Liz R_
, the subject of this case history, as the first half of her narrative suggests and the balance of which confirms, is a young woman going in a number of directions at the same time. Although she can in no way be considered as the typical American housewife (she is now married to Mark R-), she does manifest some of the typical problems that the "modern liberated women"- or the modern women thinking of "liberation"-find themselves facing or saddled with.
To begin with, Liz R- has been married prior to her involvement with, and subsequent marriage to, Mark That first marriage had I failed. There are no specific indications as to the reasons for that failure. The marriage was childless. This suggests the possibility that the subject's oral compulsion-i.e., preference for cunnilingus and fellatio as opposed to regular coitus-has been with her for quite some time. Her outright refusal to delve into her childhood, adolescence, and postadolescence suggests that there was some early traumatic experience which precipitated her obsession with oral lovemaking. However, this preference for oral gratification is not the subject's only potential problem (the qualifying term potential is used here because Liz R-'s oral drive has not yet totally suppressed her desires for other forms of lovemaking).
There is apparent, particularly in the first portion of her narrative, an overbearing inferiority complex which the subject strains to cover up by the utilization of what might be termed as a sexually aggressive vocabulary. This utilization is, in fact, so pronounced that one is almost incited to pursue the possibility that, on top of everything else, Liz R- is suffering from coprolalio, i.e., a mental condition in which a person obtains some sort of erotic gratification or stimulation through the use of sexually extremely frank-or "obscene"-language. The chances are, however, that this is nothing more than an attempt on the part of the subject to either appear "sophisticated" in the eyes of the analyst or to create a diversion from the problems which she is trying to conceal or suppress. In short, her rather stevedorish language is a defense mechanism.
Yet, this very defense mechanism reveals-especially in her subsequent narrative, in which she brings up Joanna and Joanna's attraction to her-still another problem in the making, the problem of homosexuality or lesbianism. And the conflict in the making here should be quite obvious. In spite of the subject's superficial attempt to appear undisturbed by her attraction toward Joanna-her justification that as long as there is no "emotional involvement" with the other woman, as long as it's purely sexual, there will be no problem-she is, in fact, frightened by the idea of being a lesbian. It is up to the analyst to point out to her that she is basically bisexual, which, in itself, was recognized to be a nonpathological condition even by Wilhelm Stekel almost half a century ago. In his work titled Bi-sexual Love, he wrote:
There are no monosexual persons! The heterosexual period stretches far into puberty. All persons are bisexual. But persons repress either the homosexual or the heterosexual components on account of certain motives or because they are compelled by particular circumstances and consequently act as if they were monosexual…
And added:
Nature has created us bisexual beings and requires us to act as bisexual beings. The purely heterosexual is always a neurotic in a certain sense, that is, the repression of the homosexual components already creates a predisposition to neurosis, or is in itself a neurotic trait shared by every normal person…
The subject's basic problem, however, is not lesbianism, the fear of which she tries to magnify probably, again, to divert her psychoanalyst from his search for truth, nor is it her coprolalic manifestation or oral compulsion. It is rather a complex combination of these within what might be considered to be a framework of hypersexuality that is made the more acute by the jealousy that Liz R- experiences when she suspects Mark, her husband, to be sexually involved with one of his clients.
Her reaction to this discovery is, in fact, neither acute nor unusual. Charles Samson Fйrй, in his The Sexual Urge: How it Grows or Wanes, pointed out the potential of jealousy in the following manner:
Jealousy… may manifest itself in both sexes as an anomaly of the instinct relating to sexual pursuit or attraction. Jealousy is a moral pain that may be legitimately caused by a wounded feeling, e.g., of love or anwur-propre-an attempt to touch a sacred possession; but it often appears without provocation, through a habit of suspicion, which is to some extent constitutional. "We are jealous, not because any motive exists, but because of a fault which lies within our nature.".. It is a true psychosis… It is connected with nervous debility. It brings women more often than men into lunatic asylums; it is often, in fact, a form of insanity…
It is, in fact, jealousy on the part of the subject that prompts her and her husband Mark to join the primarily orally oriented sex, group. This "solution" to the problem might very well appear to be somewhat ludicrous to any monogamous-minded person; yet, to a great many of the modern, sexually "liberated" members of society, for whom sexual activity does not necessarily presuppose love, or emotional involvement, participation in group sex and mate swapping is considered to be "honest," whereas any surreptitious sexual activity is considered to be if not "dishonest," then at least "not Kosher."
There can be no question that Liz R- is neither secure nor is apt to find what she' is looking for in the arrangement into which she has been drawn with Mark. The insecurity that she feels is manifested not only through the instance of her suspecting Mark of infidelity-and it is not clear from her narrative whether Mark had had, in fact, consummated an affair with his blonde "client" or not-but through her somewhat forced sexual frankness of narrative. It is possible that she envisages herself as a disciple of the recently highly touted Women's Liberation Movement; it is not improbable that her coarseness is an attempt to appear "liberated." If such is the case, then the juvenility of such an attitude must be branded as being nothing more or less than pathetic. It is analogous to a pubescent child's mistaken notion that lighting a cigarette is a sign of adulthood.
Toward the close of her narrative, Liz R- tries quite hard to convince herself, or perhaps the analyst, that her and her husband's venture into the group-sex circuit has been the salvation of their marriage. Undoubtedly, their sexual extroversion has afforded them a lease on their marriage, it has eliminated the boredom that had apparently entered their married life, and it has provided the subject with an outlet for her hypersexuality. It is extremely doubtful, however, that either the subject or her husband will be able to find any lasting solution to what amounts to incompatibility in their marital relations.
"Mark and I were married about eight months later. We shared several interests, our political views were close enough to avoid hate-and I don't care what the marriage experts say, you can't be a dove and be in love with a hawk!- and we were highly compatible sexually. To anticipate your question, yes, I still like to get fucked, but only as an added bonus. There's something about getting sucked off, while you've got a rock-hard cock in your mouth, that just can not be topped.
"At first, we were blissfully happy together. Mark and I had intercourse-or more accurately, sucked each other off-at least once every night, and for the first several months, he was able to sneak home around lunchtime for a fast fuck. I was very busy making the adjustments of any new wife, plus the fact that we'd bought a condominium in a high-rise, so there were the usual problems of trying to blend his furniture with mine, of selling duplicate appliances (like who needs two refrigerators?), and in short, setting up house. Because Mark was so busy with his practice, he gave me carte blanche with our home; I could decorate it any way I wanted to, have furniture reupholatered, get the walls papered, anything that the budget would permit. Remarrying, of course, meant forfeiting my alimony, but Mark had a very comfortable income so I was not unduly hamstrung financially. There's so much to keep you busy at first. Mark was a man of many small routines. His socks had to be in the top left-hand drawer; if they weren't, it upset him. Handkerchiefs had to be folded in rectangular quarters, not squares. Dinner at six was to be served at six… on the dot. And of course, as newlyweds with a new home, our curious friends had to be invited over for dinner so they could snoop. I tried to mix them usually, with one couple from his former life, and one couple from mine. That way, everybody had a better time, there were new faces, and nobody felt left out.