Drugs and sexual behavior∗

Abstract

My presentation to you today is in the form of a clinical report and some speculations. I am sorry that we haven't been able to carry out as yet the systematic researchers suggested by these speculations. Although the peculiar position we've been in for the past three or four years has not provided the opportunity to engage in systematic research, it has allowed some freedom to explore what might be called far-out methods. And since there is nobody we can any longer embarrass but ourselves, I can tell you about some of these methods today. The chemicals with which this paper is concerned have variously been referred to as psychotomimetic, hallucinogenic, or psychedelic, depending on which camp you're in. We call them psychedelic, which means mind-manifesting. The group includes LSD and the other lysergic acid derivatives, as well as mescaline and a variety of triptamine derivatives-all of which seem to have a similiar action on the synapses in the central nervous system. I should like to discuss some of the relationships that we have noted between the use of these chemicals and sexual behavior. We shall consider two aspects of this relationship, one concerning the effect of the psychedelics on marked sexual pathology and the other their effect on the normal sexual experience. A word about the theoretical underpinnings of this work. We consider the sexual pathology with which we have been dealing primarily psychogenic in nature although the effects may be the result of intermediate endocrine action as well. Furthermore we have leaned towards a Freudian model of the early development of sexual identity. We still do not actually know the manner in which chemicals affect the nervous system. While these chemicals may affect the blood-brain barrier, such an alternative does not seem as likely as the possibility that LSD and the other psychedelics affect the seratonin at the synapses between neurons, most notably in the perceptual, cognitive, and