is taken into consideration, it is obvious that there
must be a certain disharmony between personal inclinations
and social standards. Because the power of the
group control is very great, its members usually repress
emotions which are not in accord with its regulations,
and shape their conduct to meet with its approval.
If such a restriction of the personality and emotional
life of the individual is necessary for the welfare
of the whole race and for social progress, its existence
is entirely justified. It is our next task, therefore,
to determine in what respects a rigid and irrational
social control is conducive to human betterment, and
wherein, if at all, it fails to achieve this purpose.
1. Adler, Alfred. The Neurotic Constitution.
Moffat, Yard, N.Y., 1917. (Kegan Paul & Co.,
1921.)
2. Adler, Alfred. A Study of Organic Inferiority
and Its Psychic Compensation. Nervous & Mental
Disease Pub. Co., N.Y., 1917.
3. Blanchard, P. A Psychoanalytic Study of Auguste
Comte. Am. Jour. Psy., April, 1918.
4. Watson, J.B. Psychology from the Standpoint
of a Behaviourist. Lippincott, Philadelphia,
1919.
DYSGENIC NATURE OF CERTAIN FACTORS OF SEX PSYCHOLOGY
AND NECESSITY FOR A SOCIAL THERAPY
Mating determined by unconscious psychological motives
instead of eugenic considerations; Some of the best
male and female stock refusing marriage and parenthood;
The race is reproduced largely by the inferior and
average stocks and very little by the superior stock;
As a therapeutic measure, society should utilize psychological
knowledge as a new method of control; Romantic love
and conjugal love—a new ideal of love;
The solution of the conflict between individual and
group interests.
From the viewpoint of group welfare, the present psychological
situation of human reproductive activities undoubtedly
has its detrimental aspects. As we have seen,
the choice of a mate is determined by irrational motives
which lie far below the levels of consciousness.
These unconscious factors which govern sexual selection
far outweigh the more rational considerations of modern
eugenic thought. The marks of personal beauty
around which romantic love centres and which therefore
play a prominent part in mating are not necessarily
indicative of physical and mental health that will
insure the production of sound offspring. The
modern standards of beauty (at least in so far as
feminine loveliness is concerned) have gone far from
the ancient Grecian type of physical perfection.
Influenced perhaps by the chivalric ideals of “the
lady,” the demand is rather for a delicate and
fragile prettiness which has come to be regarded as
the essence of femininity. The robust, athletic
girl must preserve this “feminine charm”
in the midst of her wholesome outdoor life, else she
stands in great danger of losing her erotic attraction.
