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Treatment of Impotency and Anorgasmia by Psychotherapy Aided by Hypnosis

1974; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00029157.1974.10403704

2160-0562

Leo Alexander,

Psychological Treatments and Assessments

Abstract Neocortical thought processes, such as concern with performance in the male, or concern with pleasing the partner in the female, extinguish sexual responsivity, because neocortical thought processes inhibit paleocortical and hypothalamic activity on which sexual responsiveness depends. The psychotherapy of the resulting impotency in the male and anorgasmia in the female is effective when it succeeds in isolating and freeing the pleasurable feelings of sexual activity, by inhibiting the neocortical concerns and interfering goal-directed thought processes. In this respect the hypnotic treatment of impotency and anorgasmia uses the opposite means from the hypnotic treatment and control of pain, but for the same psychophysiologic reason: Activation of neocortical thought processes, fantasy and imagery, visual or auditory, is capable of extinguishing pain, because it inhibits the subcorticalthalamic pain receptors in the same way as neocortical thought processes inhibit paleocortical-hypothalamic sexual perceptions and responses.