MATURITY IN SEX AND MARRIAGE

Dr. Stein's book is addressed to the ""intelligent"" layman and the professional; it covers areas in which he has ""something novel or original"" to say- and for ""original"" some readers, certainly the professionals, may substitute arguable; and although Dr. Stein is a California consulting psychologist, his approach is rather more physiological. He discusses the determinants of masculinity and femininity and the differentiation correlation of male-female attitudes, drives, etc.; sexual choice and stimuli and arousal (his theory of cyclical receptivity in the female rebuts Kinsey- whose work in toto he defends and commends); selective criteria which often prove false in the tender trap of marriage; and marriage itself which repudiates romantic love (this is based on sexual denial) and is a constellation of mutual participation at many levels of interest and in many areas- from the family to the community. Only here can a ""mature"" relationship be realized. Dr. Stein has a good deal to say not only about heterosexual experience- but also homosexual (which he equates with immaturity); his clinical casework is occasional but extensive; and his theories seem to stem from social or collective rather than psychological or individual patterns. The title notwithstanding, this is not a self-help book.