The choice of a mate.

  • Anthony Ludovici
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details
    429/546 (page 399)
    IDEAL MALE TYPE therefore, unlikely to be a fanatic or a crank, because his soundly functioning organism is not constantly drawing his attention inwards, ardent because his health is exuberant, and kind because his self-confidence inclines him to protect, he is the norm of all ages and races. He has been produced and triumphed everywhere and easily won the admiration of rulers, artists, and women. Any tendency to overweight, or to asthenia, to adiposity, however slight, or to thinness, however faint, is a step towards the abnormal in body and mind, a sign that the ductless gland balance, or something else, is wrong ; and when once the nature of the wrongness is determined, the facts given above should enable the reader to know what to expect from the wrongness she has detected. Dr. E. Miller, who appears to have covered the whole ground (except perhaps Weidenreich), reduces the problem of types also to the question of normality, and arrives at a conclusion with which, up to a point, I agree. He says : “ The centre of gravity of our norm of human behaviour lies nearer to the cyclothymic reaction than it does to the schyzophrenic ”, and he maintains that the muscular type of MacAuliffe (the Canon of Polycleitus) has “ many pyknic components ”. 1 If this means that the schizothyme is always on the too thin side, and, therefore, inclined to be irascible, negative, fussy, over-sensitive, self-conscious, fanatical and possibly sadistic, and that, therefore, a dash of the pyknic is essential in every desirable normal man, I think this means very much the same as what I have said above, and it describes a type that has figured as the ideal of the best cultures. It is probably the type on which six thousand years ago Egyptian civilization was built, 2 and one which most of us instinctively conjure up when we think of a fine youth. The nearest approach to it in modern sculpture is, I believe, Rodin’s L’Age d’Airain ; but it appears again and again in ancient Egyptian drawings and sculptures. A woman left to her instincts will usually pick out such a man rather than the “ strong man ” of the ring, and the type is the favourite of the deeper psychologists. Gustav Frenssen, in one of his novels, describes certain essential features of the type in the character of Dieter Blank, emphasizing the fact that he gave the impression of being well- braced, and of walking, as it were, on springs. 3 But the finest 1 T.M.B., pp. 31 and 98. 2 The healthy Mediterranean type, s Otto Babendiek (Berlin, 1927, p. 940). 39 ?