ABSTRACT
Since the publication of Systemic Sex Therapy in 2009, there has been an explosion of research on lack of, defi cient, or absent desire in women. Our review of the research uncovered dozens of articles and chapters written about women and the lack of desire, but only a handful about men. We also found that two topics seemed to dominate the investigation landscape in sex therapy. These were articles about the defi nition of the lack of desire and models of desire containing a medical focus on hormonal or pharmacological treatment of lack of desire. Before we begin our discussion of low desire, we would like to challenge the notion that sexual desire is the prime motivation for having sex. Meston and Buss (2007) surveyed over 1,500 undergraduate students using a list of 237 reasons for having sex. Twenty of the top twenty-fi ve reasons for having sex were identical for men and women. Most of the reasons had little to do with sexual desire, which may include both the lack of interest in sexual activity as well as the lack of interest or arousal in erotic cues and extermal simuli (Basson, 2014). A factor analysis revealed four main factors and 13 subfactors. These included: (1) physical reasons such as stress reduction, pleasure, physical attractiveness, and seeking a new experience; (2) attaining goals, for example, increasing social status, revenge, utilitarian goals, and obtaining resources; (3) emotional reasons such as love, commitment, and expression of emotion; and (4) insecurity factors such as boosting self-esteem, duty or pressure from partner, mate guarding. A few gender differences were noted in the paper and unfortunately the sample was young and mostly unmarried. A study of individuals of a wide age range might have produced markedly different results.
