ABSTRACT
In biology, sexuality (sexualite) refers to the nature of what is sexuated. The word took on the current meaning of "sex life" at the end of the nineteenth century. But it was in the first quarter of the twentieth century, with the diffusion of psychoanalytic theories in the human sciences and hence in general culture, that the concept of sexuality acquired its present range, designating a series of excitations and activities, and found as united or isolated components in the erotic behavior, conscious or unconscious, said to be normal, of adult human beings. Erotism is human sexuality freed of any project of reproduction, any compulsory genitality. It enables enjoyment to be independent of any biological function and makes it autonomous in such a way that all pleasure in eating, drinking, or working will arouse the suspicion of a hidden erotism.
