Foreword
It is not an unnatural state for sex to become an obsession for an individual. It happens all the time. Most of the people in this state, however, are usually adolescents.
When sex becomes too inclusive at other times in an individual's life, it is usually conceded to be a kind of disease. And infatuation with the sex act, indiscriminate sex past the point of reason is an indication of an abnormality in the individual's well being.
This book, in its purest aspects, attempts to show how a relatively normal mother, nearing middle age, can suddenly be driven into a complete reevaluation of her life and sexual values.
It happens all the time. One reason is that, though sex is normal, sexual attitudes in America aren't. Kathy obviously has a background common to many women her age. She was raised to deny sex-to hold it off. and even through the routine of marriage and birth she manages to conceal great aspects of this part of her life from herself.
Women throughout America are caught in the same trap.
We cannot say that Kathy's release is typical of all American women. Most never discover the truth about their own sexuality. Many hire detectives and even find themselves unhappily and painfully in divorce court in their middle years but few rescue themselves as Kathy does without professional help.
Reading this story, the reader can only be impressed with the pitfalls that await the unwary woman raised in this self-perpetuating trap. Perhaps the only real studies of their dilemma are those by Morton M. Hunt. Mr. Hunt chronicles in great detail the plight of the woman who escapes her marriage, but doesn't escape herself.
It is not uncommon for the recent divorcee to blossom sexually-as it were. She seeks the security and fulfillment she has not found in marriage and usually enters into numerous promiscuous relationships as an attempt to find herself.
The high number of repeat divorces in the United States is evidence that they don't do too well.
This book drags in other odious realities not coped with by society today, but present in overwhelming force. Incest and the love of adults for the unflagging sexual vitality of children. But it does not condemn. It indicates there is hope.
The great American tragedy is the lack of help available to these people. And there are so many of them that if the problem weren't a sexual one, it would be called an epidemic. Men and women like Kathy and Al must find there way through the grotesque problems facing them. And, usually, they fail. We hope this book helps just one person understand himself better.
-THE PUBLISHER