understandings she has had about the nature of sex, marriage, men, and love.
In between these two types there are all degrees of sexual frigidity. The severity of a woman's problem, or the lack of it, can be calculated in terms of the degree of response she has to her husband's caresses and the frequency with which she achieves satisfaction in intercourse. Also important in estimating the degree of the problem is the orgasm itself. This is purely a subjective matter and can of course be judged only by the individual. If the orgasm is weak and chronically leaves one with a dissatisfied feeling, a certain degree of frigidity is present.
In addition to the degrees of frigidity there is a type of frigidity that it is very important to understand. We call a woman suffering from this form of frigidity a "clitoridal" or "masculine" type. To make her problem clear to you I shall have to describe her typical sexual reaction.
This woman's responses to sexual stimulation are usually quite passionate. In the foreplay preceding sexual intercourse and even in the first part of intercourse her reactions parallel the normal to a greater or lesser extent. This type of woman, however, can always be identified by the kind of orgasm she has.
This orgasm takes place on her clitoris exclusively. She does not feel the orgasm in her vagina, nor do the sexual sensations spread very strongly to the other parts of her body. The sensual experience is primarily localized at climax, and though, owing to her lack of experience with the mature form of orgasm, she may defend her orgasm as perfectly normal and adequate, it is not. Therapy has helped many women with this constricted reaction to sexual intercourse and, once they have experienced the profound pleasure of the true orgasm, they will admit quite freely their former deprivation.
