In the previous essay we started to develop the premises of CPT [1]Trunk thesis – a distinction between sexuality and sexual identity and also how they are intertwined with spontaneity/creativity in development. In short, these concepts are distinct but complementary and are intertwined with feminine and masculine drives together with their role in sexual identity development. This essay, then, will be dedicated to sexual identity development.
Sexual identity[2] starts to develop in puberty alongside the second cenesthetical phase, i.e, with the emergence of sexual hormones and sexual energy, around 9 years old until 13, 14 years old give it or take. In the previous essays we described the emotional intensity of this phase and its relevance for identity’s development. At the beginning, the world of children still belongs to the infantile world. Sexual energy comes together with unknown sensations and excitements that bring along with them unexplained fears and anxieties, which can be explained by bewilderment in the face of new sensations. The body feels the urge for seclusion, i.e, “re-investing” psychic energy that was fully spent outside-in socialization- towards internal world once again. Handling all these news sensations is the greatest challenge at this moment. Intimate contact with pleasure coming from touching erogenous zones was perhaps familiar to the child. However, from now on, masturbation starts to fulfill another role, of sexual energy discharge and this will be its main discharging channel, since pre-adolescents don’t know how to discharge it with another body yet. If they are already familiar with intimate contact with their bodies, even without having sexual energy, they know how it feels, i.e, the pleasure coming from touching their erogenous zones. And it helps the initiation in sexuality, which begins with the exploitation of their own bodies. Dias calls it self-sexual stage. It is also a period when they start to need privacy- condition for developing and cultivating intimacy. Building privacy demands a lot of effort from pubers. As a matter of fact, they are starting to abandon references that worked as their most basic roots so far. Together with Dias, we will refer to it as the individuals’ psychological ground. Pre-adolescents avoid sharing their intimate things with their families because they feel exposed and are afraid that their (new) feelings and sensations will be morally condemned or will imply prohibitions that their “boiling bodies” can’t condescend to.
To be continued in the next Post
[1] CPT stands for cenesthetical program theory. Cenesthetical phase corresponds to pre verbal phase an is the core theory from Dias methodology- Psychodramatic Analysis-, my main referential theory. [2] From now on I’ll refer to Sexual Identity as S.I.
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