They Called Him The Handyman

Excerpt:

For this subject she does have leisure and diversion, but the essentials of boredom and what may grow into despair are the same. She has not entirely abandoned the hope that she may find some meaning in her marriage, and she undoubtedly feels some guilt at her own failure to become a complete person, even though she may not be able to verbalize about her guilt. At the same time she resents her husband and her sister both, and the resentment results in her feeling of irritation. She is on the point of open rebellion, and her nude swim in the pool is a symbolic expression of that abandonment and joy which she longs for.
The seduction of the subject by the notorious and willing telephone repairman has been planned in advance by the subject's sister, who is perhaps in a position to recognize the subject's needs better than the subject is herself. Although this subject attributes her sister's act to hostility, it seems possible that the sister Margaret may have had some human, kindly feelings in her scheme. In any case, the subject's odd mixture of feelings during the seduction and al-most-rape reflect her inner turmoil. She is both pleased and outraged, offended and flattered. She cooperates and repels at the same time, and in the end submits in spite of her overt denials.
It is only upon reflection that the real significance of the incident begins to occur to the subject. In spite of her brief humiliation at the realization that Margaret had planned the whole thing and manipulated her into it, she is able finally to recognize that she enjoyed the experience, obtained some real gratification from it, and ardently desires a continuance of the relationship that has begun.
Because of the fact that she herself does not become involved in feelings of guilt or self-recrimination, it is-likely that the incident will not have any serious traumatic effect in terms of her marriage. Alfred C. Kinsey and associates in Sexual Behavior in the Human Female discuss the fact that it is a subject's interpretation of a sexual encounter that determines that encounter's psychological significance:
The psychologic significance of any type of sexual activity very largely depends upon what the individual and his social group choose to make of it. The disturbances which may sometimes follow coitus rarely depend on the nature of the activity itself, or upon its physical outcome.... But if the behavior leads to some open conflict with the social organization of which the individual is a part, then the consequences may be serious and sometimes disastrous. The so-called traumatic effects of sexual experience often depend on the individual's inability or refusal to recognize the satisfaction that he or she actually found in the experience....