Sexual Drive
Martin Allen
Sexual drive is formed with the participation of a complex of factors which can be conditionally divided into somatic, physiologic and psychological. Out of them the main are the following: erection mechanism, genital feelings, general sexual excitement, and orgasm.
One of the levels of sexual drive is a psychosexual orientation. The only factor which has a considerable impact on it is aggression, which level is set up by the balance of sex hormones: estrogens, testosterones. Aggression may be manifested as rivalry, domination hierarchy, and hostile relations.
Various types of behavior in terms of aggressiveness - in the order of increasing from down-to-up:
man’s aggressive behavior;
man’s weakly aggressive (fatherhood) one;
woman’s (motherhood) one;
without interaction (loneliness).
Normal sexual orientation in men, beginning from the early childhood, is formed by the way of avoiding extreme manifestations of man’s aggression (and loneliness from the other hand) and seeking a woman’s motherhood type of intercourse (without an obvious spirit of rivalry), and, thus, fixation to women.
Intercourse between men in terms of "weak aggressive" is characteristic for business, friendly or playing (in childhood) relations, likewise for relations in family.
For the building up of psychosexual orientation in women an aggressive type of intercourse between men is also important. Aggressive manifestations – rivalry, domination – are understood (unconsciously) by women as a sigh of strength, the ability to protect. And this became the main reason of her fixation on men.
Final fixing of the tentative orientation occurs when a sexual maturation begins and when emotional pains, mutual empathy between the representatives of different sexes enhances.
Influence of family (strict father, kind mother) is not likely to have a decisive importance in the formation of sexual orientation, because the relations in the family, as a rule, are more formal and smoothed than that of out of family.
Thus, an intercourse from the early childhood of groups of equals in age mixed in terms of sex, where both aggressive and non-aggressive manifestations will take place will be considered as a norm.
Dissymmetry of a normal sexual orientation (that is, the difference of some value systems), a man’s dyssemetry and a woman’s one are connected with dissymmetry of manifestation and understanding of aggression in men and women. In perversions (homosexualism, lesbianism), dissymmetry or orientations becomes more evident. Perversions may arise also due both to biological reasons (for instance, change of the balance of hormones: estrogens and testosterone), and to social ones (various types of isolation).
Another level of sexual drive is connected with genital feelings, which are targeted also to representatives of the opposite sex. At the first sight, the consequence of the events is as follows: the state of sexual excitement, accompanied by erection of penis entices to a sexual intercourse. But the excitement may not be initial (in sense of onto- and phylogenesis) in this successions, as from the beginning it is “not known” which signals must bring it into play and on which purpose. The right guide line may give only the situation of avoiding, created by inner physiological mechanisms. Such situation will create an initially independent from outer signals mechanism of erection: in men of penis, in women of clitoris.
The thing is that erection may emerge spontaneously and not always during intimacy. And another important notice, occurring from the first one: erection in most cases is not accompanied by general sexual excitement (in other words, only genital excitement occurs). For instance, in a quick dream phase, in mornings, after sleep, a spontaneous erection not proceeding to sexual excitement may have an obsessional character and provoke a state of general discomfort, frustration, likewise unpleasant feelings of overwhelming and irritation (unconscious during sleep) directly in genitals. It is a biologically programmed state, an inner situation, which provokes a reaction of avoiding. Occurring later pleasant feelings in genitals (inversion of perception) and pleasant sexual excitement, stimulated by imagination or during a sexual intercourse are secondary. They only show the further direction of actions – body contacts and mechanical stimulation of genitals, which is followed by a sexual act. That is, a relaxation of the internal stresses occurs (relief of the state of discomfort), which in the long run will determine a model of a sexual behavior.
In a quick phase of dream there are not only “accumulated” internal stresses due to erection but there emerge set fast reactions (which may be braked quickly) to set signals in dream stories. Many conditioned connections on the environment may explain the ease with which erection in appropriate situations passes into sexual excitement. In other words, there are two factors: from one hand – a pressure of unconditional response (the state of discomfort on erection), - and from the other hand – “accumulation” of conditioned connections on the environment are balancing in the state near to an equal one, which gives a general picture of “removal of an unpleasant irritator”. It enhances the probability of inversion – a transition of a negative emotion of discomfort into a positive one – pleasant genital feelings, and after this a general sexual excitement.
At large, under the action of sexual drive there emerges a large set of all possible inversions. Thus, the smells or visual objects in other cases provoking aversion, in intimacy may acquire a character of an additional exciting factor.
Culmination moment of sexual behavior is orgasm – a feeling of a strong sexual satisfaction, coinciding with abrupt relaxation of nervous and muscle stresses – connected with ejaculation in men. Physiological feelings and psychological experience of orgasm are the third component of the phenomenon of sexual drive.
