4 ms·

>infected subjects are more often aroused by their own fear, danger, and sexual submission although they practice more conventional sexual activities than Toxop

>infected subjects are more often aroused by their own fear, danger, and sexual submission although they practice more conventional sexual activities than Toxoplasma-free subjects It is not making people "kinky" or adventurous. It is making them more reserved than the non-infected. Maybe because sexual desire caused by a brain infection feels uncomfortable and troubling? We can only speculate.

throwanem 10y ago
Why would it feel different from sexual desire originating in any other cause?
- casebycase 10y ago
  Why wouldn't it? A shallow compulsion might be good enough for mice, but troubling for humans who are used to experiencing more depth. It could be something more like OCD. There are people with "homosexual OCD" who aren't gay but who are obsessed with and troubled by the idea that they might be: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/homosexual-ocd-straight-men-fear-gay/story?id=22589452 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/homosexual-ocd-straight-men-fea...
  - throwanem 10y ago
    But that doesn't seem to be a parallel case, because, per the article, they generally do not actually experience the desire in question.
    - pessimizer 10y ago
      I don't know if that's a concrete enough distinction. The experience of desire is a very abstract theory-theory concept. What they report is distress that they may be experiencing the desire in question, which they are usually observed not acting on, but express fear that they might.
      - throwanem 10y ago
        It sounds like a pretty concrete distinction. It's made clear multiple times that these aren't guys who want to sleep with guys; they're just hung up on second-guessing whether or not they want to sleep with guys, even though they know they don't want to sleep with guys. Hence "obsession", likewise "compulsion". Speaking as a guy who does sleep with guys, and who has had considerable familiarity with other guys who do sleep with guys, I'm really having a hard time seeing a meaningful commonality here in terms of desire. I can't speculate on the question of psychological theory, and I haven't had an opportunity to discuss the matter with someone who suffers the condition described in the article, but I do know a little bit about what it's like to be uncomfortable with wanting to sleep with guys, and what we're talking about here really doesn't sound like that at all.

throwanem 10y ago

Why would it feel different from sexual desire originating in any other cause?

casebycase 10y ago
Why wouldn't it? A shallow compulsion might be good enough for mice, but troubling for humans who are used to experiencing more depth. It could be something more like OCD. There are people with "homosexual OCD" who aren't gay but who are obsessed with and troubled by the idea that they might be: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/homosexual-ocd-straight-men-fear-gay/story?id=22589452 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/homosexual-ocd-straight-men-fea...
- throwanem 10y ago
  But that doesn't seem to be a parallel case, because, per the article, they generally do not actually experience the desire in question.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    I don't know if that's a concrete enough distinction. The experience of desire is a very abstract theory-theory concept. What they report is distress that they may be experiencing the desire in question, which they are usually observed not acting on, but express fear that they might.
    - throwanem 10y ago
      It sounds like a pretty concrete distinction. It's made clear multiple times that these aren't guys who want to sleep with guys; they're just hung up on second-guessing whether or not they want to sleep with guys, even though they know they don't want to sleep with guys. Hence "obsession", likewise "compulsion". Speaking as a guy who does sleep with guys, and who has had considerable familiarity with other guys who do sleep with guys, I'm really having a hard time seeing a meaningful commonality here in terms of desire. I can't speculate on the question of psychological theory, and I haven't had an opportunity to discuss the matter with someone who suffers the condition described in the article, but I do know a little bit about what it's like to be uncomfortable with wanting to sleep with guys, and what we're talking about here really doesn't sound like that at all.