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PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY
history will repeat itself can become so strong in such a person
that he invites misfortunes and is relieved when they occur.
For many people, the words of the Old Testament (Exod. xx.
5, 6) become a dreadful threat; ‘For I the Lord thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.’
Some find reasons for applying these words to themselves,
seeing in them an explanation of their fear and misfortune.
Others find satisfaction in reciting them as a warning or
accusation to friends of whose behaviour they disapprove. Neither
type remembers the concluding words of the passage: ‘And
shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep
my commandments.’
There is a form of anxious solicitude for relatives and friends
that is merely a cloak for a fear of punishment. Mothers who
continually show ungrounded and unreasonable concern lest
their children are visited by accident or illness are examples of
this.
Disturbances in the Sexual Life
Fear of punishment is the occasion of many sexual
disturbances. In no other realm of our behaviour has the fear of
children been so ruthlessly exploited by parents and teachers
in the service of education. This is particularly noticeable in
relation to masturbation. Parents, physicians and the clergy
have conspired, no doubt with the best intentions, to fill the
minds of young people with stark terror about this habit,
describing its physical and mental consequences in the most
grossly exaggerated terms, with deplorable effects. They have
laid the foundations of what is often called a feeling of sexual
guilt, but is in fact a sexual fear of punishment.
Experience has shown that the treatment of young people
who are troubled with the habit of masturbation must always
begin with the abreaction of the fear of punishment.
Psychologists are often accused of belittling the habit, but results provide
conclusive evidence that reassurance and encouragement can
cure it, while any suggestion that reinforces fear merely
intensifies the desire to indulge in the act and makes the habit
permanent.
In other ways, too, fear of punishment has harmful effects
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