Introduction
Brahmacharya or celibacy, according to Swami Sivananda Saraswati, is “self-restraint, particularly mastery of perfect control over the sexual organ or freedom from lust in thought, word and deed.” He calls for a conversion of sexual desire to spiritual energy, also known as ojas, through meditation, yoga and prayer. He also uses Freud’s term ‘sublimation’ and claims it “is not a matter of suppression or repression, but a positive, dynamic, conversion process. It is the process of controlling the sex energy, conserving it, then diverting it into higher channels, and finally, converting it into spiritual energy or ojas sakti.” Ojas, according to Swami Saraswati, is “spiritual energy that is stored up in the brain.” The ultimate spiritual ideal is to be free of sexual desire and Swami Saraswati claims that only total sublimation can make this happen. He argues that if an individual is able to attain perfect sublimation, “there will be purity in thought, word and deed. No sexual thought will enter the mind at any time.”
Sigmund Freud, who introduced the concept of sublimation in modern psychology, defined it as “a process that concerns object-libido and consists in the instinct directing itself towards an aim other than, and remote from, that of sexual satisfaction; in this process the accent falls upon deflection from sexuality.” Freud argues that sublimation originates in suppression, which he describes as the “progenitor of the period of sexual latency” and then leads to redirection. Individuals pursue another activity as a substitute to confronting their sexual desires.
Roger Balducelli, from The Catholic University of America, argues “it is not the man who chooses his own celibacy; it is rather celibacy tha...
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"Like his two older brothers, Mark Vincent Serrano became an altar boy at St. Joseph's Church in Mendham, New Jersey. Invited to visit the parish priest in the rectory, he became--from the time he was 9 to the time he was 16-- a victim of serial molestation: groping, sodomy, oral sex, and forced masturbation," (Press).
Love can sometimes be seen as a counterintuitive and unconventional sense of life. The irony in it all is love could either be as warm as the Sunday morning sun or as cold as a New England winter when touched by the heart or the skin. As we grow up, if we believe we are cherished by the most respectful and admirable person, we give up the most vulnerable parts of ourselves: the body. However, throughout modern society, people tend to use sexual intercourse as a form of personal pleasure and gain without the obligations of emotions. Henceforth, stated in Sharon Olds’ “Sex Without Love”, premarital sex may be against God’s intentions to be pure but at the same time people love the priest more the teachings and are willing to go against the Lord
Most religions of the world address moral issues that arise from people's sexuality within the human interactions. “Sex and religion- two of the most powerful, passionate, and poetic aspects of human existence”( “Manning and Zuckerman pg. 1“). There are many distinct religious beliefs about the complexion of sexuality and the appropriateness of various sexual behaviors. “Some religious (or aspects within them) can be described as comparatively “sex positive”. By “sex positive“, we mean that sensual, erotic activity involving the consensual pursuit and / or actualization of gratifying bodily pleasure is understood as natural and acceptable , even holy. Conversely, some religions (or aspects within them) can be described as “sex negative”, that is, sensual, erotic activity involving the consensual pursuit and / or actualization of gratifying bodily pleasure is understood as unnatural and unacceptable, even sinful” ( “Manning and Zuckerman pg. 2“).
Ever since the defense mechanism of sublimation was coined by Freud in “Three Essays” (1905), the psychological community has been particularly interested further investigating the validity of this concept and reforming new theories around it. Sublimation today is described as a mature defense mechanism at which socially unacceptable impulses are transformed into socially acceptable aims. Freud referred to sublimation as a necessary component for a healthy psychological condition and as the most complete drive density. Being such a critical element of Freudian psychoanalysis, the concept has received a substantial amount of attention by the psychological community. The concept of sublimation is, at its surface, generally convincing and logical.
In the discourse of family relations, views of women, and sex, it is necessary to begin with the standing that Catholicism held on the issues. The nuclear family model was the ideal of the Catholic Church; for this model provided protection, stability, and business connections. Ozment describes the nuclear family as the “total subjection of the wife to home and husband, of the home to the production of children, and of the children to the will of their parents” (Ozment, pg. 2). This view provides that a woman’s only purpose in life was to marry and bear children; if this was not viable she could enter the convent as not to be a finical burden upon her family. The Catholic Church also had strict views on the topic of sex, which was no sex outside of marriage and only in marriage to procreate. This view was held for the Church believed that “an upright person took pleasure only in God and used the things of the world to God’s glory, fallen men and women were enslaved to their lust and passions, no longer masters of their wills, and eager to worship the world in place of its creator” (Ozment, pg....
Freud has multiple known theories all describing the unconsciousness, the human defense mechanism, the clinical conversation between patients and psychoanalyst, and most prominently he discussed about sexual desire. He explained sexual desire as the key motivating energy for humans, and he discussed about its magnitude. On the same topic of sexual desire, Freud also discussed about homosexuality and how it’s acquired (Freud’s View of Homosexuality, 2013). Sigmund Freud discussed the concept of homosexuality as deterministic. According to Feud, human beings are born with unfocused sexual libidinal d...
