Does any relation between the unconscious mind and sexual drive seeking gratification exist? Might humanity stand and proliferate without ecological copulation? Do heterosexual partners sexually posses each other through intimacy, passion and decision/commitment (1), solely thinking in procreation, or rather in making sex for pleasurable moments and mental relief, unconsciously in most cases?
Before going deeper into this article regarding human growth, I would like to speculate saying that unlike animals, and perhaps Homo habilis and Homo erectus that performed sex interaction limited to only one orgasm, both genus Homo driven by instinct, current Home sapiens, aware of how sensational, pleasurable, relaxing and necessary coitus is when orgasm is indeed attaint, “the plateau phase of the sexual response cycle, characterized by an intense sensation of pleasure” that helps both opposite sexual partners release repressed feelings and passions, perform sex as much as they could in a natural and ecological way, i.e. when sex is performed between one male and one female, out of the fact that sex performing is considered psychologically as a sort of catharsis, according to Freudian psychoanalysis approach describing it as “the act of expressing, or more accurately, experiencing emotional reliefs from deep repressed or ignored emotions often associated with events in the individual's past that s/he had been unable to adequately address or experience”.
Many people, due to social taboos and prejudicial norms, are not aware of sexual performance as a behavior having a wide spectrum of benefits other than the possibility of fecundation and giving birth. Its beneficial advantages include also relief from stress, more immunity through the increasing of antibodies such as immunoglobulin de type A, being an antibody important for mucosal immunity. In the other hand, sex intercourse reduces the risk of heart attack and prostate cancer. It helps enjoy stable sleeping. Moreover, sexual intimacy, as well as orgasms, increases levels of the hormone oxytocin, “the love hormone “ which helps people bond and build trust.
Therefore, countless of psychologists and sociologists have dealt with human sexuality as a bio-psycho-social-cultural perspective within human growth. One of them was psychologist Abraham Maslow. He has stated an approach on human needs called Maslow's hierarchy of needs (2), a theory in developmental psychology which includes the observation of humans' innate curiosity within his approach. He goes from the physiological needs, the safety needs, the love, the belonging, the esteem, through the self-actualization at the top of the said hierarchy.
According to Maslow, to reach the top of the hierarchy, i.e. “to strive for a highest-level need of self-actualization, a state of self-fulfillment in which people realize their highest potentials, each in his own unique way” (Robert S. Feldman), they have to meet first the lowest physiological needs, such as water, food, sleep, sex and the like, in a secure environment (safety needs) in order to function affectively.
If any human does not eat or drink water, s/he dies. If s/he does not evacuate what was his intake, s/he dies. If s/he does not sleep, s/he dies mentally. If s/he does not perform sex, s/he would be less healthy biologically, psychologically, physiologically, ecologically, socially, and, indeed, physically.
Accordingly, to have a standard human personality development, according to what's been decoded in Maslow's suggestion, we must meet consciously, out of the Freudian ago stage, the physiological need of sex, the most important of all, because it implies, before fecundation if it is attaint, liberation of repressed energy to avoid any sort of neurosis or minor psychological disorders affecting lifespan development.
More than that, sex relation between ecological opposite partners is really important, the most one, I think, because upon it humanity has stood, and still stands, and all this attaint through an act for pleasure, a conscious performance (ago). And while enjoying the most delicious and pleasurable act of all in life, we procreate and develop as through blood vessels, genes, borne in sex cells or gametes, either sperm or ovum, both fusing during conception to become a zygote, the first cell of a new conceived organism to develop into an embryo, are travelling from generations through generations, carrying genetic information from the past. Hence, there are people attesting that sex cells are the ones to keep the eternity from the past through the future of humanity. From this biological viewpoint, I stand alongside those people considering the womb the most important organ in humankind, the fountain of procreation, and these humans and animals having it, are masters of life.
In fact, to enjoy sex intercourse, any couple should be in a safe place to perform sexual relationship with intimacy, passion and decision/commitment (1) as much as it is possible, and as freely as it is desired to keep primitive sexual instincts from arising out of the unconsciousness inside the psyche(the Freudian id stage). So…
How assured does feel my heart
By a magnanimous conviction:
The King of Lords was fairly smart
When all He framed with fascination
It is explicitly understood Maslow's view regarding the theory of drive-reduction approach to motivation suggesting that a drive to obtain some basic biological requirement is produced when people lack this aforementioned requirement, such as sex.
Edmund Freud was conscious of the important of libido and coitus in human life. Did Freud say, however, that libido is an instinctual drive for physical pleasure present at birth and forming the motivating force behind virtually all human's behavior? (Denise Boyd, Lifespan development).
If we analyze Freud's theory propounding the psychosexual stages of personality within human development, we will agree that only under the latency stage, the period between the phallic stage and puberty, and during which children's sexual concerns are temporarily put aside, apparently there is no erogenous zone. During the other psychosexual stages, people do have erogenous zones (area of sensation such as the mouth, the anus and the genitals). Indeed, we assume that libido, coitus and sexual relation as a whole are highly influential on lifespan development, because any or all the psychosexual stages may produce fixations in humans, as “conflicts or concerns persisting beyond the developmental period in which they first occur” (Denise Boyd, Lifespan development).
