John Francis McDermott Libri

THE SEX PROBLEM IN MODERN SOCIETY THE MODERN LIBRARY OF THE WORLDS BEST BOOKS The publishers ivill be pleased to send, upon request, an illustrated folder setting forth the purpose and scope of THE MODERN LIBRARY, and listing each volume in the series. Every reader of books will find titles he has been looking for, handsomely printed, in unabridged editions, and at an unusually low price. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THE editor gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to the following for the use of the material incorporated in this book American Mercury Bookman Dodd, Mead Company Doubleday, Doran and Company Harcourt, Brace and Com pany Harper Brothers Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Horace Liveright, Inc. The Macaulay Company North American Review W. W. Norton Company Outlook and Independ ent Greenberg Publisher Dr. Charles Francis Potter Miss Grace Potter Charles Scribners Sons Simon and Schuster, Inc. The Viking Press. J. F. McD. THE SEX PROBLEM IN MODERN SOCIETY An Anthology EDITED BY JOHN FRANCIS McDERMOTT Library if Ant 9f ., 0. 9. THE MODERN LIBRARY NEW YORK FOREWORD THE twentieth century has witnessed on the subject of sex a change in the attitude of thinking persons from that generally held in the nineteenth. People then professed to believe that the only excuse for the indulgence of the sexual function was in the propagation of children. Sex was not to be discussed, not to be thought about, not to be investigated. It was to be spoken about only in whispers. Its only motives were to be piety and patriotism. Today the subject is, on the whole, freely discussed, it is much thought about, and it is thoroughly inquired into. Paradoxically, the change which has been brought about arose from the spiritof scientific investigation which char acterized many people of the past century. They did not, it is true, show much inclination to make a study of sex, but the general breaking down of taboos, which began in that time, weakened remaining prohibitions, and the interest in and pursuit of scientific especially biological knowledge led to a consideration of the physical part of man. The study of his body has caused man to have a greater curiosity as to his bodily functions and made him aware that sex is one of the principal functions of the body. The actual change in attitude, however, has been brought about chiefly by the work of sociologists such as Havelock Ellis, whose monumental Sex and Society is a frank acknowl edgment of the importance of sex and of the necessity of un derstanding its relation to society by the work of such a psychologist as Sigmund Freud who has practically founded a new philosophy in which the love function is the center of all human activity in one sense it does not matter whether vii Vlll FOREWORD Freud is right or wrong he has stirred up a vital interest in sex and its problems by the work of such a social philoso pher as Bertrand Russell who has insisted on the humanity of sex and its relationship. As a result of the work of these men, of many others, and of their numerous followers, sex and its functioning are now looked upon as a basic study toward the understanding of human nature, which is, after all, our most immediate problem. Yet, though in recent decades much has been accomplished towards the increase of mans knowledge of sex and though there has been some dissemination of this knowledge, the non-scientific man is still in need of a widerdistribution of findings on the subject. The editor of the present book, therefore, has gathered together a number of papers on various aspects of sex and attitudes towards it. The volume which he has made is not intended to represent one rigid editorial point of view. The editor is not concerned to ex press his private views through his selections it is his aim, rather, to present papers on several principal features of the sex question today...