Integral Sexology
We’re all interested in sex. After all, it’s the third appetite – drink, food and sex. And yet powerful taboos exist around sex. It’s not a simple matter. Some people experience discomfort when talking about it or doing it. It is clearly connected to spirituality so what might integral theory suggest about sex?
At the end of the 19th century a number of writers had begun to question the prevailing attitudes toward sex. One pioneering writer was Havelock Ellis. He wrote a book suggesting that homosexuality was simply a natural variation. He also pioneered the idea that women can and ought to enjoy sex. Space does not allow me to go into detail but it is well known that there were some very peculiar ideas about sex. Orgasm in women was regarded as a sign of hysteria. Masturbation was regarded as morally and physically weakening and homosexuality was aberrant. All of this was challenged by a group of thinkers who argued that the study of sexuality should be pursued scientifically, independent of moral prejudice. This field became known as sexology.
At the same time anthropology began to be developed as a discipline. The colonialist expansion introduced Europeans to a wide variety of cultural practices, including radically different views toward sex. Havelock Ellis wrote the forward to a ground breaking book by Bronislaw Malinowski called ‘The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia’. This book explored the sexual practices of the Trobriand Islanders and it revealed the dynamics of a very liberal and open approach. Malinowski challenged Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex and sexual libertarians found evidence in his work that much of the European attitude was based on false moral fear.
These new approaches led to the creation of The World League for Sexual Reform, which included Ellis, Freud, Wilhelm Reich and the writers Aldous Huxley and DH Lawrence. This group was founded by Magnus Hirschfeld who also started the first institute devoted to the discipline of sexology, the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin.
The rise of the Nazis and the Second World War interrupted research into sexology (The Nazis destroyed the ISR in 1933 – many of the images of Nazis burning books are of them destroying the ISR library). The work of sexology lay dormant until Alfred Kinsey and afterwards, Masters and Johnson. The field of sexology is now fairly well established.
How can integral theory add to this discipline? Is there an integral sexology?
Spectrums of sexual types
Almost everyone is aware of the spectrum of homosexuality and heterosexuality. The discipline of sexology has demonstrated that most people are a mixture, there are few pure homosexual types and heterosexual types. Instead there seems to be degrees of bisexuality.
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Ray is a Melbourne based writer. He has completed two novels and is currently going through the process of getting them published. Read his Biography
Bliss is a young hippie girl with an extraordinary, untamed mind: a guitar prodigy, a synesthete, but can she tame her wild talent?
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Greetings comrade, this is truly an epic in the making. I suspect you’re a hippy at heart but need clarification on that spirit of unconventional freedom. Sex is a powerful reality in the politics of negotiation – with oneself and others. No doubt about that. And I was very surprised at the ability you have to generalise bodies of knowledge and systems of philosophy at the stroke of a simple pen. I must also admit that your analytical strength is breathtakingly all embracing. You have alerted me to many and a variety of different forms of social practices and theories that I was not aware of , or have slipped under my radar. I need time to fully appreciate the implications of your research here and elsewhere on your blog. Overall, well done and I fully commend the play on words in your blog’s title. Thanx for another good read.
Thanks William. Yes, a hippie, but much, much more than that. My influences go back to the pioneering work of psychoanalysis, particularly Otto Gross…
Ok, if I may just add my opinion to the issue you discuss here, Ray. It seems that you are advocating a form of sex education at a personal level from a very early age in our society. The premise for this type of education is based largely on your research which clearly demonstrates that a positive sex society is more functional in this area and that many of the associated, social problems modern society faces in this area are a result of an ongoing negative sex attitude promoted by the prevailing cultural , religious intolerance of mainly, western monotheistic religions. These religions in general have adopted and incorporated myths about human and child sexuality to protect the status quo and foster a sex negative attitude through their propaganda. This in turn has reinforced stereotypes and has become the blueprint for assessing and evaluating cultural attitudes towards, in particular, child sexual abuse. Therefore, in your recommendation for a more sensible approach to problems that child and indeed adult sexuality generates in modern society is to effect a paradigm shift in our cultural attitude towards sexuality. This can be achieved through a pro active , integrated education program packaged as part of life skills. Well, if I may say Ray, although the impulse is noble, well researched, empirical and sensible there is one vital ingredient you have neglected to include in all of this- namely , personal opinion. Implementing such a “life-skills” program exploring the positive virtues of a positive sex attitude requires a huge cultural paradigm shift – which in essence means changing the ways people think about themselves, others, their religion, their relationships..I don’t think this Utopian impulse has much of a chance because sex is a sensitive and personal reality. The only real way to effect a cultural shift in our attitudes is through story telling and the narrative structure. Traditional , cultural attitudes are embedded in the stories or mythology perpetuated consecutively in and through the younger generations. I think this is the only glimmer of hope to effect this type of social change. And how do you change the nature and culture of story telling when Hollywood, success, advertising, and the recycling of our myth making industries dominates every aspect of our lives? And you agreed in your statement that for an adult to achieve self mastery in this area was tantamount to high cognitive skills. There aren’t too many bright politicians out there. A very thought provoking and powerful discourse on this topic and I admire the scope of your analysis. But in my honest estimation, this has buckley’s chance of happening because sex governs our lives , metaphorically speaking, and to suggest that people and children should altruistically give in and satisfy these desires based on personal pleasures in order to break free from the constraints imposed from external sources is to deny the capacity for exploitation of this by others who are not so altruistically inclined. George Orwell successfully pointed this out in his parable, Animal Farm. I suspect there is a Utopian ideal underpinning much of what your essay is saying. In the West it is American culture that predominately dictates and perpetuates our mythology – and we all know how sick and dysfunctional America is in regards its internal policies…..don’t get me started on its external policies. Please don’t take my appraisal of this well thought out deconstruction of the poltics of sex you have espoused here as an insult, but rather as a means to intellectually stimulate and add to the discussion which obviously has a significant impact on me. If I am too bold in my comment forgive me this slip. William :-)
Well, just quickly, the type of sex education I have in mind is being implemented by some people in some countries. Holland is a good example. But we have a growing gap in the Anglophone countries between an increasingly educated, sex positive community and the sex negative religious community. Change is slow but the increasing acceptance of gay marriage is a sign of change.
I honestly thought that the idea behind the integrated sexology approach went much further than that. I suspected it aimed at curing sexual problems on a range of issues through a change in attitudes on all fronts. But I get your point. Change is slow. Thanx. Anyhow I will get back to your other essays as well some time soon. I enjoy your simple expression to deconstruct complex ideas.
It does go much further. My reply was short because I have limited time and this is a very large subject. As you look through my blog you’ll see I expand on several points. I’m currently interested in recent findings in neurobiology. In regard to Utopian sex education I suggest you read ‘Island’ by Aldous Huxley.