In the 21st Century we tend to think that sexual repression is a thing of the past, but it's just hiding at a different level of our psyche.
We might feel that our society (through TV, advertising, hollywood, etc.) is already flooded with sex and we don't need to be any more open about - in fact we may feel like it's too much already... but the form that this flood of sexually-related information takes reflects the unhealthy (literally 'unwholesome' because 'not integrated') way in which we relate to sex and sexuality.
In fact, as long as there is sexual abuse there is clearly a problem with sexual repression.
We might think that it's the other way around - that sexual abuse happens from lack of 'control' but actually it comes from excessive and unhealthy control.
If we look at the stories that have been so prevalent in the media in the last few years - priests, gurus, politicians, soldiers - the more pressure there is to conform to a predefined set of social or ethical rules the more 'perverse' the outcome.
Yeah, most people do seem to think that sexual repression is already a thing of the past in modern 'Western' culture, but this is a BIG issue.
We tend to believe that Freud unravelled most of these knots back in the early 20th century, but in 1956 Wilhelm Reich (a student of his) had his books on sexuality (and other subjects) seized by federal agents and burnt!
He had committed the great taboo of talking about how sexuality and power are connected and how the masses are controlled and the 'ruling classes' become authoritarian and oppressive through sexual suppression...
See 'The Function of the Orgasm' and 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism' for example.
Popular opinion of course is that Reich was either extremely eccentric, mildly insane or a 'quack', but much of today's bodywork and healing practices include insights gained from Reich's work.
Peter Littlejohn Cook
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