Male’s Health in the Objective of Stressology – Beyond the Usual

Psychoanalysis practically did not pay due attention to the phenomenon of pain as the cause of vibration and sensation of displeasure. And as claimed by K. E. Izard (1999), the pain is the underlying motivation, which causes a great variety of negative emotions. It cannot be disagreed. Both tactile skin and nonspecific pain receptors are spread throughout the body and are sites of entry through which reality penetrates and stimulates the development of the inner mental world. Nonspecific theory of the origin of pain impulses, or the intensity theory was developed by various authors, including A. Goldscheider (1894). According to this theory, sensation of pain is caused by intense stimulation of different nonspecific sensory receptors (temperature, pressure, visceral, and others) and conduct of pain impulses to certain brain formations. Based on this theory, we can talk about the infancy period of nonspecific pain prevalence. Modern pain theories already relate to a specific phase of the pain as a consequence of psychodynamics. The data of both foreign and domestic scientists (Dionesov S. M., 1963; Reynolds, 1969; Terenius, Schneider, Perth, 1973; Kryzhanovsky G. N., 1973–1993; Kassil G. N. 1975; Kalyuzhny L. V., 1984; Filin V. I., Tolstoy, A.D., 1996, Reshetnyak V. K., Kukushkin M. L., 2001, and others) single out specific pain receptors, specific afferent pathways and specific brain structures forming pain sensation and body responses to it. According to this theory, the pain arises due to the prevalence of activity of nociceptive (algogenic) system over activity constantly functioning in a healthy body of antinociceptive (antialgogenic) system.

A. D. Zurabashvili considered pain as a protective response, which represented the ancient form of experiences and which served to a human as a trouble signal. Pain is associated with fear. Fear is unpleasant in itself. A baby when alone starts crying, and if nobody comes up to it, the crying turns into screaming. The baby gets rid of the tension and takes pleasure only through the sense of the kinetics of someone else or through making movements itself. Therefore, the kinetic modality of irritations is determinative equally with the tactile and pain sensitivities.

Considering the pleasure principle as the main driving force, Freud at the same time admitted that on the whole it would be wrong to say that that principle rules over all the mental processes. The case is that “in the soul there exists a strong tendency to the domination of the pleasure principle, which is, however, opposed to various other forces or conditions, and thus, the final outcome will not always comply with the principle of pleasure”. He admitted that considering the existence of the external world with its all possible limitations, the pleasure principle from the very beginning should be acknowledged useless and sometimes even dangerous to human life. On three sides the psyche is threatened by various distressors: on the part of the body – pain, diseases, traumas; on the part of the society – interpersonal conflicts; on the part of “I” – intrapersonal conflicts and complexes. Therefore, according to Freud, the principle of pleasure under the influence of life circumstances transforms into the reality principle. The task of getting rid of suffering and exclusion of pain forces out the pleasure principle. It must be emphasized that the redistribution of the roles of “pleasure” and “reality” in the structure of the mental world is carried out under the influence of the psychosocial factors associated with human maturation. An adult male is able to consciously control the display of the desire for pleasure, or also consciously move away from the world, for example, to a monastery. In both cases it is a conscious departure from the reality of existence of secret desires that modern man forces out into the unconscious, and curbs them there with the help of mental barrier erected between consciousness and the unconscious. But there is also an unconscious escape from the outside world problems in the form of mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia; among semiconscious, can be mentioned deviant behaviors, drugs and alcohol.

Freud did not restrict himself to the consideration of the two principles of mental activity – the pleasure principle and the reality principle. He tried to look beyond the pleasure principle, in order to understand what forces are at work in the depths of the human psyche. Such an attempt has led to the fact that the founder of psychoanalysis recognized striving for the preservation of peace as the dominant tendency of mental life, and even of the entire nervous activity, that is, put forward the third principle – the principle of the constancy (peace, nirvana). Considering that the striving for preservation of peace, the cessation of internal irritant tension finds its expression in the pleasure principle, he has come to the conclusion that this is one of the strongest motives for confidence “in the existence of attraction to death”.

Probably, the presence of the “peace principle” predetermines the presence of its alternative – the principle of vibration (oscillation) as the basic principle of the brain life activity proved by the data of EEG. Cessation of the brain wave activity on the electroencephalograph monitor is the basis to certify person’s death in reanimation. It may make sense to speak about two primary principles, existence of two dominant tendencies of mental life: striving for vibration (“oscillations”) as a neurophysiological principle of the brain activity, deadaptation, according to Selye and striving for preservation of peace – the nirvana principle, which was acknowledged by the founder of psychoanalysis S. Freud. The interaction of these two opposite principles is carried out through the pleasure principle.

