Reading the Freudian theory of sexual drives from a functional neuroimaging perspective.
Frontiers in human neuroscience January 1, 2014 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00157 via PubMed
Summary
This paper examines how functional neuroimaging studies of sexual arousal relate to Freud's four characteristics of sexual drives: pressure, aim, object, and source. The authors propose a four-component neurophenomenological model (cognitive, motivational, emotional, autonomic/neuroendocrine) and find that neuroimaging evidence largely supports Freudian drive theory. However, a key difference emerges regarding the source of drives: neuroimaging suggests that central processing of visual or genital stimuli, rather than peripheral excitation, determines sexual arousal and pleasure in adults. The paper offers suggestions for refining psychoanalytic theory based on these findings.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Functional neuroimaging indicates that the source of sexual drives in adults is central processing of stimuli rather than peripheral organ excitation, challenging Freud's original conception. |
Abstract
One of the essential tasks of neuropsychoanalysis is to investigate the neural correlates of sexual drives. Here, we consider the four defining characteristics of sexual drives as delineated by Freud: their pressure, aim, object, and source. We systematically examine the relations between these characteristics and the four-component neurophenomenological model that we have proposed based on functional neuroimaging studies, which comprises a cognitive, a motivational, an emotional and an autonomic/neuroendocrine component. Functional neuroimaging studies of sexual arousal (SA) have thrown a new light on the four fundamental characteristics of sexual drives by identifying their potential neural correlates. While these studies are essentially consistent with the Freudian model of drives, the main difference emerging between the functional neuroimaging perspective on sexual drives and the Freudian theory relates to the source of drives. From a functional neuroimaging perspective, sources of sexual drives, conceived by psychoanalysis as processes of excitation occurring in a peripheral organ, do not seem, at least in adult subjects, to be an essential part of the determinants of SA. It is rather the central processing of visual or genital stimuli that gives to these stimuli their sexually arousing and sexually pleasurable character. Finally, based on functional neuroimaging results, some possible improvements to the psychoanalytic theory of sexual drives are suggested.