Catharsis and Desperation

Sexual contact is a human need.

The expression of emotion is a human need.

Sexual need is both physical and psychological.

The need to express emotion can take physical form.

Some sexual need is driven by deeper psychological factors, like the need to bolster self-esteem: the person who "sleeps around, " regardless of propriety or circumstance.

Needing to -- regardless of propriety or circumstance -- express one's feeling to others can be driven by the need to bolster self esteem, too: the person who simply has to say what he or she feels.

In both, there is catharsis of a kind (which is the valid reason for either engaging or expressing): having sex wipes away desire, for a while, at least. "Getting things off of one's chest" can make one feel better, for awhile.

But both approaches can be, depending on the individual, nothing more than a desperate attempt to prove one's worth to one's self (often at the expense of others).

In excess, both actions can erase future interpersonal paths.

To Hades With the Science of Sex!

Oh, you do it too, so don't act so demure. Tell me, if you are flipping through the channels and you see a show with "sex" in the title, you don't stop at least to see what it is. I dare you. I double-dog dare you.

Well, I stop. Sue me. The problem is, I only usually wind up watching for a minute or two. Usually, these shows are about the science of sexuality. (If they were not, I suppose they wouldn't be allowed.)  I couldn't be less interested in anything in the world.

So, here's what I see, last night, when The Discovery Channel pops on: Two professors in lab coats are watching a monitor, standing in the room three feet from a couple (in strategically-opened hospital gowns) who are...occupied in the act. The couple are engaging in conversation with these professors, as they...go. The camera is carefully handled to avoid showing the naughty bits. (Naughty bits that are apparently okay to show on an ultrasound machine, in full motion. [Backward ethics?])