You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This is the second 'instalment' of a work encompassing six volumes. Its subject is the 'message of sexual freedom'. Starting with Freud's
precept that neuroses are the result of repressed sexuality, Guyon concludes that man will be freed of neuroses and happy when 'the doctrine of sexual legitimacy and sexual freedom' has been accepted. Although Guyon frequently quotes Freud, he has actually developed his own psychology, the main points of which are 'the legitimacy of sexual acts' and 'the mechanistic theory of sex acts'. 'Sexual acts', he says, 'are legitimate because they are beyond good and evil… [They] are legitimate for the very reason that they are amoral and mechanistic'. The union of affection and sexuality is 'accidental and episodic'.
Among the most positive aspects of Guyon's work is the enthusiasm which pervades its pages. The dominant sexual morality, he says, is an invasion of the freedom of the individual; sexual acts belong to the sphere of private life in which the state and society have no right to interfere. Thus Guyon unfolds a picture of a world free of problems, where happiness is secured through constant changing of sexual partners. Jealousy is nothing but the expression of a ridiculous possessiveness and as such, should be discarded.
A more detailed review of this rather peculiar book would be a difficult task. No real development of the author's theories is apparent; they are presented rather as a series of repetitions and variations. Guyon's battle against the taboos and prejudices of society, his call-to-arms against the morals of the small town Babbitt with their deleterious effects on health and happiness, his efforts toward a rational conception of sex, his courage in speaking frankly, all these are refreshing. One cannot fail to recognize, however, that the theme is handled from a rationalistic standpoint, too superficial to do justice to the social and psychological problems involved. Guyon does not acknowledge that the s