1424 



HORMONAL REGULATION OF BEHAVIOR 



tablishment of generally acceptable indices 

 for the measurement of these components. 

 Benedek and Rubinstein ( 1942) sought to 

 circumvent these difficulties in the study of 

 cyclic sexual behavior in the human female. 

 They argued that: "Sexual desire, urge, 

 and tenderness alternate with affective be- 

 havior of other sorts or may find substitu- 

 tion in activities and fantasies which are 

 far different from overt sexual behavior, al- 

 though all may be consequences of sexual 

 stimulation." They made the assumption 

 that the sexual rhythm of woman can be 

 detected only "by psychoanalytic interpre- 

 tation of the various preconscious and un- 

 conscious representations of the sexual 

 drive" and therefore regarded the analysis of 

 dreams, fantasies, and free-associative ma- 

 terial as the primary data to be correlated 

 with the cyclic physiologic changes. In brief, 

 their study of 15 neurotic women by this 

 approach revealed: (1) the estrogenic phase 

 of the cycle corresponds to active hetero- 

 sexual tendencies, the object of which is the 

 sexual partner and coitus, fusing with (2) 

 a passive receptive tendency correlated with 

 progesterone activity, (3) a sudden decrease 

 of active libido following ovulation which is 

 assumed to correlate with the increase in 

 progesterone levels, with interest for the 

 sexual partner diminishing and with "emo- 

 tional preparation for the function of moth- 

 erhood" becoming the object of the sexual 

 drive, and (4) disappearance of the emo- 

 tional concentration on motherhood if preg- 

 nancy did not occur (decreased production 

 of progesterone). Benedek and Rubinstein 

 allowed that basic capacities for love, moth- 

 erliness, constructive activity or their lack 

 are present before the maturation of sexual 

 functioning and that they do not cease to 

 exist after the decline of hormone regula- 

 tion. They acknowledged further that the 

 processes which they described are "like 

 faint ripples on a large body of water as 

 compared with the constitutional basis of 

 personality." For those who were able to 

 accept the basic premises of this approach, 

 Benedek and Rubinstein's work can be con- 

 sidered to verify the biologic assumptions 

 implicit in Freud's concept of sexual drive. 

 On the other hand the many other work- 

 ers (e.g., Davis, 1926; Hamilton, 1929; 

 Dickinson and Bean, 1931) who have given 



more consideration to the statements of 

 women regarding their conscious awareness 

 of erotic desire and readiness for sexual ac- 

 tivity as well as the reports of these women 

 regarding overt sexual activity, do not agree 

 with the findings of Benedek and Rubinstein. 

 Although women show great individual di- 

 versity, their testimony in general is that 

 erotic feeling and desire increase immedi- 

 ately before and again immediately after 

 menstruation. Aware of the possible pitfalls 

 in questionnaire type of data-gathering, 

 where failures and inaccuracies in both 

 memory and reporting may seriously impair 

 the validity of the conclusions, McCance, 

 Luff and Widdowson (1937) analyzed the 

 daily entries in the special diary-type rec- 

 ords of 780 complete menstrual cycles kept 

 for them by 167 women. They found that 

 nearly half of the subjects reported some 

 degree of variation in sexual feeling during 

 a menstrual cycle. The main peak of height- 

 ened eroticism occurred about the 8th day 

 following the onset of menstrual flow (aver- 

 age duration of flow, 4.5 days) with a sec- 

 ond smaller peak just preceding the onset 

 of the next menstrual flow. These authors 

 also systematically surveyed other men- 

 strual molimina, recording the periodicity of 

 each subjective phenomenon. 



Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin and Gebhard 

 (1953) seeking a still more objective meas- 

 ure of female erotic arousal and responsive- 

 ness than that provided by a woman's sub- 

 jective self-appraisal, collected data 

 concerning variations in the quantity of 

 mucous vaginal secretions (both Bartholin's 

 and cervical glands) during the menstrual 

 cycle. Their data indicated that "there is 

 considerable variation in the quantity of 

 the vaginal secretions among different fe- 

 males. There may also be variation in the 

 quantity of secretion at different times in 

 the same individual." Further, their data 

 indicated that "the time of maximal mucous 

 secretion and the time of maximal erotic 

 responsiveness are almost always the same." 

 About 59 per cent of their sample of women 

 with coital experience recognized a monthly 

 fluctuation in their vaginal secretions dur- 

 ing erotic arousal. In general, these women 

 reported increases to occur premenstrually, 

 and, somewhat less generally, postmen- 

 struallv. The data are in accord with the 



