Psychoanalysis vs.

Criticism of “sex education” in the past few decades has come mainly from outraged parents and political and religious leaders whose instincts tell them that premature and amoral instruction in sexuality can deform a child’s moral or psychological development. But when attacked, and indeed ridiculed, by professional educators, parents particularly have a difficult time defending themselves. They do not know how right they are, or indeed how many allies they have. Most traditionalist parents, for instance, probably think of Freud and his descendants as the enemy. Yet from a psychoanalytic point of view, sex courses as given today are a disaster. The relevant psychoanalytic facts are both well established and well known. The truth is that typical sex-education courses are almost perfect recipes for producing personality problems and even perversions later in life.

Sex is an intimate affair. People in love seek total privacy during their sexual intimacies. Intrusions of others into their sexual life arouse intense feelings of shame and resentment. Monogamous, intimate love, which the popular sexologists like to claim is merely an option, is an integral part of the sexual instinct. Contemporary sex-education courses not only disregard this need for intimacy, they explicitly violate it.

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Criticism of “sex education” in the past few decades has come mainly from outraged parents and political and religious leaders whose instincts tell them that premature and amoral instruction in sexuality can deform a child’s moral or psychological development. But when attacked, and indeed ridiculed, by professional educators, parents particularly have a difficult time defending themselves. They do not know how right they are, or indeed how many allies they have. Most traditionalist parents, for instance, probably think of Freud and his descendants as the enemy. Yet from a psychoanalytic point of view, sex courses as given today are a disaster. The relevant psychoanalytic facts are both well established and well known. The truth is that typical sex-education courses are almost perfect recipes for producing personality problems and even perversions later in life.

Sex is an intimate affair. People in love seek total privacy during their sexual intimacies. Intrusions of others into their sexual life arouse intense feelings of shame and resentment. Monogamous, intimate love, which the popular sexologists like to claim is merely an option, is an integral part of the sexual instinct. Contemporary sex-education courses not only disregard this need for intimacy, they explicitly violate it.