Existential Sexuality: Choosing to Love

by Peter Koestenbaum

questions and answers about the author's theories of sexuality and love

Genres: Sexuality

179 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear-headed phenomenological view of sexuality as primarily a choice rather than a drive, this treatise deals with the spiritual aspects of love-relationships without ever resorting to spiritual language. It concretely defines the nearly inexpressible subjective experience of true love, and it shines particularly when discussing the ways sexual expression (in all its varieties) and sexual acts can employ and embody symbol, metaphor and fantasy to deepen the recognition of one independent entity by another. While it affirms the distinction between sex as a choice between or among equals and sex as an expression of love, it has the most to say about the latter, and it provides many intriguing ways to think about subject/object relationships, total surrender, artful resistance as an expression of sexual beauty and the ultimate meaning of physical limits. A basic philosophical guide that can become anything but basic in its applications.