If adhere to the psychodynamic approach, the mental world of a male develops through the brain constant need to sensor stimulation recorded by EEG in the form of wave activity. Any constancy and duration of the situation, which is passionately desirable from the point of view of the principle of pleasure and the principle of peace, causes only a feeling of indifferent content.

The psyche is set up so that it is able to enjoy only in the presence of contrast, which can be attributed to the novelty principle. Freud and his followers tried to unify the active principle of the psyche by discovering the pleasure principle and eliminating all discrepancies through discovery of unconscious. But at the later stages, Freud introduced the concept of the reality principle, then of nirvana, later on – intrusive memories, thus proving that the psyche is virtually not subjected to unification, because different laws operate in the biological and mental worlds.

Probably, it is necessary to recognize the existence of the following principles underlying the formation of the structure of the mental world: the principle of vibration, the principle of novelty, the principle of peace – nirvana, the principle of pleasure, the principle of obsessive repetition; and the irritations of the three modalities – tactile, painful and kinetic.

Reflecting on the structure of the mental apparatus, Freud insisted that it consisted of the conscious, preconscious and unconscious phases of the mental process. Preconscious-Consciousness are sensitive to any qualitative difference in impressions from the outside world; from the inside they perceive only the growth and weakening of tension, which on the scale of pleasure – displeasure are expressed by a whole range of mental qualities. Freud realized the difficulty that he faced in the search for a simple answer to this question. At first, he marked equality sign between pleasure and weakening of tension, between dissatisfaction and its increase, but soon this relationship ceased to be simple and clear for him: “… pay attention to the fact that this hypothesis suffers uncertainty, because we were unable to determine the essence of the relationships between pleasure and displeasure through a change in the strength of mental excitations. One thing is clear: these relationships can be quite different and certainly in any case may not be easy”, he wrote. As for the mechanism operating here, we find in Freud several approaches to this problem. In the work “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (Jenseits des Lustprinzips, 1920) Freud called to distinguish displeasure and the feeling of tension (distress by H. Selye) because pleasant tensions also exist (eustress by H. Selye).

Psychologists and humanists traditionally blame Freud for seeing the cause of all disorders in human sexuality and considering the principle of pleasure overriding. If this thesis is partly believable for the early Freud (before he actually talked about the primacy of the pleasure principle), then in 1920, Freud described a more fundamental principle that worked regardless of the principle of pleasure – the principle of obsessive repetition, which gave the mechanism for symbolizing the loss and work of mourning. In all cases, peace is restored by the objective physical activity. According to recent data, the latter implies an objective movement – a movement that meets certain vital need rigidly defined by this need, unfolding in the outside world. In order to be successful it should correspond by its structure to the characteristics of the external world. Such characteristic as the objectivity of movement is very important because the relationship of the subject with the outside world is carried out through the behavioral act and through this relation it becomes possible to form all human mental functions as they provide man’s adaptation to the outside world. Thus, we can say that along with such a characteristic of the movement as its temporal development, there is one more important feature – space-time or subject-time characteristic of the motor act. Motor acts are means of restoring homeostasis, means of obtaining pleasure and stress relief. Subjected to the evolution, kinetics in itself has become a source of pleasure in modern man (fitness classes, running, body building, climbing, all kinds of extreme sports). Gustav Fechner – German physicist, psychologist, one of the first experimental psychologists, founder of psychophysiology and psychophysics substantiated “the pleasure principle of action”. Unlike conventional hedonistic doctrines, he was not referring to the pleasure as the goal of human action, but as the conditionality of our current actions by pleasure or displeasure of committed actions.

SEXUALITY. LIBIDO

As Otto Kernberg wrote, it takes many years for a person to reach the phase of mature sexual love. Experiencing it occupies one of the leading places on the Olympus of human presence on the earth. All the more, to come to an understanding of the mental world of male, a researcher needs to live a long life without losing interest to constantly observe and study the question he is interested in.

Brief etymology of the main concepts: sex, sexuality, libido

One of the symbols of the 20

century was a concept of stress, and the symbolism of the 21

century includes the concept of sex. And it is likely not a coincidence. A stress-saturated human life of the 20

century resulted in a sex-saturated human life of the 21

century. Sex became the most available (irrespective of place, situation, time and money) way to discharge stress and derive pleasure. No wonder there appeared “sex with friends”, “sex – a pleasant pastime”, “sex – mutually agreed”, “safe sex”.

