II. Which Psychic Elements Pertain to the Strictly Sexual or Venereal Act

423. - A. In the lower or animal psychic life.

We call strictly sexual or venereal any act which nature destines and reserves, by an immediate or mediate relation, to the proper conjunction of both sexes - we are not treating of the sexual function of lower animals - or any actuation of the genital apparatus which, from the end of the work, tends toward the procreation of offspring. Therefore, the complete acts are natural and unnatural intercourse; and the incomplete acts are, in the man, pleasurable erection and agitation of the member; in the woman, pleasurable erection of the clitoris and contraction of the vagina.

Therefore: 1. Venereal sensations are: a) an external sensation, when by contact itself, in the glans, clitoris, lips of the pudendum, vagina, or mouth of the uterus, the titillation proper to the sexual organ is excited - not a mere sensation of heat, hardness, etc.; b) kinesthetic sensations which are directed toward a venereal act or arise from a strictly sexual impulse, for example from an obscene phantasm. Therefore, the mere sensation of an erection of the member, by which we are informed concerning its position, is not sexual; c) organic sensations produced by the blood by which the cavernous bodies of the penis and clitoris are filled, which are joined with the emission of semen, at least broadly so called.

2. As regards affection, we have already said above that, according to the more probable opinion, in animal life there is no specifically proper affection if it is taken separately from sensation.

But an affection merely agreeable is observed in the complete act; in the incomplete act, however, an affection composed of partial affections, some agreeable and others disagreeable, yet in such a way that the dominant or prevailing one is an affection of a certain discomfort and tension which has not been satisfied.

3. Venereal appetite spontaneously embraces the complete act as satiating; if it is not complete or is altogether absent, it is borne of its own accord, through sexual instinct, toward completing it or procuring it by suitable actions.

424. - Corollary. What is venereal pleasure? It is the psychic state induced by a venereal or strictly sexual sensation and the affection joined with it. The consequent movement of the sensitive appetite toward this pleasure solicits the higher appetite itself.

425. - Scholion. All venereal sensations can also be represented phantastically, and then produce the same effect as external sensations.

426. - 1. Through reflex cognition, both the good of venereal pleasure and the morally good, together with its demands, are known. These give place to deliberation concerning consent to or rejection of the sensation which has arisen and the affection produced.

2. The higher appetite can deliberately embrace the present pleasure, or not consent to it; in the latter case the pleasure is never full or of the whole man. Man cannot directly restrain the sensations and the connected affection, at least entirely, by the command of the will. Before they have arisen, however, he will be able by a physical means, for example by ligation, to prevent blood from flowing in and thus to prevent reflex agitations of the member from taking place. He can often, though not always, prevent the cooperation of the phantasy, especially by diverting the imagination to other things to be considered.