ABSTRACT
It is symptomatic of our culture that sexuality is mostly thought of in terms of behaviour, as opposed to meaning and experience. “Sex” to most people immediately suggests physical activity, with little or no thought of the feelings or thoughts that might be involved. The universal preoccupation with sex and sexuality must reflect something about the essential part it plays in social and emotional well-being. With human beings the all-pervasiveness of sexuality is clearly completely out of proportion to the necessities of the survival of the species. The chapter looks at the thoughts and ideas that most commonly characterise sexuality in cultural expression through music, literature, art, and sculpture, it is clear that they centre round the idea of a creative connection. In evolutionary terms, the function of sexuality is that of propagating the species. Sadomasochism and perversion find a fertile breeding ground in the context of infantile sexuality, where there is no understanding of anything beyond pleasure and indulgence.
