Tuesday, March 22, 2005

A Logic of Sexual Fantasy

I'm reading a good book about the psychology of sexual fantasy. It's called Arousal, and it's written by a psychotherapist in San Francisco named Michael Bader. I got interested in it when I heard him speak at a colloquium in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. His basic premise is that sexual fantasies are engineered by the unconscious mind to make us feel safe enough to get excited and experience pleasure. He believes that we acquire certain (largely unconscious) pathogenic beliefs as a result of trying to adapt to less-than-ideal family environments growing up. Since kids tend to take an ego-centric view of the world, it's common (he argues) for them to assume that they're responsible for bad things that happen in their family--parental neglect, anxiety, divorce, parental depression, etc. So the sex fantasies are constucted to negate these unconsciously held pathogenic beliefs. Imagine a man who grew up with a passive, depressed mother who had a hard time enjoying much in her life. As a kid, he may have concluded that he was somehow to blame for his mother's depression. As an adult, he might construct a fantasy (or merely express a preference) around women who are strong and dominant. Bader contends that the man would feel a sense of unconscious safety being with a strong and sexually powerful woman, because it would be obvious that she was not likely to get hurt by him (particularly by his sexual desire for her). He goes on to analyze some of the most common fantasies, including dominance and submission, youth/virginity, fetishes--he even finds a way to explain golden and brown showers in terms of psychological safety. Personally, I can think of many things that would make me feel more safe and sexual than having someone crapping on my head, but to each his own.

5 Comments:

At 5:00 PM, Blogger Tist said...

So, this books sounds intriguing, but what does he say about the fantasies people in "normal" families have? (because not ALL families are dysfunctional, and I do believe most-to-all people have fantasies). Not that this applies to me, cuz I am NOT normal, and I love those dominance/submission fantasies of mine. . . wait. I've said too much. Now I"ll have to kill you, and everyone that reads this. Damn. I don't have time for this shit!

 
At 8:53 PM, Blogger Gart said...

Tist: I love it! You don't write a thing on my blog for months, and then when I write about sex, guess who comes out to play... Anyway, there's nothing in the book that suggests that his logic only applies to people from dyfunctional families. Everyone has insecurities and certain beliefs about themselves that make being sexual more difficult than it has to be--even if they grew up in the Cleaver household (or perhaps especially if they did). Why? You're not from one of those normal families, now are you?

 
At 9:07 PM, Blogger theColin: (xo) said...

God I love that..."damn. i dont have time for this shit." thats great.

great blogging, great post

 
At 1:58 AM, Blogger Tist said...

Well, February 8th is not really "months," but yea, Sex is my favorite Hobby. I've come to terms with it. So must the world.
As for whether I come from a "Cleaver Home" or not, My anxious/claustrophobic father, and my domineering mother would make that a "negative."
Happy Easter.

 
At 11:50 PM, Blogger Erik said...

"to each his own" is right! let's not get too far ahead of ourselves...i don't know what that means, but i'm starting to scare myself!!

 

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