Asexuality

ASEXUALITY, asexualism (from Greek a-negative particle, and Latin sexus-sex), absence of sexuality; a term used in a twofold sense: firstly, in a broader sense as the absence of not only attraction to the opposite sex, but also of the very signs of sex (asexual state in the precise meaning of the word), and in a narrower sense—to denote the absence of sexual desire, while having, however, a certain anatomical differentiation characteristic of one sex or the other. In the first sense, asexuality, as a normal phenomenon, is encountered in some organisms that reproduce either by division (bacteria) or by budding (e.g., some species of protozoa—the so-called vegetative method of reproduction). Often, the asexual state and asexual reproduction alternate with sexual ones (alternation of sexual and asexual generations); many algae, fungi, and protozoa reproduce in this way, as do ferns among higher plants, and coelenterates (hydroid polyps) and some worms (flukes) among higher animals. In humans, asexuality, in the sense of underdevelopment of secondary sexual characteristics and the absence of libido, is observed primarily as a result of aplasia of the reproductive system organs. As for castration, the latter can produce a similar effect only at an early age; later castration, while affecting some of the secondary sexual characteristics (e.g., peculiarities of temperament and psyche), does not affect others (e.g., skeletal growth), just as it often does not completely destroy libido, at least for a significant period of time; this is explained by the accumulation of corresponding emotions in the nerve centers, their having already undergone erotization, with the subsequent operation of neural mechanisms continuing according to the law of already established functions. The absence of libido or its disappearance is also observed as a result of severe infectious diseases (e.g., typhus), on the basis of arrested development or reduction of the gonads. Likewise, states of marasmus, as well as chronic intoxications (alcoholism, morphinism) depress the function of the gonads and can lead first to a decrease, and then to the complete disappearance of libido. However, rare cases of congenital absence of libido in adults are known, even with a completely normal state of the reproductive organs, which one has to