Abstract
FEW people would care to deny that marriage relations constitute an important source of the variance of total social happiness. A reasonable interpretation of available evidence makes it likely that marriage originally came into existence as an institution in response to the need for safeguarding the family and its property and hence to acquire rights over the procreative activities of the female. But monogamous marriage in modern society, de jure if not entirely de facto, still exercises proper functions in regulating the sexual and parental impulses and in providing for various other social and psychological needs. The permanence and stability of marriage are very sensitive to economic and ecological conditions in society. One current difficulty comes to mind. The exigencies of war, compelling prolonged separation and abstinence and, consequently, frustration and conflict, have certainly raised the incidence of psychoneuroses in married women. It is surprising therefore that so little scientific attention has been given to the conditions of a stable and happy union on one hand and of the difficulties that may arise from this union on the other.
Happy Marriage
By Norman E. Himes. English edition revised by Lella Secor Florence. Pp.368. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1941.) 12s. 6d. net.
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COHEN, J. Happy Marriage. Nature 148, 639 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148639a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148639a0