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The lovemap is a concept originated by sexologist John Money in his discussions of how people develop their sexual preferences. Money defined it as "a developmental representation or template in the mind and in the brain depicting the idealized lover and the idealized program of sexual and erotic activity projected in imagery or actually engaged in with that lover." [1]
John Money first wrote the word lovemap in 1980 for an article later published under the title "Pairbonding and Limerence". Prior to that, Money discussed lovemaps in a precursory form with his students in lectures, employing the term as a replacement for the expression, "an idealized and highly idiosyncratic image." [2] In a 1997 article in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses , Money revisited the concept of 'love map' and expanded it to three categories, haptoerotic (cutaneous), morphoerotic (visual) and gnomoerotic (narrative). [3]
Since its inception, the concept of "love maps", applied to interpersonal relationships, has found some acceptance and is frequently referenced in books about love and sexuality.[ citation needed ] Glenn Wilson and Chris McLaughlin discussed it in their 2001 book The Science of Love. [4]
Money describes the formation of an individual's lovemap as similar to the acquisition of a native language, in that it becomes established at an early age [5] and bears the mark of the person's unique individuality, like an accent in a spoken language. [6] According to Money, lovemaps are not present at birth, but begin to develop shortly thereafter, and manifest in full after puberty. [7] The individual may not discover certain aspects of their lovemap until triggered by a relevant experience (such as pornography use) later in life. [8]
Psychologist Gregory Lehne states that lovemaps may be influenced by genetic or prenatal factors, but that their specific content must come from the senses. [9] Lehne says that some perceptions are encoded in the person's lovemap after becoming sexualized for uncertain reasons, possibly because of their associations with provoked or random autonomic arousal, sexual arousal, or hormonal fluctuations. [9] These associations typically form during experiences before the age of eight, Money proposes. [10] [6] As an example, Lehne argues that a child who accidentally becomes sexually aroused during spanking may go on to develop an interest in erotic spanking. [10] Once formed, the lovemap is extremely difficult to alter. [6]
A lovemap is usually quite specific as to details of the physiognomy, build, race, color, temperament, and manner of the ideal lover. [6] Money suggests that love is like an inkblot test, where pair-bonding occurs if projections (shaped by a person's lovemap) on the other are mutual, typically in a courtship phase of mating. [11]
Money analyzed a large range of sexual predilections and behaviors using his model of the "lovemap". In his book on the subject, some of the most notable concepts include: [12]
Paraphilia is the experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than conventional sexual intercourse with a consenting human partner.
Transvestic fetishism is a psychiatric diagnosis applied to men who are thought to have an excessive sexual or erotic interest in cross-dressing; this interest is often expressed in autoerotic behavior. It differs from cross-dressing for entertainment or other purposes that do not involve sexual arousal. Under the name transvestic disorder, it is categorized as a paraphilia in the DSM-5.
John William Money was a New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his research on human sexual behavior and gender.
A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is a mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual fantasy can be created by the person's imagination or memory, and may be triggered autonomously or by external stimulation such as erotic literature or pornography, a physical object, or sexual attraction to another person. Anything that may give rise to a sexual arousal may also produce a sexual fantasy, and sexual arousal may in turn give rise to fantasies.
The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe varying forms of sexual preference and/or sexual fixation limited to individuals of particular age ranges. Some such fixations, specifically those towards prepubescents and those towards the elderly, constitute types of paraphilia. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism". Importantly, chronophilia are technically not determined by age itself, but by human sexual maturity stages, such as body type, secondary sexual characteristics and other visible features, particularly as measured by the stages of the Tanner scale.
Biastophilia and its Latin-derived synonym raptophilia, also paraphilic rape, is a paraphilia in which sexual arousal is dependent on, or is responsive to, the act of assaulting an unconsenting person, especially a stranger. Some dictionaries consider the terms synonymous, while others distinguish raptophilia as the paraphilia in which sexual arousal is responsive to actually raping the victim.
Erotic asphyxiation is the intentional restriction of oxygen to the brain for the purposes of sexual arousal. The term autoerotic asphyxiation is used when the act is done by a person to themselves. Colloquially, a person engaging in the activity is sometimes called a gasper. Erotic asphyxiation can lead to accidental death due to asphyxia.
Somnophilia is a paraphilia in which an individual becomes sexually aroused by someone who is unconscious. The Dictionary of Psychology categorized somnophilia within the classification of predatory paraphilias.
Acrotomophilia (from the Greek ἀκρότομος "having the top cut off" is a paraphilia in which an individual expresses strong sexual interest in amputees. It is a counterpart to apotemnophilia, the desire to be an amputee.
Paraphilic infantilism, also known as autonepiophilia and adult baby, is a sexual fetish that involves role-playing a regression to an infant-like state. Paraphilic infantilism is a form of ageplay. People who practice paraphilic infantilism are often colloquially referred to as "adult babies", or "ABs".
Attraction to disability is a sexualised interest in the appearance, sensation and experience of disability. It may extend from normal human sexuality into a type of sexual fetishism. Sexologically, the pathological end of the attraction tends to be classified as a paraphilia. Other researchers have approached it as a form of identity disorder. The most common interests are towards amputations, prosthesis, and crutches.
Human sexuality covers a broad range of topics, including the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, philosophical, ethical, moral, theological, legal and spiritual or religious aspects of sex and human sexual behavior.
Olfactophilia or osmolagnia is a paraphilia for, or sexual arousal by, smells and odors emanating from the body, especially the sexual areas. Sigmund Freud used the term osphresiolagnia in reference to pleasure caused by odors.
Courtship disorder is a theoretical construct in sexology developed by Kurt Freund in which a certain set of paraphilias are seen as specific instances of anomalous courtship instincts in humans. The specific paraphilias are biastophilia, exhibitionism, frotteurism, telephone scatologia, and voyeurism. According to the courtship disorder hypothesis, there is a species-typical courtship process in humans consisting of four phases, and anomalies in different phases result in one of these paraphilic sexual interests. According to the theory, instead of being independent paraphilias, these sexual interests are individual symptoms of a single underlying disorder.
Małgorzata Anna Łamacz is an American researcher specializing in sexuality and behavioural genetics. As Margaret Lamacz, she is the co-author of the 1989 book Vandalized Lovemaps with John Money. She also participated in extensive research of schizophrenia.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to human sexuality:
Erotic target location error (ETLE) is a hypothesized dimension for paraphilias, defined by having a sexual preference or strong sexual interest in features that are somewhere other than on one's sexual partners. When one's sexual arousal is based on imagining oneself in another physical form (such as an animal, an infant, or an amputee) the erotic target is said to be one's self, or erotic target identity inversion (ETII).
Sexual sadism disorder is the condition of experiencing sexual arousal in response to the extreme pain, suffering or humiliation of others. Several other terms have been used to describe the condition, and the condition may overlap with other conditions that involve inflicting pain. It is distinct from situations in which consenting individuals use mild or simulated pain or humiliation for sexual excitement. The words sadism and sadist are derived from the French writer and libertine Marquis de Sade, who wrote several novels depicting sexualized torture and violence.
Sexual masochism disorder (SMD) is the condition of experiencing recurring and intense sexual arousal in response to enduring moderate or extreme pain, suffering, or humiliation. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) of the American Psychiatric Association indicates that a person may have a masochistic sexual interest but that the diagnosis of sexual masochism disorder would only apply to individuals who also report psychosocial difficulties because of it.