The Umbilicus as Sexual Focus

Dear Sir:

I tremendously enjoyed reading André Green’s recent paper ‘Has sexuality anything to do with psychoanalysis?’ in Volume 76, 1996, 871-883. This paper has led to several lively discussions with colleagues and certainly increased my own awareness of the importance of discussing sexual issues during psychotherapy. I would like to share with your readers a most interesting finding that emerged shortly after the publication of this paper.

The patient, Mr A, a 27-year-old man treated for ‘mood swings’, frequently described jealousy of his wife during weekly therapy sessions. During one session he described particularly intense jealousy when told by a friend that his wife had engaged in an activity called a ‘body shot’ at a local pub. Mr A described a ‘body shot’ as a currently popular activity in which whisky is poured into the umbilicus of one partner, in this case his wife, after which the other partner slowly ‘licks it out’ with their tongue. He noted much greater feelings of jealousy when thinking about this act than when thinking about actual sexual intercourse involving his wife and another man. ‘No man has the right’ to engage in this ‘sin’ with my wife he once said.

A literature search revealed no previous reports of the ‘body shot’. Surprisingly, only five brief reports on the umbilicus were found in the psychiatric literature (Waltzer, 1974; Heilbrunn, 1975; Friedman, 1976; Rosner, 1978; Yazmajian, 1983). Each article appeared in psychoanalytic journals, and reported on sexual interest or fear directed at this portion of the anatomy. The umbilicus may, in fact, be a rather common focus of sexual interest as illustrated by the apparent popularity of the ‘body shot’, but has been largely ignored in the psychiatric literature.

In conclusion, Dr Green’s paper has heightened my appreciation of the importance of exploring sexuality in therapy. However, when sexual issues did emerge in therapy, I was surprised at the paucity of recent literature available to guid