Sexuality is often looked down upon by mainstream society. Embedded into culture and tradition, sex itself has been made to be seen as a taboo of sorts. Prostitution was made illegal; pornography was made evil. Rooted deep within the teachings of the most common religious morality systems, sex and sexuality is often paired with punishments. Those who explore their sexuality is often shamed, and labeled with words that can ostracize such persons from society. Kant’s view of sexuality almost destroys his credibility as a philosopher by providing unclear and unreasonable points of sexuality and objectification, yet he remains keen on trying to prove that sex, outside of marriage, is the worst possible sin. However, there are those who believe that expressing sexuality is power, and is exercising autonomy. Many existentialists see sexuality as a means of self-expression, and to not be comfortable with sexuality shows that the person inhabits the morality of the sheep.
The proper expression of human sexuality is a abiding question for the world of sexual ethics. There has never been a society that has not reflected upon and prescribed rules and regulations for this powerful and yet mysterious dimension of personhood; and there has seemingly never been a social order in which sexuality has not breached the boundaries established for it. On the surface scripture and much of the Christian response to sexuality appears to be establishing rules and regulations which attempt to limit sexual behavior until the ‘appropriate’ time or stage in ones life. Though this is a narrow understanding of sexual ethics– instead the goal of sexual ethics should be in the importance of how we relate ourselves and desires to others. Specifically, the relation between God : Humanity, and Humanity : Humanity.
Change. A word that frightens our culture. People are afraid of change because they are comfortable with tradition. Most people have been taught that tradition is something that is not revised; moreover, people are apprehensive to change tradition. Lemony Snicket once said, “Just because something is traditional is no reason to do it, of course.” Change in one’s life can relate to anything. With culture and society constantly progressing in many directions, more and more topics are being discussed and questioned. Religion marks a significant role in constant controversy over traditional topics. Certain topics are being debated because people are beginning to think like Lemony Snicket: what is the reason behind these traditions? Celibacy is defined as the state of being unmarried and/or sexually abstinent by choice, especially for religious reasons. It is demonstrated as a vow for men becoming Catholic priests.
For example, Carlisle (1993) understood, “Dissociation, fantasy, and compartmentalization enhance personality and behavioral differences” (p. 25). Moreover, in “Extreme cases of childhood trauma psychological issues can emerge” (p. 26), soliciting memories hidden in the subconscious later resting in the concepts of self and identity. Whereby, the relationship between dissociation, repression, and self could be due to libido suppression. Porter (2013) explained, Jung deduced, individual choices are subjective and suggestive residing at the “Core of the spiritual self” (p. 249). When there is a lack of libido, depression may arise, and the unconscious will attempt to direct the conscious energy in a rational direction. For example, if a person is hungry, sleepy, or desires sex, the libido energy force tries to fulfill those needs through objects. Each object holds distinct values for one’s subjective judgments and tendencies,...
Anxiety played an important role in the psychoanalytic theory, and, as a result, psychoanalytic interpretation is important to understand anxiety disorders. In the psychoanalytic interpretation, anxiety is defined an intense sensation of endangerment and an unconscious mechanism produced by unconscious conflicts. According to Wolman and Stricker (1994), it can be understood as a symptom that is the cause and effect of itself and a product of past experience, psychological mechanisms, and psychic contents like persecutory anxiety or separation anxiety. For Freud, nervous anxiety was produced by sexual frustration and repressed sexual drives, or libido. In his theory, sexual frustration creates a biochemical imbalance that results in anxiety. However, this idea does not have support on the empirical basis because there is not a biochemical process that correlates with Freud’s theory. In addition, on the psychological basis, sexually abstinent people do not always experience extreme anxiety (Wolman...
Kalpana Wilson "Arundhati Roy and Patriarchy - a rejoinder", originally an article appearing in Indian newspaper "Liberation" in January 1998, available at : http://angelfire.com/in/SASG/aroy.html (accessed 22/09/2004)
In Sigmund Freud's observation, humans are mainly ambitious by sexual and aggressive instincts, and search for boundless enjoyment of all needs. However, the continuous pursuit of gratification driven by the identification, or unconscious, directly conflicts with our society as the uncontrolled happiness. Sigmund Freud believed that inherent sexual and aggressive power prevented from being expressed would cause our "society to be miserable and the forfeiture of contentment." Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic view of personality theory is based on the perception that greatly of human behavior is determi...
From a Freudian perspective, human development is based on psychosexual theory (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development (Shaffer et al., 2010). It was Freud’s perspective that there are three components of personality (the id, ego, and superego) that become integrated into his five stage theoretical model. The id was the biological or drive component that is innate from birth. The sole purpose of the Id is satiate an individual’s internal drives (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). The ego is the conscious portion of our personality that mediates between our id and superego. Throughout development the ego reflects the child’s emerging ability to...
The Argument for Celibacy How could someone explain America’s loosening view of sexual intercourse over recent decades? Have our moral standards changed so much that they now accept or even encourage sexuality? Is it just a method of rebellion as people attempt to fight conservative societal views? Perhaps we just wish to fight those who instill inhibitive ideas in us, and our forms of freedom – in this case, that of our bodies.