How Sexual Desire Works

Frederick Toates is Emeritus Professor of Biological Psychology at The Open University and Vice-President of the Open University Psychology Society.

'In this fine book Toates gives a lively tour of the psychology behind 'how sexual desire works'. As a pioneer in motivation theory himself, Toates is an ideal guide into how incentive motivation processes work to produce sexual desires. Beyond psychology, he leads the reader on forays into neuroscience, and includes many excellent quotations as case samples, all to help put the psychology of human sexual desire into better perspective. This is a highly readable and illuminating book.' Kent Berridge, University of Michigan

• 1. What is enigmatic about sexual desire?; 2. Explaining desire: multiple perspectives; 3. Sexual desire in a broad context; 4. An incentive-based model; 5. Sex and levels of organization; 6. Sexual attraction; 7. Shades of desire from simple to complex; 8. Details of the brain and desire; 9. Arousal; 10. The consequences of sexual behaviour and associated expectations; 11. Sexual familiarity and novelty; 12. Inhibition, conflict and temptation; 13. How did sexual desire get here?; 14. Setting the trajectory: link to adult sexuality; 15. Sexual desire in interaction; 16. Representations of sex; 17. Sexual addiction; 18. Variations in desire: general principles; 19. Some forms of desire at the fringes; 20. The toxic fusion: violence and sexual desire; 21. Sexually associated (serial) murder; 22. Concluding remarks.