The Function of the Orgasms

Following on from his work on what he calls the scientification of love, this book, with its subtitle 'the highways to transcendence' will radically revise your understanding of orgasms. Note the plural, for a start: here he focuses on the fetus ejection reflex, male and female orgasms in genital sexuality, and the milk ejection reflex, drawing various parallels along the way. Interestingly, the word climax in Greek originally meant a ladder; but there are other etymological associations too, with shame and guilt and fear. Pubic hair in German is Schamhaare. These associations go deep, as Michel's historical analysis of the political repression of sexuality shows.

A key theme running through the book is a central role of oxytocin in all orgasmic and ecstatic states. This is released in normal childbirth, but not in Caesareans, during sexual arousal and during breastfeeding; so the decline in natural births and breastfeeding also implies a decline in bonding between mothers and children, with all which that implies. The link between transcendence and ecstatic states involves intense activity of the archaic primitive brain, while the neocortex is put to rest; and the term peak experience carries its own connotations. After an interesting chapter on parallels between humans, dolphins and bonobos, Michel discusses orgasmophobia and its relation to shame, already mentioned above. Here the thesis touches on that of Riane Eisler's Sacred Pleasure. He finishes with pessimistic and optimistic scenarios about the future of love, putting forward suggestions for reversing current cultural conditioning, based on his long first-hand experience. It is no exaggeration when he argues that the future of civilisation is at stake.