Hypoactive sexual desire disorder

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) or inhibited sexual desire (ISD) is considered a sexual dysfunction and is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity, as judged by a clinician. For this to be regarded as a disorder, it must cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulties and not be better accounted for by another mental disorder, a drug (legal or illegal), or some other medical condition. A person with ISD will not start, or respond to their partner's desire for, sexual activity. Other terms used to describe the phenomenon include sexual aversion and sexual apathy.

HSDD was listed under the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders of the DSM-IV. In the DSM-5, it was split into male hypoactive sexual desire disorder and female sexual interest/arousal disorder. It was first included in the DSM-III under the name inhibited sexual desire disorder, but the name was changed in the DSM-III-R.

There are various subtypes. HSDD can be general (general lack of sexual desire) or situational (still has sexual desire, but lacks sexual desire for current partner), and it can be acquired (HSDD started after a period of normal sexual functioning) or lifelong (the person has always had no/low sexual desire.)

Sexual desire

Sexual desire is a motivational state and an interest in “sexual objects or activities, or as a wish, need, or drive to seek out sexual objects or to engage in sexual activities”. Synonyms for sexual desire are libido, sexual attraction, and lust. Sexual desire is an aspect of a person's sexuality, which varies significantly from one person to another, and also varies depending on circumstances at a particular time.

Sexual desire may be the “single most common sexual event in the lives of men and women”. Sexual desire is a subjective feeling state that can “be triggered by both internal and external cues, and that may or may not result in overt sexual behavior”. Sexual desire can be aroused through imagination and sexual fantasies, or perceiving an individual who one finds attractive. Sexual desire is also created and amplified through sexual tension, which is caused by sexual desire that has yet to be consummated.

Sexual desire can be spontaneous or responsive. Sexual desire is dynamic, can either be positive or negative, and can vary in intensity depending on the desired object/person. The sexual desire spectrum is described by Stephen B. Levine as: aversion --> disinclination --> indifference --> interest --> need --> passion.

Sexual Desire (book)

Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation (also published as Sexual Desire: A Moral Philosophy of the Erotic) is a 1986 book about the philosophy of sex by Roger Scruton, who argues that sex is morally permissible only if it involves love and intimacy. Sexual Desire, which has received both praise and criticism from reviewers, has been seen as one of the most important works in the philosophy of sex.

Summary

Scruton, influenced by the work of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, attempts to develop a conservative sexual ethic. Citing The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), he summarizes Hegel as arguing that, "The final end of every rational being is the building of the self—of a recognisable personal entity, which flourishes according to its own autonomous nature, in a world which it partly creates." This process involves recognizing the other as an end in himself or herself.