These fixations, given a possible unsafe environment, I speculate, might produce, during the genital stage, sexual disorders, such as paraphilia disorder, being the involuntary need for unusual and/or bizarre imagery, acts or objects in order to induce sexual excitement. We must just keep in mind that a toddler might like the sensation he feels when one of his parents cleans his/her anus after defecating. This sensation might be fixed and arise during adulthood, and then, the person might become a sexual sadist or masochist, a cultural homosexual or something else.
When humans are able to meet their sexual need in a safe environment, being sexual intercourse rather a natural, ecological and necessary behavior during which a broad bio-physiological functioning occur, including the cathartic orgasm, they may focus on striving for self-esteem and self-actualization, otherwise they would deal with unconscious strategies of defense (ego) to neutralize or keep back inner unconscious instincts from breaking out without regard (superego versus id).
It always happens that, all of a sudden, a male human, the most conscious and ecological predator of all on hearth, when he's involuntarily sexually excited (id), is aware that he has to do something to reduce, at least, his excitement. He knows that he needs an ecological opposite sex partner per excellence (ago), unless he has psychosexual disorder to meet his sexual need or libido.
According to natural, nurture norms and deviance, an individual is conscious that s/he must focus on a biologically, physiologically and ecologically suitable opposite sexual partner prepared to perform sex act as a pleasure-satisfying intimate behavior and a repressed emotion releaser (catharsis), i.e. not on a child or on a sexually immature partner (superego).
Due to the importance of sex performance in human growth for both procreation and emotional stability through pleasure, based on an interrelation of intimacy, passion and decision/commitment between two persons mainly of opposite sex, we might know more about sexual act as part of social behaviors and the three structures of the psyche (id, ego and superego), along with the psychosexual stages during the personality development, to avoid conscious and unconscious sexual deviance as atypical sexual behaviors: Thus, let point out briefly more about Freud's view concerning the id, ego and superego, the psychic structures of personality, to approach libido and its meeting by sexual behavior:
According to Freud, the id, the unconscious pleasure principal of the psyche as part of personality, “pushes humans to get their basic needs met”. Yet, they are pushed to satisfy their need consciously (ago). Un individual does not drink gasoline instead of water, s/he does not eat rocks instead of food, s/he does not make sex with a male or female elephant, alligator, or snake, but with a male or female adult sexually mature; however, cultural and moral norms (superego) prevent them from meeting their sex need openly in any environment when this sexual desire or libido appears or arises.
Consciously (ago), people are aware they have to meet their unconscious and instinct needs (id) to avoid death, but with care and safety, and without breaking social and moral norms (superego) Furthermore, for Freud, instinct is not only a specific form of behavior coded in genes, as biologists assume, denoting impulses, moving force or drive. For him, instinct also implies destruction, a sort of aggression when directed outward. If instinct is repressed or blocked, though, it may turn inward. Unfortunately, neurotic anxiety and its symptoms might arise from the blocked energy of the repressed sexual instinct, owing to the fact that unrelieved sexual tension generates anxiety. That is the danger of repression, the most spontaneous of defense mechanisms pushing unacceptable or unpleasant impulses back into the unconsciousness (Robert S. Feldman).
We have already pointed that as far as sex it concerns, animals behave by instinct, although they can be driven to perform sex under conditioned stimuli, what is more frequent in cases of Zoophilia, a sort of paraphilia describing the sexual contact between humans and mammal animals. Humans, however, behave otherwise, as during evolution they've built unconscious defenses mechanisms (ego) that help them avoid improper sexual deviance, unless they suffer from severe psychosexual disorder such as sexual dysfunctions, sexual perversions (paraphilia) and gender identity disorders,.
Do we really know what libido means and what happen when we are unable to meet it for long?
Continuing focus on Freud's theory, libido is said to be the instinct energy or force within what he called the id, the largely unconscious structure of the psyche, the force in an individual that influence thoughts, behaviors and personality. He pointed out that this libidinal drive can conflict with the conventions of civilized behavior, represented in the psyche by the superego. It is the need to conform to society and control the libido that leads to tension and disturbance in the individual, prompting the use of ego defenses of mechanism to dissipate the psychic energy of these unmet and mostly unconscious needs into other forms, although excessive use of ego defenses results in neurosis (a class of functional mental disorder involving distress, a behavior, however inside socially acceptable norms), such as: obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, hysteria as a way through which anxiety may be discharged, and phobia.
According to Dr. George Boeree, the symptoms of neurosis can involve a part anxiety, sadness or depression, anger, irritability, mental confusion, low sense of self-worth, etc, along with behavioral symptoms such as phobic avoidance, impulsive and compulsive acts and lethargy. Moreover, cognitive problems like unpleasant or disturbing thoughts, repetition of thoughts and obsession, habitual fantasizing, negativity and cynicism are also diagnosed as symptoms of personality-affecting neurosis that involves also dependency, aggressiveness, perfectionism, schizoid isolation, socio-culturally inappropriate behaviors and so on.
