Deconstructing the sexual experience: a phenomenological study of sexual desire and sexual encounters

• Main Author: Santhanam, Kashsmeraa
• Other Authors: Dimitris Apostolopoulos
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Philosophy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144888
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

What is the nature of sexual desire? What does it mean to have sex? This paper seeks to analyse the experience of sexual desire and the sexual encounter through a phenomenological approach. This approach will enable a clearer comprehension of what happens to the self when it participates in its sexual desire. This approach is also useful for deconstructing the features of a sexual experience. I intend to arrive at an understanding of sex as an embodied experiencing and as a space through which we can negotiate understandings of the self. I will also provide a counter-view by highlighting the influence of socio-cultural elements on conceptualizations of sex and sexual desire. It is my hope that such a phenomenological analysis of sex, will elicit a more accurate understanding of the sexual experience, an understanding which may prove useful when addressing sexual issues or constructing models of sex.