Sexual Desire, Libido

Sex drive, libido

Libido is a reflection of the underlying sexual instinct and sexual needs, i.e., innate, genetically determined mechanisms.

However, unlike the so-called vital needs (for example, the need for food), sexual needs, and therefore sexual desire, do not appear in a child immediately after birth, they are formed during puberty and do not exist unchanged throughout subsequent life, but disappear with the extinction of sexual intercourse functions. It should be noted the essential features of sexual desire in a person whose underlying instincts play a subordinate role, because they are inhibited and controlled by human-specific forms of higher nervous activity. If in animals the realization of the sexual instinct, as a rule, is completely subordinated to the biological goal - the reproduction and preservation of the species, then in humans the sexual desire has largely lost its biological character and acquired a new aspect associated with nervous discharge and pleasure.

The process of satisfying sexual desire in a person always acts as a conscious, purposeful activity. A person has the opportunity to satisfy sexual desire without preserving the species. In humans, sexual desire is subordinated to the highest manifestations of human essence (consciousness, will), and the satisfaction of sexual desire is complicated in comparison with animals by the need for adequate reflection in the consciousness of the object of this desire. Sexual needs, like other human needs, are transformed by his upbringing in the broad sense of the word, i.e. his introduction to the world of human culture. Sexual desire is associated primarily with the functions of the endocrine gland system (pituitary gland, testes in men and ovaries in women, adrenal glands, thyroid gland) and a number of formations in the brain, such as the visual thalamus, as well as with conditioned reflex complexes of a sexual nature that form in the cerebral cortex brain

In a broad sense, the concept of sexual desire includes the so-called energetic (humoral) component, which is innate and is caused by the interaction of the nervous system and humoral factors (biologically active substances - hormones, mediators, etc., contained in the blood, lymph and tissue fluid), and the so-called sexual dominant, which determines the specific sexual-erotic coloring of sexual desire, switching attention to the sexual object and combining into a single whole both innate and individually acquired (conditioned reflex) mechanisms of sexual desire. Innate mechanisms ensure the expression and intensity of sexual desire, which is clearly manifested already during the period of so-called youthful hypersexuality. During the period of formation of sexual desire, i.e. During puberty, the efforts of teachers and parents should be aimed at preventing the premature awakening of sexual desire. It is during this period that, under the influence of increased sexual desire, the formation of conditioned reflex complexes occurs in the cerebral cortex, which remain for life and determine the direction of sexual desire, giving it a specific sexual and erotic coloring.

These conditioned reflex mechanisms can only be formed if there is a certain level of maturity of the sexual sphere. If, as a result of some disorder, the sexual sphere does not reach maturity, then no external stimulating factors will be able to awaken sexual desire. On the other hand, the age at which sexual desire awakens can fluctuate significantly under the influence of the microsocial environment, upbringing, the media, etc.

There is no strictly defined norm in relation to sexual desire. Its expression in adulthood, when sexual life is characterized by the greatest harmony, can be considered a conditional individual norm, because during the period of so-called youthful hypersexuality, sexual desire should be considered as undoubtedly increased, and in old age - as decreased.