Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex

Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex

The Sexual Aberrations

Libido is hungry, most of us know this, and all Freud wants to add to this is that we have known it for a lot longer than we think. We have known it since childhood. But what led Freud to this conclusion and how does he argue for it?

Well, Freud begins by introducing 2 terms: Sexual Object, which refers to a person who induced the sexual desire, and Sexual Aim, which refers to the act one desires to perform with respect to the object. Freud proceeds to discuss how a deviation in either of these relates to the accepted norm.

The most common deviation in reference to the sexual object is the inversion, which is a desire for the same sex rather than the opposite sex. I do not like this terminology. Though Freud himself meant no harm, this terminology could be used and was used to cause harm. By using this terminology, Freud implicitly legitimized the status quo and made it incredibly easy for bigots to justify their beliefs. While this is undoubtedly unfortunate, I believe the text at its core is quite progressive.

I love the fact that Freud does not take a purely biological, inflexible, approach to sexuality which for some reason has been adopted as a modern mantra of sorts. Freud recognizes that inversion, as he calls it, can be something people are born with or something people develop, whether through environmental conditions or trauma. He does not pathologize it, in fact, he argues that there is no reason to think there is anything wrong with people attracted to the same sex, for they are just as capable of living and functioning as any straight person.

Though, we come to another part of this essay which I am not sure how I feel about. Freud argues that people who are attracted to people of the same sex are often attracted to the attributes that are usually associated with the opposite sex. Now, I am not going to outright negate this. This does happen for a multitude of reasons. For example, some people feel guilty about their urges, so they seek out people of the same sex who most closely correspond to the aesthetic ideal of the opposite sex, in turn subsiding their guilt about the act. Yet, in people who are fully accepting of their sexuality, we are unable to observe such a tendency. They seek out partners based on attraction, no matter their sex or gender. This only works to further prove that our understanding of sexuality, both subjective and objective, will continue to fluctuate until we hopefully hit an equilibrium at which sexuality as a concept will dissipate in disutility.

Let us shift our perspective towards a deviation in reference to the sexual aim. Freud states that the union of the genitals in the characteristic act of copulation is taken as the normal sexual aim. Some acts such as touching and looking are considered a natural precursor to the sexual act. Then, there are perversions and they fall into 2 categories. The first one would be an anatomical transgression, a tendency to include in the sexual act areas of the body not involved in the normal sexual aim, such as using of the mouth or anus in sexual behavior. The second one involves lingering in the intermediary behaviors that lead to the sexual aim, such as voyeurism.

It is sometimes simply too comical how quickly Freud jumps from a reactionary to a progressive, and vice versa. In one sentence he argues that men have a natural urge to dominate women in bed, and in the other, he proclaims that perversion is a natural part of existence present in all of us. And since it would appear the perverted tendencies are partly innate, they must be somehow present in children expressed in latent tendencies. Therefore, the investigation must turn to the examination of the sexual life of a child and its development.


Infantile Sexuality

Here Freud confronts our assumptions of childhood innocence directly. How could we possibly pretend that children lack sexuality when we have observed quite a few signs, such as erection and masturbation, which point in an entirely different direction? We, perhaps, do not recall these events due to infantile amnesia, but that does not mean they are not influencing us. Impressions stored in the unconscious, leaking into every thought of ours.

Freud is intelligent and he is quite aware that there is a big question mark around this whole theory of his. If we actually possess our sexuality from so early on, how come most of us did not practice it? Freud explains that this is all thanks to sexual inhibitions established in the form of loathing, shame, and moral and ethical demands, through the process of education which is largely organic in nature but is supported by cultural influences. I doubt this theory is an adequate explanation, but the question remains: What happens to all that latent sexual energy? Freud’s answer is sublimation which enables excessively strong excitations arising from particular sources of sexuality to find an outlet and use in other fields such as artistic activity.

Since that big question mark is no more, Freud proceeds to extensively discuss manifestations of infantile sexuality. He covers thumb-sucking and connects to the breastfeeding. He covers erogenous zones and, most interestingly, how everything can become an erogenous zone. Of course, the ultimate goal of an infant is satisfaction through stimulation of the erogenous zone. Why I believe Freud must be either partially or fully correct in his conclusions is because of the observation he made about the anal zone as a source of sexual pleasure. As a child, I withheld my fecal matter, sometimes even up to 3 weeks, simply because the pressure exerted upon my anus produced too great a pleasure. Even before finding out about Freud’s speculation, I suspected that my pleasure was sexual in nature. Quite rightly so, for to this day, the area of the body which brings me the most sexual pleasure is indeed my anal zone.