In the last century Berdyaev wrote: “Only our era allowed the exposure of sex life. And the man was laid out on the sections. This is Freud and psychoanalysis, this is the modern novel. This is the shamelessness of the modern era but also a great enrichment of knowledge about human”. Freud, so that to less shock the Puritan society of his time, used to tell that the accurate scientific study did not imply moral categories or an appeal to the idea of human integrity, because scientific study always led to a partial (model) representation of the object. The purpose of science is not to frighten or to console.

Today one can smile remembering the flow of profanity showered on television, and the Internet is the fount of readable, audible and visible “shamelessness”. Strong language is bravado of emancipation from morality and virtue. But this is at one terminal, at the other one – are the past centuries, in communion between man and woman. And between them is the largest cluster of people, who preserve a reasonable balance of word usage and action.

Sex. Translated from the French (“sexe”) and English (“sex”) it means no more than – “gender”. This word appeared in Latin (“sexus”), indicating human activity in order to obtain a set of mental and physiological reactions, feelings and actions related to the manifestation and satisfaction of a sexual desire or a desire to continue the race. The word “Sex” (Lat. “sexus” – “gender, male or female) comes from the word “seccare”, which means to “cut, split”, because according to the ancient myth, the gods divided the first people on the two halves, which must seek each other around the world. Oddly enough, but the word “sex” in the sense of “sexual intercourse” came into wide usage only recently. Sexual intercourse predetermines female sex organ (vagina) and that of male (penis) (“pistil and stamen”). Sex is an act, action aimed at discharge, deriving pleasure via sex and need to continue the race.

For the first time the term “sex” in the meaning of “coitus” (“sexual intercourse”) was recorded in 1929. Modern dictionaries decipher the word “sex” as “all that relates to the sphere of sexual relations”. Synonyms for sex are intimacy, sex, bed, sexuality, intercourse. In the British comedy series “The Black Adder 3” principal character Edmund once said to writer Samuel Johnson that people would peep into his famous dictionary of intimate lexicon solely in search for obscene words. True or not, but the interest in such words certainly exists, and there is no getting around it. Sexual intercourse is carried out through genitals – vagina and penis.

Vagina (Lat. “vagina” – “sheath”). The old meaning of the Russian word vagina is “sheath”.

Penis (Lat. “pendere” – “hang”). The origin of this word, denoting a male penis is not as straightforward as it might seem at a first glance. The fact that this part of the body is hanging is clear, but ancient Romans often used this word to call the tail of the animals, so it was an allegory. The Greeks were more straightforward – to indicate male sexual organ they used the unequivocal word “peos”, although there was also the word “phallus” (“the phallus”) in their language, which denoted intense penis. It is doubtful whether one in the army barracks could be satisfied with the “tail”. Many men, especially soldiers, willingly identified their dignity with the word “gladius” (Lat. – “sword»), especially against the background of the origin of the word vagina.

Sexuality. The language problem faced by Freud is that the word “die Sexualität” is ambiguous in its content and indicates both the quality of an object and function of the body itself. This duality is well perceived in the Russian language when comparing such expressions as “sexual girl” and “sexual dysfunction” (sounds a bit different in English – “sexy girl” and “sexual dysfunction”). Sexuality as the quality is demonstration of personal orientation on own capabilities and the desire to have sex (the phenomenon of “Macho”) by means of facial expression, pantomime (gestures), clothing, behavior, figure, anecdotes, humor. It is an inherent desire to manifest your inner libido, transforming it into an external manifestation of behavior. This is purely a personal orientation, which is made up of own fantasies, fashion requirements, imposed standards. In the modern world, the functions of sexuality and reproduction rarely coincide completely.

The function of sexuality is treated as a set of biological, psycho-physiological, mental, and emotional reactions, feelings and human actions related to the manifestation and satisfaction of sexual desire (G. B. Deriagin). Sexuality is an inherent need and function of the human body like the processes of respiration, digestion. Man is born with a certain physiological sexual potential, then sexuality is formed within the scope of individual life experience. On the whole human sexuality is determined by the integrated interaction of biological, mental and socio-cultural factors.

Libido (Lat. “libido” – “lust”) is a sexual desire. In more general terms, libido is manifestation of life, which includes strivings, desires, attractions, mental drive, usually associated with sexual instinct. It is the energy, but the special one, which can be transformed assuming any kind of human activity, which is not directly related to the sexual instinct. Freud borrowed the term “libido” from A. Moll (1898), who defined two components in it, which are the manifestation of the true sexuality: the desire to touch, inducing to the physical (hugging, kissing) and spiritual communication with an individual of the opposite sex, and the desire to relax encouraging to achieve changes in the genitals, associated with vasomotor and muscular processes, following ejaculation in men and orgasm in both sexes. In fact, originally there was a sign of equality between the libido and sexuality. Rooted understanding of sexuality and libido, as analogs of a function of genital organs was and remains dominant in the minds of both researchers and people, resulting in a constant substitution of one concept by the other. Freud himself did not escape this, and therefore became a target of criticism for his pansexuality, at a time when it was not about the sexual instinct but about the principle of pleasure. E. Fromm, in his monograph “Greatness and limitations of Freud’s theory”, wrote: “Freud did not come to the concept of “social character”, because on such a narrow basis as sex, such a concept could not develop”. However, in everyday life the term “libido” has preserved its original meaning, given by Freud – sexual passion and in the consciousness of modern man it has only one definition: sexuality.

