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Freud states that the 'behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his reactions to life'. To this it should be added that the sexual act is the quintessence of the expression of all libidinal drives. Relatively little has been published on the psychoanalysis of coitus, correlating the different stages of coitus with the dynamic forces involved. Reich (7) and Bergler (4), (5) have written extensively on the psychology of orgasm and given useful criteria for the evaluation of its normality.
During sexual intercourse all levels of psychological development, from infancy to adulthood, are reëxperienced in a highly charged, intensified, and sharply focused form. This psychological recapitulation must be tolerated without conflict if the sexual act is to be fully enjoyed. Sexual foreplay utilizes various infantile erogenous zones such as the mouth and the nipples. Ejaculation is achieved, in part, by contractions of the urethra which also serves as a passage for urine, the latter having instinctual pregenital representation in infantile urethral erotism. The innervation and muscular control of the bowels and bladder are closely related to the sphincteric control of the genitals. Oral, anal, urethral, and genital libidinal drives are all stimulated and satisfied in the sexual act. In addition, the Oedipus is represented and must be integrated if the sexual act is to be fully enjoyed. Thus, the act of intercourse summarizes the total dynamic growth of the individual and his integration at various levels of development which are all relived in each sexual act.
Intercourse may be interpreted as having two components: passivity and activity, which must be in equilibrium and work in harmony. Activity is defined as that phase during which pleasure in perceived through one's own mobility, and