Do We All Need to Have Sex?

Good old Freud claimed that sex is as important to people as food, water or sleep, and believed that sexual instinct is basis of all human activity. Was he right?

There are two types of people in the world: those who have sex and those who don't. The reasons why the second group don't have intercourse are, of course, different. Some people are not allowed to do it, or are waiting to get married. Some have no opportunity to do it, while others are afraid of sex. If you asked good old Freud for his opinion, he would say that the second group - those who practice abstinence - better watch themselves. It was Freud who popularised the belief that man needs sex to be able to function normally in a society. According to him, we can all fall ill without sex, and regular sex life is a precondition for living a healthy and fulfilled life.

Freud's ideas were fiercely opposed by the conservative Victorian society that preached sexual abstinence before marriage and warned that all forms of sexuality are a sin. To Freud, on the other hand, sex was even more important than food, drink and sleep.

The fact that man would die without sex is obviously an exaggeration. A large number of people can manage just fine without sexual relations, which means that they do not go crazy and do not fall ill. Typical examples are priests and nuns as well as disabled people or men who renounce sex due to very specific goals they have in life.

We don't know if they're truly happy, but the Freudian theory still doesn't hold water. Nevertheless, it's true that lack of sex can be a serious problem for some individuals, and a lot of people become increasingly nervous and depressed when they don't have "enough" of it. Sex affects beneficially all of us, particularly if we practice it with somebody we love. Then we can literally recharge our batteries and relax.