Sexual Adjustment in Marriage

In the 1950s sexual instruction was still a considerable problem despite the very great freedom of discussion that was common. The high level of so-called sexual neurosis among women, the problems of sexual compatibility and birth control, and the spread of venereal disease all bore witness to the need for responsible information.

Originally published in 1954, Dr Henry Olsen, in this comprehensive survey of the problems of sexual adjustment, draws fully from a very wide and thoroughly grounded experience. Since 1937, he had been closely connected with the instruction in sexual hygiene in Denmark, where the majority of public schools and high schools included it as part of the syllabus. Of the 1,232 public libraries at the time all but three had copies of his Textbook on Sexual Hygiene.

Sexual Adjustment in Marriage is admirably clear in style and arrangement. It is divided into subjects of particular importance such as The Sex Organs; Living Together; Disturbances in a Couple’s Sex Life; Sex Life of the Unmarried; Fertilization, Pregnancy and Childbirth; Sexual Abnormalities; Diseases of Sex Life. Each of the sixteen main sections is divided into chapters, within which every topic discussed is numbered. Reference to any part of the book is thus extremely simple.

Knowledge alone cannot prevent all disasters in the difficult field of sexual life. But this book aimed to give all that one needed for a basic understanding of the elementary laws – from the genes and chromosomes of one’s own make-up to the sex education of one’s children. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1954. The language used and views portrayed are a reflection of its era and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.