How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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scalps of the victims who have succumbed to one’s sexual blandishments. The extension of these sexual athletics into the realm of psychopathology gives us satyriasis and nymphomania. One might believe that asceticism and a life of celibacy and sexual continence were the very opposites of sexual athletics, but these apparent contradictions of sexual athletics represent psychological over-valuations of the sexual act in the economy of human life. The sexual athlete and the sexual ascetic have the same goal in life-— the avoidance of complete, mature, sexual responsibilities. They vary only in the means they choose to attain their ends. In the Middle Ages, when venereal diseases were more common than they are to-day and religious ideas of the devil-possession of women were more commonly accepted, asceticism was the preferred way. To-day, sexual athletics fit the modern neurotic better, and we have more Don Juans and Messalinas than we have St. Anthonys or scrawny anchorites. Let us reiterate that fear of the opposite sex is the key¬ note of every perversion and aberration from the normal sexual life. Fear of adult responsibilities runs parallel to the fear of the opposite sex. This is true of the sexual side-shows as it is true of the social and vocational side¬ shows. In the sexual life, however, aberrations are frequently more dramatic, and more likely to lead to immediate complications ; moreover, because of general ignorance of the mental hygiene of sexual relations they are surrounded with a greater air of mystery. Sexual side¬ shows are as simple in their origin, in their explanation, and in their cure, as the other side-shows which originate from fear and ignorance and discouragement in other spheres of human activity. Prostitution We have discussed the perversions and the diversions of sex. Prostitution is the best example of the conversion of sexual activity. The man who patronizes a prostitute,