"This article asserts that “There is no underlying ‘cause’ of asexuality.” Rather, it’s just the way someone is.” I respectfully disagree"
it's possible that the respect offered with your disagreement, may be overly charitable. There comes a time in one's life, when seriously entertaining obviously preposterous assertions, becomes maladaptive.
Of course, there's a reason; there's always a reason. At some point, the effort to mandate incuriosity becomes suspect, in and of itself.
What matters, is whether any given person's presentation becomes a form of adjustment disorder. Set aside social pressure for a moment, that's a constant. Where a deeper understanding becomes necessary, is when baseline reactivity to stimulus is required for internal organization. Maladaptive behaviors including, but not limited to excessive risk-taking, routinely result from endocrine imbalance.
Dopamine and serotonin are part of our evolutionary design. Adult sexual response is a normative regulator. If an individual adapts successfully to asexualtity, there is no reason to modify response patterns. There being no objective metric by which to verify successful adaptation, it becomes entirely subjective.
My own grouchiness notwithstanding, I don't think it's too much to ask of therapists that they actually do the job for which they're being paid. This trend of abdicating responsibility to interact deeply with the clients, is not just intellectually insolvent, it's morally bankrupt.
I could write an epic rant about risk aversion, incompetence and the "paint by numbers" DSM-dependent empty credentialism that increasingly predominates within the field, but why belabor the obvious?
I suspect you don't necessarily disagree with my premise, at least not entirely.
Anyway, thanks for sharing and I think your conclusions entirely accurate.
OMG, so true. I am a middle school counselor in California no less (I know I have your condolences) and one of my students who proclaimed asexuality also told me he never sees himself living independently. He also takes a lot of medication and has a very dysfunctional family.
Every single thing in life send to need to be seen thru the lens of sex. Why?
I think as a society we have given up human conversations, reading actual books, writing letters taking a walk seeing a concert, playing an instrument and a myriad other things that made up one's life.
Children don't play anymore. People don't repair or make things anymore.
This hyper focus on sex is so disturbing because it lacks any emotional connection. The tender , euphoric feeling one gets in the bloom of a new relationship is missing. It is replaced by a function driven by the social expectation which one must shared with society. It is not their own anymore..
I became aware of asexuality about 10 years ago and was fascinated by the concept. The bud of proliferating gender identity madness was yet to burst (outside of tumblr) and when I saw that asexuals were putting themselves under the alphabet soup rainbow umbrella, I thought: why?
As I mentioned, the advocates for the condition (maybe not yet quite identity) at the time seemed earnest and trustworthy, so I didn't question whether it was an objective phenomenon of the endocrine and nervous systems. These days I'm not sure where I would go for a judgment call on the question that I would trust not to be beholden to ideology.
"This article asserts that “There is no underlying ‘cause’ of asexuality.” Rather, it’s just the way someone is.” I respectfully disagree"
it's possible that the respect offered with your disagreement, may be overly charitable. There comes a time in one's life, when seriously entertaining obviously preposterous assertions, becomes maladaptive.
Of course, there's a reason; there's always a reason. At some point, the effort to mandate incuriosity becomes suspect, in and of itself.
What matters, is whether any given person's presentation becomes a form of adjustment disorder. Set aside social pressure for a moment, that's a constant. Where a deeper understanding becomes necessary, is when baseline reactivity to stimulus is required for internal organization. Maladaptive behaviors including, but not limited to excessive risk-taking, routinely result from endocrine imbalance.
Dopamine and serotonin are part of our evolutionary design. Adult sexual response is a normative regulator. If an individual adapts successfully to asexualtity, there is no reason to modify response patterns. There being no objective metric by which to verify successful adaptation, it becomes entirely subjective.
My own grouchiness notwithstanding, I don't think it's too much to ask of therapists that they actually do the job for which they're being paid. This trend of abdicating responsibility to interact deeply with the clients, is not just intellectually insolvent, it's morally bankrupt.
I could write an epic rant about risk aversion, incompetence and the "paint by numbers" DSM-dependent empty credentialism that increasingly predominates within the field, but why belabor the obvious?
I suspect you don't necessarily disagree with my premise, at least not entirely.
Anyway, thanks for sharing and I think your conclusions entirely accurate.
Yes, much of this is connected to people who “fail to launch”.
OMG, so true. I am a middle school counselor in California no less (I know I have your condolences) and one of my students who proclaimed asexuality also told me he never sees himself living independently. He also takes a lot of medication and has a very dysfunctional family.
Poor kid!
Every single thing in life send to need to be seen thru the lens of sex. Why?
I think as a society we have given up human conversations, reading actual books, writing letters taking a walk seeing a concert, playing an instrument and a myriad other things that made up one's life.
Children don't play anymore. People don't repair or make things anymore.
This hyper focus on sex is so disturbing because it lacks any emotional connection. The tender , euphoric feeling one gets in the bloom of a new relationship is missing. It is replaced by a function driven by the social expectation which one must shared with society. It is not their own anymore..
So very sad.
So true. 😔
Is it me or school has been developing an extremely unhealthy obsession with sexuality and race? Great article, as always.
Tumbler, 2014 = schools and medical clinics, 2025
I became aware of asexuality about 10 years ago and was fascinated by the concept. The bud of proliferating gender identity madness was yet to burst (outside of tumblr) and when I saw that asexuals were putting themselves under the alphabet soup rainbow umbrella, I thought: why?
As I mentioned, the advocates for the condition (maybe not yet quite identity) at the time seemed earnest and trustworthy, so I didn't question whether it was an objective phenomenon of the endocrine and nervous systems. These days I'm not sure where I would go for a judgment call on the question that I would trust not to be beholden to ideology.