Note 261 — Chapter XVII · ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES—THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

Whatever real truth there may be in this argument, we must not fail to bear in mind that it is admirably adapted for use as a "rationalisation", i. e. the fear of evil consequences (dysgenic or other) from marriages between young and old may well be a conscious (and, in a sense, artificial) substitute for the unconscious aversion to such marriages on the ground of their being an indirect expression of incestuous desires. We must therefore be on our guard against the tendency to overemphasise this argument in the absence of adequate objective evidence.