Author's Response

I thank the discussants for their valuable and stimulating remarks.

Dr. Szalita's criticism of my use of the word “always” in relation to clinical phenomena instead of “often” is well taken, and I am grateful for her encouraging comment that my work needs further

elaboration. The scope of the paper, however, is limited to women with neurotic problems who suffer from sexual malfunction, and in it I was not concerned with women who do not have such problems. Even so, pathology is regression, and a symptom is a manifestation of a regressive trait. Therefore, all human manifestations are universal, depending upon at what age and to what extent they occur. A trait that never occurs in a human life is not a human trait.

Dr. Szalita infers that castration fears play an important role in the feeling of lack of safety in men as well as in women. I do not for a moment minimize the utmost importance of castration fears; however, this paper limits emphasis to early developmental factors which contribute to women's sexual malfunction. Despite the abundance of literature on castration fears, there is no explanation of why women still have so much difficulty. Cultural factors have been blamed—particularly Victorian attitudes and proscriptions. No doubt they play a role, but only a partial one. Permissive backgrounds do not necessarily do away with the problems. I see in my practice young women from permissive backgrounds: they were given “sexual information” at home and school and had experienced social pressure from their peer group for sexual experimentation. Despite this, they were neither ready for sex nor able to attain adequate gratification. I see young wives in love with their husbands, eager to fulfill their marriage, whose disappointment in lack of sexual fulfillment turns into apathy and into establishing some pattern of sexual avoidance in order to preserve self-esteem in each other's eyes. It seems to me that what we know about sexual difficulties in women is simply