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Fifteen years ago, both authors wrote the first psychoanalytic monograph on frigidity, based on Freudian principles and clinical experiences at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Clinic. Frigidity in Women has been translated into several languages, (3) widely quoted, had, however, little effect in changing current misconceptions. The tenacity of these misconceptions justified renewed consideration. Difficulties inherent in the problem account for the bizarre fact that frigidity remains—as far as the popular and scientific opinion goes—a bundle of complexities and perplexities.
Our experience justifies our conviction that the originally presented definitions remain valid:
Under frigidity we understand the incapacity of woman to have a vaginal orgasm. It is of no matter whether the woman is aroused during coitus or remains cold, whether the excitement is weak or strong, whether it breaks off at the beginning or the end, slowly or suddenly, whether it is dissipated in preliminary acts, or has been lacking from the beginning. The sole criterion of frigidity is absence of the vaginal orgasm.
This conception leads to a series of erroneous assumptions and misunderstandings in the literature. Here are the most important ones.
A woman is pronounced sexually healthy by psychiatrists and gynecologists if showing any sexual interest at all and pleasure in preparatory acts.
Proponents of this theory frequently go one step further and deny even the mere existence of vaginal orgasm. They claim that the clitoris is the only executive sex organ as far as pleasure is concerned. G. L. Kelly, professor of anatomy at the University of Georgia, states: (5)
Regardless of what means of excitation is used to bring the individual to the state of sexual climax, the sensation is perceived by the genital