Kinsey Revisited

Of all the novel notions advanced by the late Dr. Alfred Kinsey, few were more startling than his contention that sexual frigidity is no longer any great problem for U.S. women. In his best-selling Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, based on interviews with 5.940 women, Kinsey came up with figures indicating that 66% of all U.S. married women experienced orgasm in sexual relations with their husbands at least half the time. Fortnight ago, at a meeting of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, Kinsey's happy conclusion came under heavy fire.

Clinical studies, reported Dr. Maurice E. Linden, director of the City of Philadelphia's Mental Health Division, indicate that a majority of U.S. women rarely reach orgasm with their husbands--and that most of those who have done so occasionally are unable to gain consistent satisfaction from the conjugal sex act. Says Psychiatrist Linden: "Sexual frigidity is still one of the most common and baffling female problems."

A Better Man. Many cases of frigidity, noted Linden, are strikingly similar. The woman, typically, has children, and is driven by the conflicts created by modern America's emancipation of women to compete with her husband for dominance of the household. No match for his aggressive wife, the husband abdicates his familial responsibility, retires to the conflict-free comforts of the beer can, the television set and the evening newspaper. The common result: a "role exchange," from which the wife emerges a better man than her husband.

The effect of such a role exchange on the couple's sexual compatibility, says Dr. Linden, is disastrous: "Although sexual relations with the husband may have been reasonably satisfactory early in the marriage, they deteriorate into a mere 'chore' or 'duty' for the wife . . . Stripped of his aggressiveness, the husband becomes a passive partner; he loses interest in making the sex act satisfying for his wife. He wants her to seduce him.'' Sexstarved, the frigid woman often gravitates into extramarital affairs, from which she gains intense sexual enjoyment. "There is nothing organically wrong with the frigid wife,'' explains Linden. "She is quite able to enjoy satisfying sexual relations--but not with her husband. However, her basic conflict assures that sooner or later the lover will share her husband's fate, become for her a prosaically inadequate man."

Back to Femininity. Frigidity often escapes diagnosis. Linden believes, either because the woman refuses to admit it-one of the factors that probably misled Kinsey--or because her physician shies away from "delicate" questions on the subject of sex. When the frigid woman does appear in a doctor's office, it is to complain of "vague physical or psychological ailments": headaches, fitful sleep, nervousness or nonspecific feelings of inadequacy. "The commonly prescribed treatment," says Dr. Linden, "consists of some tranquilizer or relaxant, supportive and complimentary reassurance, and periodic visits. The condition being treated usually does not change."

Fact is. no drug will cure frigidity, and no surgical operation will repair an unhappy marriage--although neurosis-knotted frigid women occasionally have persuaded doctors to perform pointless hysterectomies. Frigidity, says Dr. Linden, is not an illness in itself; it is simply a serious symptom of deep-rooted psychosexual conflict. Linden's stark conclusion: "The situation may be resolved if the woman patient can be restored to a truly feminine position. This would be the task of psychoanalysis. But even the most intense therapy may not be wholly successful, and many women must resign themselves to a less-than-satisfying marriage, for social reasons."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.