Summer Term 2012
Seminars will be held in ARTS C133, Tuesdays 4:00 - 5:30, except where indicated otherwise.
- Week 3 (May 1st) - Prof Tom Sorell (University of Birmingham, Centre for the Study of Global Ethics): "Robots as Carers"
- Week 4 (May 8th) - Prof Daniel Osorio (University of Sussex, Centre for Visual Fields): "On Colour and Cognition"
- Week 5 (May 15th) - Prof Zoltan Dienes (University of Sussex, School of Psychology): "The secret logic of sexual fantasy"
- Week 6 (May 22nd) - Prof Chris Chatwin (University of Sussex, Department of Engineering): "Computer Vision in Engineering"
- Week 7 (June 5th) - Prof George Kemenes (University of Sussex, Neuroscience): "Cognition in Lymnaea species pluralis"
- Week 8 (June 12th) - NO SEMINAR
- Week 9 (June 19th) - Dr Luc Berthouze (University of Sussex, & UCL Institute of Child Health): "Fluctuations in motor activity: Noise or active principle?"
- Week 10 (June 26th) - Prof Maggie Boden (University of Sussex, COGS): "Creativity as a Neuroscientific Mystery"
Week 5
Date: 15 May 2012
Speaker: Prof Zoltan Dienes
Title: The secret logic of sexual fantasy
Abstract:
There are wide individual differences in the content of peoples' preferred sexual fantasies. What determines the content that a person will find sexually arousing? According to one psychoanalytic approach, sexual arousal is inhibited by relationship anxieties, and the function of fantasy is to negate a person's key anxiety. Thus, the content of the preferred sexual fantasy should be predictable from the nature of a person's relationship anxiety. I report an initial pilot survey of fantasies and anxieties and then two experiments, one in which different anxieties are induced and we measure how arousing different fantasies are; the other in which we settle people into a fantasy and we see how that affects their anxieties. We find the matching between anxieties and fantasies predicted by the psychoanalytic theory stands up surprisingly well to experiment, but in another respect the theory needs to be stood on its head. Warning: If you are embarrassed by any of the following words you should not attend the talk: penis, bondage, vaginal photoplethysmograph.
Series organized by Nicholas Hockings n.hockings@sussex.ac.uk