Thus, a mentally normal adult with a strong inner control, and constraint by outer control, is not supposed to meet libido with a sexually immature or unconsenting partner for being a sexual deviance behavior.
Still, the finest way to predict or control neurosis is by free will seeking sexual tension relief as a therapy to obtain satisfaction; otherwise, we must deal with other defense mechanisms if nurture factors are weak enough to influence into our conscience and ego-ideal, the part of personality that is the moral judge (superego), (Freud's theory), so as to prevent the ego (reality principle), the thinking element of personality, from overeating to satisfy the exigency of the id that operates in accordance with the said pleasure principle, comprising a person's basic sexual and aggressive impulses, which contains the libido, and motivates the person to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
Ebony, copper or ivory,
Who knows how was our Eve,
Whom God far from agony
Daydreamed, as I do believe!
Fictionalizing, joined by decision/commitment, under a safe atmosphere of intimacy, I would state that Adam and Eve interacted sexually, and with passion_ i.e. with love!
Peerless as well as bright,
Her figure splendidly fabulous,
Either day either night
She had Adam fall amorous.
Maybe Adam and Even did otherwise either day either night; and perhaps that's why God punished them for they did not obey Him after He had commanded, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). God’s rules upon obedience, a sort of superego, were not strong enough to prevent Adam and Eve from sinning, as “behavior is governed by both conscious and unconscious processes”. They were aware they were violating God’s rules. According to the Psychodynamic perspective, behavior is motivated by inner, unconscious forces, over which a person has little control, but people may enjoy from its outcome.
Maybe at that time, at the very beginning, there were no unconscious strategies to deal with neurosis, a sort of primitive instinct.
In sum, about sexuality, Freud believed that sexual drive or libido is one of the most powerful energy linked not only with sexual desire but with all constructive human activity. It exists even in childhood, which plays a major role in the development of both the normal and the neurotic personality (H. Morton). Moreover, these sexual impulses have arisen from the first psychosexual stages, because of the relation of a child with his/her sex opposite father/mother (Oedipal complex).
Conclusion
In this article, we have read about the importance of gratifying sexual drive or libido, conforming to standard social norms, for mental stability, social personality and healthy life, while spending the most pleasurable and enjoyable moments in couple of opposite sex per preference. In addition, we also mentioned homeostasis for the self-functioning of the human body where certain vital organs, such as the kidneys, the liver, the heart, the lungs and the brain that participate in the distribution and redistribution of oxygen and nutrients, help maintain this said homeostasis. Furthermore, endocrine glands play also an important role in homeostasis not only as they are hormones producers, i.e. the glands that secretes hormones into the bloodstream to regulate the body. The endocrine glands, mainly the pituitary, the testis and the ovaries, deal also with sexuality, along with the limbic system that controls orgasm.
Thus, in concluding, at least I agree that sexual gratification performed in accordance with social patterns is something that helps human growth as a whole.
Angel R. Almagro
1_ Freud's psychosexual stages of development
1. Oral stage (age 1)
2. Anal stage (age 1-3)
3. Phallic stage (age 3-6)
4. Latency (age 6-12)
5. Genital stage (puberty-end of life)
2_Sternberg’s three components of love are:
Intimacy encompasses feelings of closeness and connectedness.
Passion is made up of the motivational drives relating to sex, physical closeness and romance. In fact, passion is a state of intense absorption in someone that include intense physiological arousal, psychological interest, and caring for the need of another.
Decision/commitment encompasses the initial cognition that one loves someone and the longer-term feeling of commitment to maintain love.
3_ Maslow's hierarchy of needs from bottom to top
1. Physiological: breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion
• Homeostasis, referring to the human body as a system, is the property to regulate its internal environmental function and chemical balance, tending to maintain a stable, constant condition, i.e. the ability to physiologically regulate its inner environment to ensure its stability in response to fluctuations in the outside environment and the weather. The human immune system as a defense mechanism is an example of homeostasis.
2. Safety: security of: body, employment, resources, morality, the family, health, property
3. Love/belonging: friendship, family, sexual intimacy
4. Esteem: self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
5. Self-actualization: morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts
4¬_ Puberty is the period at which maturation of the sexual organs occurs, beginning at about age 11 or 12 for girls and 13 or 14 for boys. Spermatogenesis occurs in boys and menstruation and oogenesis, the creation of an ovum or egg cell, occur in girls.
Bibliographic reference:
Robert S. Feldman, Essential of Understanding Psychology
Denise Boyd, Lifespan Development
Morton Hunt, the Story of Psychology
Oxford Dictionary
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
Sylvia S. Mader, Biology, Fifth edition
Holy Bible, New International Version, ABS
Wikipedia
