbands. More likely such a failure of love is an indication that the wives have not made it sufficiently interesting for their husbands to continue the affection of the honey¬ moon. I have known parents complain bitterly that their children no longer respected or loved them, as ir the transient sexual collaboration which is the sole require¬ ment of procreation were a guarantee that the child of any sexual union was bound for life to love his progenitors. I have known husbands, romantically infantile in their vanity, sigh and weep because of their wives’ lack of interest in them, as if ceasing to show all the pleasantries, the little favours, the unimportant con¬ cessions, and the insignificant gestures of esteem that