ABSTRACT
In Dante's world lust is the last of the seven sins, the mildest and most forgivable. Lust and chastity are closest to Heaven because they are linked to love, the love in which one forgets oneself. Lust is about desire for immediate, indiscriminate sexual satisfaction. Chastity, on the other hand, fosters deliberate choice, suspense of satisfaction, and commitment. Here lust is purged of its unconscious imperative. There is a difference between losing oneself to sex and losing the self to love. In the ®rst there is a risk of disintegration, whereas the latter offers a chance of wholeness. Human love and relationship, love with lust and lust with love, are keys to transformation.
