Note 264 — Chapter XVII · ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES—THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

The reasons for the existence of a general sexual repression, over and above the incest inhibition, and the psychological mechanisms by which this repression is brought about, form a vast and highly important theme on which there exists at present but little general agreement and which, being only indirectly connected with our subject, need fortunately not be entered into here. It is perhaps worth while to point out however in passing, that some of the factors which are responsible for the more general sexual repression are, in all probability, similar to those which we have considered in connection with the production of incest inhibition. Thus there would seem to exist an antagonism between a highly developed and intensive sexuality and those wider social bonds in virtue of which alone the larger human communities are possible. It is on the basis of the manifestations of this antagonism that some writers—as already mentioned—hold that the chief motive forces which are active in sexual repression are to be found in the instincts of the herd. Still more marked perhaps is the antagonism between sex and individuation. It has long been recognised, and modern psychological researches have pretty definitely proved, that many of the more complex desires and activities of the individual—desires and activities upon which human culture ultimately depends—are built up upon sublimations of the sexual tendencies. All these sublimations involve a deflection of sexual energy from its original and primitive direction—a deflection which occurs for the most part or entirely as the result of conflict with the sexual tendencies when thus primitively directed.

As regards the motive forces engaged in this conflict, there is again at present much uncertainty, but they probably to some extent differ from one case to another. The conflict would seem to be waged, sometimes between two aspects of the sexual impulse, e. g. between Narcissism and object-love or between physical desire and tender affection (when these elements have been dissociated in the ways we have already studied). In other cases the gregarious instincts are probably engaged in the manner suggested by Trotter and others; while, in still other instances, there may be an antagonism between the sexual impulses and the tendencies of self-assertion, self-respect or self-preservation, as emphasised especially by Freud. For a more general discussion of the factors concerned in sexual inhibition, see E. Bleuler, "Der Sexualwiderstand", Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, 1913, V, 442, and J. C. Flügel, "On the Biological Basis of Sexual Repression and its Sociological Significance", British Journal of Psychology (Medical Section), 1921, I, 225.