“All-embracing in its path towards the attainment of its final aim is the love-life also of the great cell societies, such as you yourself are, such as I myself am, such as your beloved is. These higher, more advanced individuals saw one another, approached one another, heard one another, perceived one another through a hundred external media; they became spiritually fused, and attained a condition of wonderful harmony—their principal body walls came at length into immediate contact—they pressed one another’s hands, they embraced one another, kissed one another—they drew ever closer and closer together; to a certain extent the body of one penetrated the body of the other. In all this, their love undertook the whole affair, undertook it a thousand times more effectually than the individual cells seeking conjunction could ever have done; undertook it for the sake of the reproductive cells hidden deep within their bodies. All the pleasurable and painful feelings of love undulated and surged for so long a time throughout the entire organism with intense force; these feelings agitated the entire superior, comprehensive, individual personality, searched its every depth with stormy emotions of desire, complaint, and exultation.
“But at a precise instant this all came to a halt. The seminal cells were ejaculated; one of them conjugated with the ovum; the hidden inward life of a tiny separate organism began within the body of one of the over-individuals. The last separation was bridged, and the true cell-fusion took place. But when this happened, the immediate relationship with the love-life of the great individual man and woman was already completely severed. The bodily act of love was already long at an end; its increase to a climax and its fulfilment had long passed by.
“The instant of supreme voluptuous pleasure, which in the case of unicellular beings naturally occurs at the moment of complete coalescence, must in the case of the multicellular organisms just as naturally be transferred to another stage, as it were, in the great path of love.
“To an earlier stage.
“To that stage of distance-love which is nearest to the true act of fusion of the reproductive elements. To the farthest point, that is to say, attained by the great containers of the genuine unicellular sexual elements (themselves capable of the act of ultimate coalescence)—the farthest point attained by the multicellular over-individuals.”
This farthest point is an act of contact.[16] We have already learnt to regard the skin as a projection of the nervous system, and we have come to understand the significance of the skin in the sphere of sexuality. The other senses which have arisen from the skin must also be taken into account in this matter. In the genital organs, this touch stimulus assumes a quite peculiar character; it gives rise here to the proper voluptuous sensation which is associated with the discharge of the reproductive products. In man this association is most distinctly manifest. The instant of most intense sexual pleasure coincides with ejaculation, with the expulsion of the semen. The character of this voluptuous sensation can hardly be defined; in part, it is like an intense tickling sensation, but, on the other hand, it has an unmistakable relationship to pain. Later, in another connexion, we shall consider this interesting point at greater length. Not inaptly the sexual act has also been compared with sneezing; the preliminary tickling sensation, with the subsequent discharge of nervous tension, in the form of a sneeze, have, in fact, a notable similarity with the processes occurring in the sexual act.
The sexual act depends upon the occurrence of certain stimuli which are connected with the complete development of the internal and external genital organs and of the reproductive glands. The time when this development occurs in man and woman is known as puberty. The sum of these stimuli is known as the “sexual impulse.” Whereas in the lower animals the sexual impulse is for the most part connected with the activity of the reproductive glands, in the human species, in association with the preponderating significance of the brain, it has attained a relative independence of the reproductive glands; whilst the mind has come to influence the sexual impulse very powerfully. Generally speaking, sexual excitement is produced in three ways: first, by the activity of the reproductive glands; secondly, by peripheral excitement derived from the so-called “erogenic” areas; and thirdly, by central psychical influences. S. Freud has recently studied the relations between these three causes of sexual excitement, of the sexual impulse, and has very properly distinguished two stages—the stage of “prelibido” (sexual desire), and the stage of the proper sexual “libido” (sexual gratification).
The stage of prelibido has distinctly the character of tension; the stage of libido, the character of relief. The feeling of tension during the prelibido finds expression mentally as well as physically by a series of changes in the genital organs. The tension is further increased by the stimulation of the various erogenic zones. If this prelibido increases beyond a certain degree, the characteristic potential energy of sexual tension is transformed into the relief-giving kinetic energy of the terminal libido, during which the evacuation of the reproductive products occurs.
Prelibido, which is especially characterized by engorgement, swelling, and erection of the corpora cavernosa of the male and female reproductive organs, occurring as a reflex from the spinal cord, may be experienced long before puberty; it is much more independent of processes occurring in the reproductive glands than is the terminal libido, or sexual gratification, which in the male accompanies ejaculation of the semen, and is associated with conditions attained only at puberty.
The actual origin of the sexual tension which ultimately leads to ejaculation is still obscure; it seems, at first sight, probable that in the male this sensation is connected with the accumulation of semen in the seminal vesicles. Pressure on the walls of these structures may be supposed to stimulate the sexual centres in the spinal cord, and also those in the brain; but this theory fails to take into account the condition in the child, in woman, and in castrated males, in all of whom, notwithstanding the absence of the accumulation of any reproductive products, nevertheless a distinct state of sexual tension may be observed. It is, indeed, an old experience that eunuchs may have a very powerful sexual impulse. It is obvious, then, that the sexual impulse must be, to a very great extent, independent of the reproductive glands.