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The Nature of Sexual Desire
James Giles
ISBN: 0-275-95995-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-95995-1
232 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 8/30/2004
List Price: $102.95 (UK Sterling Price: £71.95)
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Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: Although there has been much discussion about things like the causes, loss, and maintenance of sexual desire, there has been little research into the nature of sexual desire itself. Consequently, most of the discussions on these topics have gone on without any clear idea about what it is that is being discussed. Readers will be interested that at last there is a full-length book that attempts to say what sexual desire is. Further, this book takes an interdisciplinary and intercultural approach, drawing on a wide range of texts and research.

Drawing on such diverse sources as psychology, philosophy, and biology, a thorough discussion of sexual desire is presented. Giles starts by showing why sexual desire is an existential problem and then follows with an examination of the nature of desire. From here the sexual process is examined and its relation to sexual desire is explored. This view of sexual desire is then used to explain the nature of romantic love, different orientations in love, and love's relation to sexual desire. It is argued that sexual desire has its roots in desires for vulnerability, care, and the experience of gender.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    The Problem of Sexual Desire
    An Unsettling State of Affairs
    The Nature of Desire
    The Sexual Process
    The Idea of a Sexual Process
    Ellis and the Mechanism of Detumescence
    Freud and the Pleasures of Excitation
    Reich's Orgastically Satisfying Sex Act
    Masters and Johnson's Sexual Response Cycle
    The Phenomenonology of the Sexual Process
    The Object of Sexual Desire
    Sexual Desire and Reproduction
    Erotic Pleasure
    Sexual Activity
    From Baring and Caressing to Vulnerability and Care
    The Atypical Sexual Variations
    The Experience of Gender
    The Primacy of Gender
    Gender and the Genitals
    The Place of Gender in Sexual Orientation
    The Twoness of Gender in Sexual Desire
    The Structure of Being in Love
    Being in Love
    Love as the Desire for Vulnerability and Care
    The Non-Exclusiveness of Love
    Ways of Being in Love
    Love's Relation to Sexual Desire
    Epilogue: Sexual Desire as an Existential Need
    References
    Index
About the Author: JAMES GILES is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Guam.
LCC Class: HQ21
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