This early work by Sigmund Freud was originally published in 1908 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. ''Civilized' Sexual Morality and Modern Nervous Illness' is a psychological essay on the effect of social culture on mental illness. Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on 6th May 1856, in the Moravian town of Příbor, now part of the Czech Republic. He studied a variety of subjects, including philosophy, physiology, and zoology, graduating with an MD in 1881. Freud made a huge and lasting contribution to the field of psychology with many of his methods still being used in modern psychoanalysis. He inspired much discussion on the wealth of theories he produced and the reactions to his works began a century of great psychological investigation.

Whether one accepts Freud’s teachings in toto or rejects a great part of them as unsubstantiated and untenable, one must admit that his influence on modern thought has been tremendous, incalculable—and on the whole beneficial. Many shams and hypocrisies have been uncovered and exploded by the ruthless analysis of modern psychology known as psychoanalysis, and in no field have the Freudian teachings borne better fruit than in the field of human sexology. That psychoanalysis has been exploited by charlatans and ignorant laymen for their own benefit and to the detriment of their victims is not to be laid at the door of its founder. Of all Freud’s writings—and their number is enormous—the writer considers the present essay the most important—the most important barring none. In this essay Freud clearly states his position on the importance of the sex instinct in modern civilization, on the relationship between sexual abstinence and nervousness or neurosis, and boldly proclaims, what medieval theologians still persist in denying, that man’s sexual instinct is not at all primarily meant to serve purposes òf reproduction but is intended to furnish certain forms of gratification.

Ever since Freud made his first major statements about female sexuality and psychology, his views have been the focus of intense debate--both within psychoanalysis and without.

This is a new release of the original 1924 edition.

At a time when America's faculties of taste and judgment—along with the sense of the sacred and shameful—have become utterly vacant, Rochelle Gurstein's The Repeal of Reticence delivers an important and troubling warning. Covering landmark developments in America's modern culture and law, she charts the demise of what was dismissively called "gentility" in the face of First Amendment triumphs for journalists, sex educators, and novelists—from Margaret Sanger's advocacy of birth control to Judge Woolsey's celebrated defense of Ulysses. Weaving together a study of the legal debates over obscenity and free speech with a cultural study of the critics and writers who framed the issues, Gurstein offers a trenchant reconsideration of the sacred value of privacy.

Considers the incompatibility of civilisation and individual happiness, and the tensions between the claims of society and the individual. This work focuses on what the author perceives to be one of society's greatest dangers; 'civilised' sexual morality.