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Justifying himself from personal clinical experience as well as from other clinical and sociological data, Reich arrives at the conclusion that marriage as a rule is an unhappy tie; that, in fact, the average span of sexual attraction in a marital relationship is only four years. If this conclusion be correct, the implications in terms of human disappointment and frustration are enormous. Indeed, Reich considers the problem of sexuality as basic in the state, even conditioning its form, and holds that as the modern state is built up on the idea of matrimony and the family, the code of morality emerging from this ideology is decisive in its effect on man's psychic organization.
If the way towards satisfaction of the sexual drives is barred, they are very apt to cause mischief and to be used for purposes hostile to life. This is precisely what happens now, for out of matrimony arises the ethical demand for monogamy, and this demand brings about repression and renouncement of drives which, by means of education in the family unit, begins even in early childhood. The repression of sexual drives manifests itself in a general weakening of mental and emotional functions, especially in weakening of self security, of will power, and of judgment. The authoritative social contract (Gesellschaftsordnung) of matrimony becomes the foundation of a structure which is a mixture of helplessness, need for support, longing for a leader, fear of authority, fear of life, mysticism, and sexual impotency. It marks itself by rebelliousness and bondage at the same time. All this forms the basis for a mass psychology on which bureaucratic tendencies and dictatorship can develop. To maintain matrimony, various written and unwritten laws have been made against abortions, against homosexuality, against divorce (or in making divorce difficult), etc. What has particularly strengthened the prohibition against sexual intercourse before marriage has been the unwritten law of disdain for the g