Artiker av Ken Wilber

Ethnography and sexuality

There is enormous variety in different cultures attitudes towards sexuality. One culture regards the clitoris as evil and cuts it off whereas another culture values it and seeks to enlarge it. One culture condemns pederasty but another institutionalizes it. One culture allows extra-marital affairs but another condemns them. One culture only permits monogamy yet other cultures practice various forms of polygamy. One culture seeks to forbid adolescent sexual exploration and another actively encourages it. One culture hides sex from children but another does not hide it and allows children to indulge in explicit sexual play. One culture condemns ejaculation for any reason other than conception yet another values it for its medicinal properties. One culture does not recognize the female orgasm but another values it and can describe different types.

Integral sexual ethics

The prime directive argues that all human activity ought to be judged by whether or not it promotes the highest developmental potential in society and individuals. Any action can either thwart developmental progress or it can assist it. Integral ethics ought to be concerned with advocating any practice that aids developmental progress and also speaking out against any practice that thwarts developmental progress. I have argued that the prime directive applies to the field of political economy. It must also apply to the field of sexology. What personal and public sexual practices aid developmental progress? This is not an easy problem to solve. This is because what will aid one person may inhibit another. The solution to one person's sexual issues may be a more open sexual expression but the solution to another's may be more restraint. In any case an integral sexual ethics demands a tolerant society in order to allow the maximum opportunity for positive sexual expression. It ought to be apparent that the five levels outlined above each have their own sexual ethics. Integral sexual ethics is really postconventional sexual ethics.

We can summarize the five ethical positions thus.

1. No ethics.
2. Ethics designed to maintain tribal/family cohesion.
3. Ethics designed to maintain power relations in a stratified society.
4. Individual ethics designed to maximise personal pleasure.
5. Consensual ethics based on polymorphous groups.

I would also now introduce a sixth level, having outlined the impact of an authentic spiritual practice on sexuality.
6. Self-disciplined, spiritualised sexuality under the direction of the integral prime directive.

A self-disciplined person will naturally act in a way that is beneficial to themselves, their sexual partners and to the relevant peer groups, associations, sub-cultures and societies they find themselves in. One of the aspects of this self-discipline is an understanding of and sensitivity to the developmental level of sexual partners and the peer group affected by the relationship. One of the most challenging aspects of life is successfully negotiating sexual and affective relationships. Because sexuality is such a potent force it gives rise to powerful emotions. Much of the emotional turmoil we feel is based on our reactions to and perceptions (mostly false) of our present partner and those we desire as sexual partners. I would suggest that such emotional turmoil is amplified in sex negative societies where access to sexual release is severely constrained. Such emotions as envy, jealousy, hurt, anger, etc, are closely linked to our access to sexual joy.

And because sex is a powerful desire it can be used to manipulate people.