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This small succinctly written book by an eminent urologist is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the physiology of sex, deviations from the norm and their relation to society, and represents an attempt to deal with psychoneurotic manifestations of sex in a fair and open-minded manner. The second part is a highly authoritative and comprehensive essay on sterility in the male.
Dr. Walker disarms criticism in his introduction by saying: "This little work has been written by a non-expert for the non-expert" and also, "The fact that I have given a prominent place to psychology and psychological treatment and yet make no claims of being an expert psychologist appears to me to be an advantage rather than the reverse". Evidently dissatisfied with the urologist's exclusively somatic point of view, he has not only read extensively the literature on sex, but also appears not to have shunned psychoanalytic works. He quotes Freud, Ferenczi, Brill, and Jung. It is patent, however, that he has not been profoundly influenced by Freudian teachings.
Psychoanalysts will take exception particularly to his chapter on impotence, in which, among twenty pages, psychoanalysis is polished off in one paragraph. Several case histories are given which, despite paucity of material, are transparent to anyone with even superficial analytic insight; yet they are presented without psychologic understanding. The author's point of view can be well gauged from a few quotations: "In my opinion strychnine is chiefly of use in cases of diminished desire associated with weak, ill-sustained erections." "So long as he remains married to that particular woman he is likely to remain impotent, whatever method of treatment be employed. The only solution to the problem is a dissolution of the marriage."
The chapter on the surgical treatment of impotence is scholarly and thorough. It deals with gland implantation and the like–the work of Voronoff, Steinach and others.
In a chapter on homosex