Libido, sexuality, sex – is a chain of linguistic concepts reflecting links of a single biological function, the genetic program of which is realization of the reproductive instinct with the purpose of procreation, pleasure and stress relief.

Sexual arousal and its satisfaction occupy a completely special central place among other affective states in the psychological experience of human, especially of male. It is impossible to study and understand sexuality at some particular stage of research in isolation from the context, the psychological world of the individual, social and cultural world of the society and the evolution. Due to the dominating in the medieval Europe attitude towards manifestations of sexuality as a grave sin, the development of sexology for a long time turned out impossible. At that time the human body was considered as a source of “dirty” lusts and desires, and sexuality, love – as a sin between man and woman.

Among all pioneers and founders of the scientific study of sexuality, the most well-known figure is, of course, Sigmund Freud. It was Freud who first drew public’s attention to the role of sexual and sexuality on the whole in the personal life of man, his development, peculiarities and inclinations, his life together with other people. He, considering sexuality as a basis of human existence understood it otherwise than representatives of the science of that time, the community of the past and present. He has changed the concept of “sexual”, having separated first of all sexuality from too close association with the genitals, regarding it as a more general bodily function having the aim of pleasure and only indirectly serving the purpose of reproduction. He clearly distinguished between the concepts of “sexual” and “sex”. The first concept is much broader and includes many manifestations having nothing to do with the genitals. According to Freud, the sexual life (not sex) does not begin with the onset of puberty but shortly after birth and includes a function of obtaining pleasure from the various areas of the body; the function, which was subsequently used by the body for the purpose of reproduction.

In the course of his further research and therapeutic activities, Freud specified his initial ideas about the prevailing principle of regulating mental activity and correlated it with the “principle of pleasure/displeasure”, which was considered by him as the “economic principle” of functioning of the psyche. In the article “The formulation of the two principles of mental activity” (1911) he wrote: “Apparently, there is a general tendency of our mental apparatus, which can be attributed to the economic principle of conservation: it is revealed in the stubborn clinging to its available sources of pleasure and difficulties in denial of the latter”.

In the opinion of Freud and his followers, the manifestation of sexuality in a child is the pleasure of the excitement experienced by the infant from the mother’s caresses, from the pleasant sensations of the contact with those who care about it. It is this diffuse “excitement” of the skin that Freud and his followers viewed as children’s sexuality. Henceforth its erogenic zones, later cognitively imprinted sexual notions and, finally, the development of unconscious fantasies were described. All these components of sexuality are connected by the intense affect of pleasure and enjoyment activated since infancy, as psychoanalysts considered, and reaching its culmination in the form of cognitive-affective experience. If we move away from the theory of “unconscious sexuality”, discovered by Freud, another viewpoint is possible, namely: caresses as a soothing excitement, most likely, relieve anxiety, alarm. If we estimate this governing principle in newborns by neurophysiological mechanisms, it is more likely that the feeling of “pleasure-displeasure” is an analog of the reaction of deadaptation – adaptation in the form of unconscious primary GAS phase – alarm phase. As we remember, GAS has a discrete character in the form of automatic activation of neuronic sympatho/parasympathetic axis. These fluctuations of the psyche resemble ocean tides on the earth. The world is universal and man has absorbed the laws of the Universe. Replacement of an unpleasant feeling by a pleasant one is carried out by motor acts – kinetics, the set of which is limited. The same movements are used to achieve different goals, and this shows the economic principle of functioning. Already in the early stages of development there is a polymodality of functions. For example: sucking reflex – a life reflex fulfills several functions: satisfaction of hunger (a mechanism for satisfying the food instinct), soothing (“saving pacifier”), obtaining pleasure and the way of the world primary cognition. The kid makes use of the mouth pulling into it everything at first indiscriminately, gradually – only a new toy. This reflects one of the laws of psychophysiology – the law of economy, when one and the same function has several purposes, the number of which increases as the child gets older and as the system of psychosocial adaptation develops together with the development of the social “instincts”.

