The psychology of marriage / by Walter M. Gallichan.

  • Walter M. Gallichan
Date:
[1917]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The psychology of marriage / by Walter M. Gallichan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    told frankly that they have grown from the mother, that they nestled below her heart before coming into the world, and took their first sustenance from her breasts, almost invariably develop sanely in their outlook upon life and sex. Complete explanation as to marital relations of the parents are not usually sought by young children ; but if the curiosity is urgent, many parents will agree that it is far better that they should satisfy it, than that the child should gain knowledge from a corrupt-minded or vulgar elder companion. It is only too true that all the ordinary “ protective ” methods of parents, the silences, untruths, or evasions arc utterly negatived in very many cases by a few moments’ as¬ sociation with a precocious comrade, or a chance conversa¬ tion with a domestic servant. There is not the least doubt that a great many children receive their earliest sexual “ en¬ lightenment,” if one may use the word, from ignorant and foolish servants, who enjoin their young pupils to secrecy. It is the rule that children so taught never reveal their knowledge and its source to the parents, who may even assert the complete “ innocence ” of their boys and girls. It is often said that children nowadays “ know too much,” and in a highly significant sense this may be said to be a truth. The child who has gleaned information from the gutter certainly knows too much of uncleanness. This knowledge is worse than none. It fosters the wrong mental attitude from the outset of the natural desire for information. Many of us spend years of our adult life in conflict with the bad impressions of this character, stamped in the brain and rooted in emotivity. Some men and women never free themselves from the tainted thought of childhood, which becomes a chronic psychic recoil, or a direct incentive to furtive indulgences and vices. Children in the generality accept symbolic or poetical answers to their questions about sex. Tell a child that all organic life springs from seed, like the trees and plants, and that among the animals mother and father seed pro¬ duces birds, kittens, puppies, and guinea pigs, and in most cases there is at least a temporary satisfaction of curiosity. Simple examples from botany and zoology are accepted naturally. All things spring from the Father Sun and the Mother Earth. In animals and man the seed becomes an
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