the child grows older, a still more complicated set of causal fac-
tors comes in. It is called upon to react to a world of situations
connected with sex. They are made peculiarly sensitive to such
situations by their own developing bodies. The stimuli from
without are hurled at them in such conflicting ways that proper
associations have no time to form, and there are no preëxisting
organized channels for appropriate reaction. Wrong sex theories
are built up; harmful attachments are made and poor outlets
are formed. We have in mind here the complex conditions which
are at hand around the age of puberty. The youths have to face
a mass of sex stories and wrong conceptions of how children
come into the world. Sometimes these come from associates of
their own age, but often from older children who for the younger
represent authority. Unless these theories are straightened out
by the parents (or teacher or physician) they get out of touch
with their environment. Most healthy children pass safely
through this period; some, however, do not emerge unscathed.
Improvement can be obtained in such cases if the parents are
able to establish a perfect rapport with the child and to talk such
matters out quite frankly. A true education process is begun.
Appropriate systems or ways of responding to the sex situation
are prepared. If the mal-adjustment has gone on for any great
length of time, it may be necessary to remove the child for a time
from the persons, places and things around which his poorly
adjusted reactions cling. (4) One other especially trying period
occurs when the young man and woman break home attachments
and ties and leave a sheltered environment to face a world which
they must build for themselves. They have their occupations to
choose and master and their mates to select and adjust to. How
they meet this new world depends very largely upon the emotional
attitude they bring with them from the childhood and adolescent
periods. If their repertoire includes the attitude of seclusive-
ness, suspicion and inferiority, or if the sheltering process has
gone on too long, healthy adjustments of the type demanded are
hard to form and actual psychoses may ensue. A process of re-
training must take place. The factors involved in retraining
belong in the chapter devoted to habit.

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