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Psycho-Analysis does not hold any brief for or against co-education, but aims at discovering the facts involved in any problem under review.
The influence of the castration complex cannot be disregarded in any scheme of education which lays claim to a sound basis. This complex has different inhibiting effects and finds different resolutions in the man and in the woman. It is possible for co-education to make the resolution of the conflict more difficult both for boys and girls. It does not necessarily do so. The rivalry in activities encouraged may do violence to the girl's mental mechanisms which are based on her bodily functioning. The boy may find that being obliged to share his sublimation with the girl robs it of that which made it specifically masculine and therefore of greater value to him.
The camaraderie between the boys and girls, which often exists and is cited by the protagonists of co-education as one of its benefits, may involve a repression of sexual impulses so wholesale as to impoverish sublimation.
The mingling of the sexes in the staff of a co-education school has advantages and tends to create a healthy atmosphere for the immature person to develop in, and affords an outlet for the pupils towards the opposite sex.