for sexual activity.125 The hormones priming for sexual activity can in turn be stimulated by environmental factors previously associated with sexual activity. Pfaus, et al. (2014) observe that ‘sexual behaviour epitomises the whole-body relationship between autonomic activation and central nervous function. Yet part of that biological substrate is an enormous adaptive flexibility in the brain that allows individual and idiosyncratic Pavlovian and operant associations to be made between external stimuli, behavioural responses, and sexual reward’ (p. 184). In other words, an animal learns to be sexually aroused by things that happen to be associated with sexual arousal in the past.
This conditioning principle predicts that the cues associated with sexual arousal in the past can later contribute to the stimulation of sexual desire. That is, a history of sexual arousal in a certain context can create sexual desire in relation to that context. Sexual arousal can lead to sexual desire, just as sexual desire can lead to sexual arousal. This principle can play a critical role in the development of various sexual fetishes, but also in the longer-term effects of certain fantasies and exposure to various erotic stimuli. And so, for example, because difference is an important arousal factor, an adolescent may access increasingly risqué pornographic images (involving, for example, same-sex situations, multiple sexual partners, sexual violence, children, etc.), and sexual arousal responses then become conditioned to those stimuli. A person learns to sexually desire those things that sexually aroused him in the past.
The principles of conditioning theory have also underpinned various therapeutic interventions in sexual behaviour (particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, when a different political climate prevailed regarding acceptable targets for sexual behavioural change). These interventions included ‘orgasmic reconditioning’,126 aversive control procedures, and desensitisation (habituation) procedures,127 practiced especially in relation to homosexual behaviours. That is, therapy was based on the idea that changes in sexual behaviour and orientation could be learned because of the inherent ability of the brain to adapt to experience. Not surprisingly, such therapy had mixed results given the overall complexity of the sexual response. Success was much more likely when therapeutic goals were aligned with personal desire for change, based on other subjective drive factors.
All this means that the early circumstances of a person’s sexual experiences may be significant from a conditioning perspective. Animal research suggests that initial sexual experiences play a critical role in shaping sexual responses to particular stimuli. Pfaus, et al. (2014) explain: ‘a critical period exists during an individual’s early sexual experience that creates a “love map” or Gestalt of features, movements, feelings, and interpersonal interactions associated with sexual reward’ (p.147). They argue that there are critical periods in the development of sexual profiles: ‘certain critical ages and during certain critical events (i.e., first experiences of sexual desire, masturbation, sexual release, first partnered activity), the sensory, cognitive, affective, and motoric aspects of sexuality become fundamentally integrated, organised by direct experience of reward and pleasure… these integrated experiences crystallise into stable preferences for certain sexual acts and certain partner characteristics.’128
Consistent with the principles of classical learning theory, the circumstances and cues that relate to early sexual experiences lay a foundation for subsequent patterns of sexual arousal and sexual desire. This means, for example, that the ‘experimental’ sexual experiences of adolescence can play a significant role in shaping later sexual expectations and orientation. In this regard, Bem wrote: ‘I am willing to entertain the possibility that a process akin to imprinting may also contribute to the eroticization of arousal and the temporal stability of sexual orientation across the life course, again with particular force for the gender-nonconforming child who is taunted by same-sex peers.’129 Initial learning in sexual experience and behaviour creates neural imprints that play a critical role in later sexual behaviour.
And so we see that the reward systems in sexual attraction are complex. While sexual desire is largely anticipatory in nature, the pleasure anticipated in genital stimulation and orgasm constitute a powerful but small part of the possible reward structure a relationship might provide. Indeed, by its very nature, the arousal linked to genital stimulation and the pleasure related to orgasm are brief events that are quickly sated, compared to other aspects of the reward structure. It is this former aspect of sexual reward that lends itself to classical and operant conditioning principles, while other principles are relevant to the other aspects of reward. In other words, the rewards in sexual behaviour are layered, with physical pleasure and release (with the neural system as source) being immediate but short-lived, while the relational rewards (with the subjective self as source) being more subtle and longer-lasting. We now turn to the subjective drive themes.
Subjective Drive Profile (SDP) Themes of Pleasure
The subjective drive profile comprises ideas and subjective needs and desires relating to sexual behaviour. These theme descriptions represent an integration of published accounts of sexual motives and drives with those encountered in my clinical work. Some drive themes are pleasure-oriented; others are relationship-oriented, or related to wider social needs. Some drive themes relate to immediate gratification, being more closely aligned to biological events; others take a longer-term point of view. Some are defined by the qualities of the object of desire; others less so. Some motivate sexual behaviour; others inhibit it. Twenty-two drive themes are described in the next four chapters.
These drive themes are not necessarily independent. Just as neural associative processes underlie conditioning, so the associative nature of ideas and the neural networks that carry these ideas means there will be many linkages.130 This creates a situation where a single theme might accommodate ideas that are similar but not identical, but also where different themes may connect conceptually with each other. What these themes have in common is that they contribute to the shaping of sexual behaviour — especially with whom and under what conditions such behaviour might occur.
The first five themes of the subjective drive profile are about pleasure and desire. These do not relate to relationship factors or to social needs as such: being primarily about self-expression and personal happiness, they tend to be self-focused rather than other-centred. And although two people generally provide each other pleasure in a sexual encounter, here the primary motive is their own pleasure, not the other person’s. (To the extent that where the primary motive is to give pleasure to someone else, such a motive is altruistic, and more closely aligned to giving love.) While these drives are not incompatible with the drive to belong, they can find expression outside a relationship. Indeed, some of these drives may find expression without another person being present at all, in such activities as masturbation, and reading or viewing erotic material. Nevertheless, there are other aspects that necessarily reside in another person — whether or not they are present — in which a person might find pleasure, or which that person might desire, such as enjoying beauty or gender traits in someone.
The pleasure themes include: the compulsion of eroticism; the desire for recreation; the drive to curiosity and discovery; the attraction to beauty; and the attraction to gender traits. I have included attraction to gender traits in this chapter on the basis of its erotic and pleasure elements, but to the degree that this drive theme plays a role in relationship dynamics, it might equally be listed under the relationship-need themes of the SDP. I also note that while the experience of pleasure is a result of biological events (involving opioid release, etc.), the desire to pursue pleasure is itself not a biological event (the role of dopamine notwithstanding), and so is included under the SDP. Furthermore, pleasure is not an enduring outcome, although the associations made between behaviour, the circumstances of that behaviour, and pleasure — the conditioned effect — is enduring. And because pleasure tends to be a fleeting experience,