Freud asserts that the first sexual bloom is between 3 and 5 years of age. This is when children start sexually exploring their environment and inevitably find out that some people do not have a penis, inducing a reaction of fear, and creating a castration complex. This, I believe, is largely Freud being too much Freud. But, naturally, such a reactionary statement of his is always followed by a progressive one. Since there is always a risk of a child stumbling upon their parents having sexual intercourse and being traumatized by it, for to a child it appears as a violent act, it only stands to reason we should educate children on the matters of sex early on in their life. With this, I strongly agree, especially because it has been proven with time that early sex education can only work to improve people's lives.

Psychosexual development

Oral - (Birth - 1 year) - Mouth
Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils, etc.
Orally passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual practices
Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible, immature, manipulative personality.

Anal - (1 - 3 years) - Bowel and bladder elimination
Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, or excessively neat
Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized, coprophiliac

Phallic - (3 - 6 years) - Genitalia
Oedipus complex (in boys and girls); according to Sigmund Freud.
Electra complex (in girls); according to Carl Jung. Promiscuity and low self-esteem in both sexes.

Latency - (6 - Puberty) - Dormant sexual feelings
Immaturity and an inability to form fulfilling non-sexual relationships as an adult if fixation occurs in this stage.

Genital - (Puberty - Death) - Sexual interests mature
Frigidity, impotence, sexual perversion, great difficulty in forming a healthy sexual relationship with another person

The Transformations of Puberty

With puberty, the sexual object is found in some other than a self and the sexual impulses are woven into a singular sexual aim while the genitals assume primacy over the other erogenous zones. This is when we start obsessively masturbating!

Freud proposes the idea that sexual excitation is derived not from the so-called sexual parts alone, but from all the bodily organs. This culminates in the idea of a quantity of libido - with a mental representation - the ego-libido, whose production, increase or diminution, distribution, and displacement explain observed psychosexual phenomena. This ego-libido is only accessible to study, though, when it has been put to use on objects, that is when it has become object-libido, but from this representation, the theory proposes, it should be possible to express all phenomena in terms of the economics of the libido.

From puberty onwards, the difference between men and women, and their distinctness have huge amounts of influence on the shaping of human life. The resulting sex differences include earlier and readier development of the sexual inhibitions in girls in contrast to boys, but auto-erotic activity is more of a masculine nature even as it manifests in girls.

In childhood, the main erogenous zone for girls is the clitoris, and for boys glans penis. As puberty hits, boys experience the heightening of the libido, while girls experience a heightening of repression, specifically focused on the clitoris. The denial of sexuality causes an overestimation of the sexual parts in a man, eventually resulting in the woman’s acceptance of her sexuality in submitting to the sexual act. This leads to the transference of focus from the clitoris to the vagina making it the new leading sexual zone. At least, that is what Freud claims. I do believe his views warranted critique, especially from the feminists. His views are phallocentric and require a complete disregard for a female point of view. This, while understandable considering Freud largely based his theories on heavy introspection, is still a huge failure on Freud’s part. I can perhaps sympathize with the reasoning since women are taught to repress their sexuality even to this day, but to then turn that experience and make out the whole of female sexuality to be based on submission to a man’s libido is asinine.

Terminology

Repression - of some of the components of excessive strength in the disposition - so their energy finds expression as symptoms.

Sublimination - which enables excessively strong excitations arising from particular sources of sexuality to find an outlet and use in other fields e.g. artistic activity.
Reaction formation could be described as a sub-species of this.

Accidental Experiences - the influence of which is hard to estimate due to their nature, however evidence for their interaction with these other forces is strong.

Precocity - manifested in the interruption, abbreviation, or bringing to an end of the infantile period of latency.

Temporal factors - whilst the order in which the various instinctual impulses come into activity seems to be phylogenetically determined, as is the length of time during which they are able to manifest themselves, variations do occur, which Freud argues exercise a determining influence on one's final sexual instinct.

Pertinacity of Early Impressions - Freud argues that a psychical factor of unknown origin, increases the importance of early sexual manifestations - to give increased pertinacity or susceptibility to fixation in persons who later become neurotics or perverts.

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My overall experience with this book is solid. No matter how many times Freud overreaches and overgeneralizes, he always eventually humbles himself. He knew he was treading through unknown territory and had both courage to do so and reason enough to understand that his conclusions will hardly be final.