Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- One What is enigmatic about sexual desire?
- Two Explaining desire: multiple perspectives
- Three Sexual desire in a broad context
- Four An incentive-based model
- Five Sex and levels of organization
- Six Sexual attraction
- Seven Shades of desire from simple to complex
- Eight Details of the brain and desire
- Nine Arousal
- Ten The consequences of sexual behaviour and associated expectations
- Eleven Sexual familiarity and novelty
- Twelve Inhibition, conflict and temptation
- Thirteen How did sexual desire get here?
- Fourteen Setting the trajectory: link to adult sexuality
- Fifteen Sexual desire in interaction
- Sixteen Representations of sex
- Seventeen Sexual addiction
- Eighteen Variations in desire: general principles
- Nineteen Some forms of desire at the fringes
- Twenty The toxic fusion: violence and sexual desire
- Twenty one Sexually associated (serial) murder
- Twenty two Concluding remarks
- Notes
- References
- Index
Nineteen - Some forms of desire at the fringes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- One What is enigmatic about sexual desire?
- Two Explaining desire: multiple perspectives
- Three Sexual desire in a broad context
- Four An incentive-based model
- Five Sex and levels of organization
- Six Sexual attraction
- Seven Shades of desire from simple to complex
- Eight Details of the brain and desire
- Nine Arousal
- Ten The consequences of sexual behaviour and associated expectations
- Eleven Sexual familiarity and novelty
- Twelve Inhibition, conflict and temptation
- Thirteen How did sexual desire get here?
- Fourteen Setting the trajectory: link to adult sexuality
- Fifteen Sexual desire in interaction
- Sixteen Representations of sex
- Seventeen Sexual addiction
- Eighteen Variations in desire: general principles
- Nineteen Some forms of desire at the fringes
- Twenty The toxic fusion: violence and sexual desire
- Twenty one Sexually associated (serial) murder
- Twenty two Concluding remarks
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Attempts to divide anything into two ought to be regarded with much suspicion.
(C. P. Snow, 1965, p. 9)The central argument of the present study is that biology and environment are inextricably mixed in the determination of all forms of desire, whether normal or at the fringe. The following examples are based upon this.
Voyeurism
Starting from childhood, the Victorian writer Walter was an insatiable and creative voyeur, an activity which he accompanied by masturbation, but this did not prevent him from developing an active ‘conventional’ sex life in parallel. Having found a hiding place in a basement and looking up to the street above through a hole, Walter would sometimes wait for hours before catching a glimpse of the legs of an unsuspecting woman. On visits to the Continent, Walter spent hours peering through keyholes watching women or couples. Kronhausen and Kronhausen (1967) observe (p. 318):
This may sound strange for a man as sexually active as Walter was, but is entirely in keeping with what we have come to know about other individuals like him. In fact it is a fallacy to assume that a sexually active person may not also be interested in voyeurism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- How Sexual Desire WorksThe Enigmatic Urge, pp. 370 - 397Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014