Research on controlling sexual desire

January 17, 2018 7:27 AM

I'm interested in any works on the topic of controlling sexual desire, especially through chemical (pills) or physical (castration) means rather than social or educational . They can be grounded in research or speculative - even science fiction dealing with interesting reworkings of human sexuality and how they might play out are welcome. I'm curious to learn about the intersection of sex and power again in the broadest terms from any source you found interesting. I'm also curious about any case studies on people who lost their ability to feel sexual pleasure or orgasm (for example brain trauma). Related information on non human animals also welcome.
posted by laptolain to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Best answer: The immediate thing that leaped to my mind--since you say science fiction is welcome--is the young-adult science fiction novel The Giver, by Lois Lowry. In an attempt to create a perfect society, emotion is pretty much bred out of the population (as is, somehow, the ability to see color), and sexuality goes right along with it. All children are given pills to take at the sign of "the first Stirrings," or sexual feelings, and presumably they take them all through adulthood. Marriage/family units are all arranged, and since birth is left to a select few women and infants are raised in a birth center until they are placed with a suitable family, it can be pretty well assumed that marriage is sexless.

You ask about the intersection of sex and power--well, nobody seems to wield a whole lot of power, because the strict controls on the environment are so strong that everyone just falls into their social roles without deviation. There's clearly a council of "elders" or somesuch who do the assigning, but they aren't focused upon greatly. It seems that the society has been in place long enough for no one to miss sexuality (and if they did, they'd have been "released," or killed, which is the case for those who don't fit in). Since the perfect society is very clearly intended to be read as dystopian, I assume the reader should look at the controlled sexuality with the same dawning horror as at the remainder of the sterile imposed lifestyle.
posted by dlugoczaj at 9:00 AM on January 17, 2018

Best answer: Medicines used to treat prostate cancer by shutting off the body's manufacture of testosterone pretty much wipe out libido (and cause impotence) . This also causes many other changes in the body. Google "lupron". I believe there is a "Lupron victims" organization from which you can get a hint of the bad things that can happen.
posted by SemiSalt at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2018

Best answer: There's an entire episode of TAL devoted to the influence of testosterone and it's fascinating.
posted by HotToddy at 10:46 AM on January 17, 2018 [5 favorites]

Vonnegut's short story "Welcome to the Monkey House" features an Earth with 17 billion people; the government enforces use of an "ethical birth-control pill" (a potent anaphrodisiac, taken 3x/day) and encourages "ethical suicide" at state-run Suicide Parlors. (tw: abduction, rape).
posted by Iris Gambol at 11:30 AM on January 17, 2018

Brave New World has sexual and reproductive controls as one of its central themes.
posted by buxtonbluecat at 12:00 PM on January 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

In case it hasn't occurred to you, the apparently repetitive phenomena in human history where eunuch servants and slaves of a royal household evolve into an organization of court officials or other politically-powerful group would seem to be a good potential lead.
posted by XMLicious at 12:23 PM on January 17, 2018

I'm interested in any works on the topic of controlling sexual desire, especially through chemical (pills)

this and this

there are lots of other equally not-great studies on the topic that say various different things. comparing them with women's personal reports is an interesting exercise if you are not easily depressed.

or physical (castration

this
posted by queenofbithynia at 3:10 PM on January 17, 2018

Does Saltpeter Reduce Sex Drive?
posted by theora55 at 6:18 AM on January 18, 2018

Arguably, the Vulcans in Star Trek, who maintain a form of emotional discipline such that they only have to have sex every seven years. (Although, when they reach pon farr, they really have to have it.) They can make love at other times, and may choose to, but it's implied that many if not most don't.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:19 AM on January 18, 2018