Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3 / Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women

A sequence of clinical and theoretical essays examines the sexual impulse from physiological, psychological, and evolutionary angles. Competing accounts are weighed — evacuation, reproductive, and tumescence–detumescence models — with attention to hormonal influences and evidence from castration, menopause, and animal behaviour. Courtship is analyzed as a set of tumescence-producing displays, including dance and rhythmic movement, and situated within sexual selection. A substantial section explores the relationship of love and pain, showing how pleasurable pain, algolagnia, sadism, and masochism can relate to sensory and respiratory mechanisms. A final section argues for qualitative differences in the sexual impulse in women and presents case histories of development.