Modern Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness

Whether one accepts Freud’s teachings in toto or rejects a great part of them as unsubstantiated and untenable, one must admit that his influence on modern thought has been tremendous, incalculable—and on the whole beneficial. Many shams and hypocrisies have been uncovered and exploded by the ruthless analysis of modern psychology known as psychoanalysis, and in no field have the Freudian teachings borne better fruit than in the field of human sexology. That psychoanalysis has been exploited by charlatans and ignorant laymen for their own benefit and to the detriment of their victims is not to be laid at the door of its founder.

Of all Freud’s writings—and their number is enormous—the writer considers the present essay the most important—the most important barring none. In this essay Freud clearly states his position on the importance of the sex instinct in modern civilization, on the relationship between sexual abstinence and nervousness or neurosis, and boldly proclaims, what medieval theologians still persist in denying, that man’s sexual instinct is not at all primarily meant to serve purposes òf reproduction but is intended to furnish certain forms of gratification.