You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Because of recent statistical, neuro-anatomical, and physiological discoveries, Marmor questions the psychoanalytic concept of female genital erogenicity. There is doubt that the erogenicity normally becomes transferred from the clitoris to the vagina. Clitoral sensitivity is a continuing factor in adult female sexuality, and the so-called clitoral and vaginal orgasms differ not in origin or
location of the orgastic response, but in the intensity of it and the degree to which cortical facilitation of the spinal reaction takes place. 'There is no such thing as a "vaginal" orgasm in the female, any more than we might speak of "scrotal", "anal", or "prostatic" orgasm in the male. It seems logical to assume that the actual spinal mechanism of orgasm is identical in all females, but that variations which take place in the nature of female orgasm are due to the degree to which cortical inhibition or cortical facilitation accompanies the spinal reflex. Where cortical inhibition is great, due to long-standing sexual repression or to a high degree of anxiety, hostility, ambivalence, or guilt in relationship to the sexual partner or the sexual act, the spinal mechanism may be completely inhibited, in which event we observe a total incapacity for orgasm, or so-called frigidity. Where the cortical inhibitions are not of such a high order, we observe a capacity to have orgasm only with prolonged stimulation of the clitoris. This is what is ordinarily described as a "clitoral" orgasm. However, where cortical inhibitions do not exist, where there is a freedom from psychological tension or anxiety in the sexual act, and instead there is a high degree of tender affection, love, and psychological excitement, then cortical facilitation takes place. The result is an intense orgastic response in which the intromission of the phallus into the vagina is of major importance. This is both psychodynamically and physiologically the optimum type of response and represents what is o