Canadian neurologist W. Penfield drew a funny man – a homunculus with a huge tongue and lips, big thumbs and toes and small hands, legs and body. This was the first map of “functions and semiotics of lesions”.

In the end, a surrealistic portrait emerged, where the human body was stretched across the surface of the brain.

W. Penfield. “Sensitive homunculus”.

Homunculus is a symbolic representation of motor and sensory zones in the cerebral cortex.

Homunculus has abnormally big hands, fingers, genitals, lips and tongue (and the head as a whole), since these parts are used constantly, from day to day. There is a match between the frequency of functioning and the size of the region in the sensory cortex, responsible for this activity. The more benefits – the greater the area in the sensory cortex.

Homunculus. Somatosensory cortex.

We do love kissing because “the mouth has a large representation in the cortex” and through kisses, touching lips, the subjective world of man, his psychosocial mechanisms of psychological protection and social models of behavior are created in many respects.

Children show a natural interest in their bodies including the genitals, notice anatomical differences between men and women and often play with their genitals. But before they tackle their genitals, which they have to reach, babies first suck their hands, then start playing with legs, trying to shove them into the mouth, drag diapers, suck them, and only when you start to teach them to the pot they detect their genitals, playing with them – reveal “pleasantness”. The latter is usually regarded by adults as masturbation, though it is not. Finding relationship between genitals and “pleasantness” many children are involved in “sexual games”, usually with their friends, brothers or sisters. “Sexual games” include nudity and study of sexual organs of each other. Most likely Freud and his followers were in power of stereotypes of interpreting the behavior of an adult and were led on their string. Baby’s movements were regarded similar to the sexual body movements of an adult (masturbation) and identified them as a manifestation of infantile sexuality. Another misconception is to interpret the seen through the prism of personal experience. The baby’s genitals have not yet been formed, the sexual instinct has not yet been woken up – and the child is already “having sex” masturbating. Freud solved this inconsistency and riddle attributing “sexuality” of this period to the unconscious. So unconscious was discovered, which in the initial stages subjugated the entire human psyche, because it seemed to open the universal core of human personality – the unconscious field in which the sexual instinct “calls the tune”.

In the early school years the interest in “sexual games” slightly reduces despite the fact that children may have romantic feelings for peers. A new wave of increasing sexual interest is observed in the transitional age.

Recent advances in neuroscience confirmed Penfield’s metaphor on the predominant representation in the cortex of “mouth” and “motions” zones in the infant. These two zones stimulate the brain oscillatory activity as a necessary condition of its functioning and development. The kinetic zone and an arsenal of movements with all their seeming diversity are limited and in fact the same motor acts, functions are used to achieve very different effects. As a classical example can serve modern dances, during which the dancers reproduce a set of “sexual movements – dance-masturbation”. The man introduces himself into a trance, which generates sexual fantasies and experiences. Moreover, spectators also experience sexual arousal due to the presence of mirror neurons and the principle of intrusive memories. John Bancroft writes (1989) that sexual arousal in humans is a comprehensive response, consisting of such elements as sexual fantasies, memories and desires, as well as a growing conscious search for external stimuli, specific for the individual’s sexual orientation and sexual object. Bancroft believes that sexual arousal includes activation of the limbic system, which is the nerve substrate of sexual behavior from the point of view of physiology (MacLean, 1976).

In the culture of the 20th century “the principle of Ego” in relation to the social functioning of the human-male and human-female has gained strength and root; it is still in progress in the form of three global revolutions – sexual, gender and family (I. Kon, 2004, 2009, 2010; N. Amosov, 1978). The peak of the first of these revolutions – sexual, in the developed Western countries fell on 1960–1970-ies. Sexuality in the modern world has undergone significant changes due to the growing role of psychological and socio-cultural factors. Such a motif of sexual activity, as reproduction, receded into the background giving way to the need for sexual satisfaction, relaxation and communication. The reason is considered to be women’s emancipation.

However the behavioral shifts are associated with a deep process of separating sexuality from reproduction, which began long ago and gradually. Only recently the public consciousness of the West has recognized that sexuality itself is not aimed at procreation, needs no justification, it is valuable in itself. The sexual revolution of the 20

century in addition to the liberalization of mores and change in the forms of social control over sexuality involves the gradual assertion of the principle of gender equality. “Friends with benefits”, the film of the American cinematography of 2011, gave the researchers of sexuality a remarkable term of sexuality in the modern western world. Although the film is not about this, it is a comedy; but “sex with friends”, not committing to anything, not a result of the game of passions and love is more and more frequently used in the modern western world – had fun, discharged and ran away.