Sex and civilization / by Paul Bousfield.

  • Bousfield, Paul, 1880-
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Sex and civilization / by Paul Bousfield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    religion and politics, but in the most ordinary desires of everyday life, and since we are unfortunately continually desiring to do, or to feel, or to believe things, which do not follow logically upon other things which we have also happened to have done or felt or believed at some time, and since moreover some of our desires are illogical and incompatible with other desires, this rationalization be- comes a part and parcel of our lives. We have to leave out some important factor or ignore some truth or argue from false premises; we do not do this consciously, as that would be in conflict with our self-esteem. Our uncon- scious censor manages to delete from consciousness for the moment the unpleasant truth which we do not wish to utilize, but brings forth an array of facts that appear irrefutable and succeeds in giving us most plausible reasons, so that we may believe that which is convenient to us. So it is with any unpleasant theory which comes into being. At the time of Darwin, a large number of facts were discovered which led unbiassed persons to believe in the theory of evolution. But it appeared to be contrary to many religious beliefs, and the general public did not want to accept it. They could not, however, shut their eyes to the facts ; what were they to do ? By carefully leaving out some of them, and introducing speculative material, which they called fact, but which was not fact, they succeeded in producing excellent reasons, for refuting the theory of evolution and retaining their old beliefs. In other words, they went through a process of rationaliza- tion. The same thing was taking place a few years ago with reference to psycho-analysis. People did not like their omnipotent feelings disturbed, did not like to find that the superior bricks of which their edifice had been built were originally made from clay, and they found excellent
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