Psychology of sex - Total No. of Records in System :: 2032

PSYCHOLOGY OF SEXsphere, and in those more remote erogenous zones whichare sometimes apt for sexual sensation, acts differently,and this by virtue o what Herrick calls its power of summatingsuccessive stimuli, an avalanche-like process bywhich through the excitation of cellsperipherala vastnumber of cortical cells may be slowly charged with eneigy.It is a process of tumescence culminating in an actof detumescence; which, while outside the sexual sphereit may take the form of a muscular reaction or an outburstof laughter, within the sexual sphereits reactions aresexual. All forms of amorous contrectation, and especiallythe sexual embrace, have an intimate connection with thephenomena of ticklishness. That, indeed, is the basis ofSpinoza's famous definition of love: Amor est titillatioquaedam concomitante idea causes externa, for, as Gowerssaid, the sexual act is primarily a skin reflex.It may be worth while to remark that, although tickling(even if practised by young girls as a source of probablesexual pleasure) has become unimportant in the eroticlife of civilization, it has more significance among somesavage peoples, as formerly indeed even in Europe. Totickle among some peoples has been to make love, andsometimes, as among the Fuegians, the same word is appliedto the sexual embrace as to tickling. The Germanword for the clitoris, "Kitzler" or tickler, indicates a similarconnection of ideas. The word pruritus was used bythe Romans as a synonym of lasciviousness, and it is significantthat localized pruritus occurs in zones that arein early life auto-erotic and tends to appear at the menopause.In Russia, in the eighteenth century, the Czarina,B. Stein states, retained at Court official foot-ticklerswhose dutyit was to give the Empress pleasure by ticklingher feet and at the same time telling wanton stories andsinging obscene songs; they also possessed the special privi-[44]