r
strong tendencies.

These various ways of handling a rejected motive could be nicely
illustrated from the case of the sex instinct. It so happens, partly
because modern economic and educational conditions enforce a delay in
marriage--and in part simply because there are so many attractive
people in the world--that the cravings of sex must often be denied.
What becomes of them? Of course the sex instinct is too deep-seated to
be eradicated or permanently to lapse into a dormant state. But the
fascination for particular individuals may so lapse or be forgotten.
Certain people we remember, once in a while, with half-humorous and
certainly not very poignant regret. Deferring the whole matter till
the time is ripe works well with many a youth or maiden. Combined with
social interests, the sex motive finds sublimated satisfaction in a
great variety of amusements, as well as in business associations
between the sexes. Introduce a nice young lady into an officeful of
men, and the atmosphere changes, often for the better,--which means,
certainly, that the sex motive of these men, combined with ordinary
business {535} motives, is finding a sublimated satisfaction. The sex
motive thus enters into a great variety of human affairs. "Defense
mechanisms" are common in combating unacceptable erotic impulses; the
sour grapes mechanism sometimes takes the extreme form of a hatred of
the other sex; but a very good and useful device of this general sort
is to throw oneself into some quite different type of activity, as the
young man may successfully work off his steam in athletics. This is
not sublimation, in any proper use of that term, for athletic sport
does not gratify the sex tendency in the least, but it gratifies other
tendencies and so gratifies the individual. It is the individual that
must be satisfied, rather than any specified one of his tendencies. As
regards cooerdination, the fact was illustrated just above that this
method would not always work; but sometimes it works immensely well.
Here is a young person (either sex), in the twenties, with insistent
sex impulses, tempted to yield to the fascination of some mediocre
representative of the other sex. Such a low-level attachment, however,
militates against self-respect, work, ambition, social sense. Where is
the "cooerdination"? It has to be found; some worthy mate will harness
all these tendencies, stimulating and gratifying sex attraction,
self-respect, ambition, and oth