ABSTRACT
Sexuality, which in its more mature, genital expressions includes sensuality as the earliest phase of "affection", regards the area of object relations, of desire—an area that is exquisitely drive-oriented and requires a quota of healthy aggressiveness, and is therefore conflictual. Some men of an advanced age, feeling that their sexual ability is at stake, can be even more exposed to the compulsive risk of regressing to phallic defences by entrusting their own identity and self-esteem to their possibility of performing the sexual act. Mature genital organisation—that is, full recognition of oneself and of the other in his or her entirety—is an ideal for men as it is for women. Perhaps for a woman the problem, although equally as crucial, can be less obvious since she can easily dissimulate to herself and to her partner because she does not have to "show" or "demonstrate" anything at the concrete level about her ability to enjoy or give pleasure.
