42/143 Kaan, again, in one of the earliest books on morbid sexuality, sets down mystery as one of the causes of _psychopathia sexualis_. Marro (_La Puberta_, p. The distinguished Dutch writer Multatuli, in one of his letters (quoted with approval by Freud), remarks on the dangers of hiding things from boys and girls in a veil of mystery, pointing out that this must only heighten the curiosity of children, and so far from keeping them pure, which mere ignorance can never do, heats and perverts their imaginations. Mrs.Mary Wood Allen, also, warns the mother (op.cit., p. 5) against the danger of allowing any air of embarrassing mystery to creep over these things. |