For example, if a man is characteristically honest in his dealings with people, this trait pertains to his psychology as
a human being; it is not a sexual characteristic. If, on the other hand, he feels confident in his sexual role relative to
women, this trait pertains to his psychology specifically as a man.
What, then, are the various psychological attributes whose sum constitutes one's specifically psycho-sexual
identity, i.e., one's psychological identity as a man or as a woman?
One's psycho-sexual identity (one's sexual personality) is the product and reflection of the manner in which one
responds to one's nature as a sexual being—just as one's personal identity, in the wider sense, is the product and
reflection of the manner in which one responds to one's nature as a human being.
To what extent is one aware of oneself as a sexual entity? What is one's view of sex and of its significance in
human life? How does one feel about one's own body? (This does not mean: how does one appraise one's body
esthetically?—but rather: is one's body experienced as a value, as a source of pleasure?) How does one view the
opposite sex? How does one feel about the body of the opposite sex? How does one identify the respective sexual
roles of man and woman? How does one evaluate one's own sexual role—and does one feel confident in regard to
it? It is his answers to such questions that determine (for good or for bad) a human being's sexual psychology.
A person's attitude toward these issues is not formed in a psychological vacuum. On the contrary: in sex, more than
in any other realm, the total of one's premises and psychology tend to be involved. The single most pertinent factor
in determining a person's sexual attitudes is the general level of his self-esteem: the higher the level of self-esteem,
the stronger the likelihood that his responses to his own sexuality will be appropriate, i.e., that he will exhibit a
healthy sex psychology.
A healthy masculinity or femininity is the consequence and expression of a rationally affirmative response to one's
own sexual nature. This entails: a strong, affirmative awareness of one's own sexuality; a positive (fearless and
guiltless) response to the phenomenon of sex; a perspective on sex that sees it as integrated to one's mind and
values (not as a dissociated, mindless, and