Lust

The lust, represented by Pieter Brueghel.

lust (from the Latin luxus, "abundance", "exuberance"), within the framework of sexual morality It is disordered and uncontrolled sexual desire. There is a non-sexual sense of lust, which refers to a passionate desire for something. Lasciviousness, assimilable to lust, is the appetite or excessive desire for sexual pleasures.^{[citation required]}

Psychological and social concept

Lust, as opposed to sexual behaviors considered normal or socially accepted, is the exacerbation, disorder, or lack of control of sexual desires that manifests itself in what could be qualified as pathological sexual behavior. Lust can be distinguished from hypersexuality, which is the sudden increase or extreme frequency in libido or sexual activity. Although hypersexuality can occur due to some medical problems, the consumption of some medications and the intake of drugs, in most cases the cause is unknown. Health disorders such as bipolar disorder can lead to hypersexuality, and the use of alcohol and some addictive substances can affect sexual behavior in some people. Various theoretical models have been used to explain or treat hypersexuality. The most common, particularly in the media, is the approach that presents hypersexuality as an addiction, but sexologists have not reached a consensus. There are alternative explanations such as obsessive behavior and compulsive behavior.

The legal, ethical and moral consideration of behaviors considered lewd has personal and social characteristics. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish human sexual behavior that can be considered a crime, according to the legislation of different countries (rape, pedophilia, incest, adultery, prostitution or child pornography), from those individual or collective sexual behaviors that can practiced legally and may be considered inappropriate or lustful by other individuals.

In general, lustful behaviors have sexual exacerbation and lack of control as a fundamental characteristic that can manifest in any sexual behavior. This is explained by the fact that almost all behavior that involves sexual stimulation, depending on its intensity, generates enjoyment whose magnitude can hardly be compared with the enjoyment generated by other activities, therefore, assuming that the functioning of the mechanism that originates said jouissance, the desire to experience an equal jouissance, or if possible superior, through the repetition, constant or not, of said stimulus, being consequently the greed for said enjoyment what drives or can drive to abandon the responsibility of controlling oneself in the exercise of sexual activity, in order to prolong the experienced enjoyment.^{[citation required]}

Lust and the sexual revolution

The sexual revolution developed during the second half of the 20th century in numerous countries of the Western world challenged the traditional codes related to the conception of sexual morality, human sexual behavior and sexual relations. The sexual behaviors previously considered condemnable not only by religions but also socially, began to be considered accepted as long as they occur with the consent of the participants and that the age of sexual consent is met. From this point of view, lust is no longer considered a sexual disorder if it does not breach any of the previously indicated limits.^{[citation required]}

The sexual revolution meant equality between the sexes and the generalization of the use of contraceptive methods, which meant a clear separation of reproduction and sexuality. Many of the revolutionary changes in sexual norms of this period have, over the years, become accepted, legitimate, and legal norms of sexual behavior. Sexual liberation entailed the reclaiming and full recovery of the human body and its nudity, of sexuality as an integral part of the individual and social human condition, and questioned the traditional role given to women and, therefore, also to that of men and marriage. The sexual revolution has led to the generalization of all kinds of sexual relations and the general acceptance of premarital sexual relations, the recognition and normalization of homosexuality and other forms of sexuality. Likewise, there has been an increase in unmarried couples –unions without marriage–, the delay in the age of marriage, the equal recognition of children outside of wedlock, civil unions and marriages between persons of the same sex, as well as such as the appearance of new types of families (single-parent families and homoparental families).

Religious concept

Pagan Concepts

An Incubus is a demon, in European popular belief and mythology from the Middle Ages, who is supposed to perch on top of the sleeping female victim, in order to have sexual relations with the sleeper, according to a wide range of mythological traditions and legendary. The female counterpart to him is called a succubus. An incubus may seek to have sexual relations with a woman in order to become the father of a child, as in the legend of Merlin. Some sources indicate that he can be identified by his unnaturally cold penis. Religious tradition holds that having sexual relations with an incubus or succubus can cause a deterioration in health, or even death. Victims live the experience as a dream without being able to wake up from it.

In general, religious sexual morality is very restrictive in human sexual behavior considered acceptable. Thus it qualifies many sexual practices and behaviors as disordered and lustful. However, many religions had and have deities of lust -sometimes of love and beauty-, without being morally reprehensible.^{[citation needed]}

The following are goddesses and gods of sex, love and lust from different cultures, mythologies and religions:

Lust in Torah (Old Testament)

The book of Leviticus condemns certain sexual behaviors considered sinful, such as incest, bestiality and homosexuality:

Acts of immorality prohibited

God spoke to Moses, saying,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am God your God.

You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, in which ye dwelt; neither shall ye do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I lead you, nor walk in their statutes. My ordinances shall ye do, and my statutes shall ye keep, walking in them. I God your God. Therefore, you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, which man shall do, shall live in them. My God.

No man approaches a close relative to discover her nakedness. I am God. (Incest is condemned)

The nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother, you shall not uncover; your mother is, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife; it is the nakedness of your father.

The nakedness of your sister, your father's daughter or your mother's daughter, born at home or born abroad, her nakedness you shall not uncover.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter, because it is your nakedness.

The nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, begotten of your father, is your sister; her nakedness you shall not uncover.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister; She is related to your father. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's relative.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother; you will not reach his wife; She is your father's brother's wife.

The nakedness of your daughter-in-law you shall not discover; wife is your son's, you shall not uncover her nakedness.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; it is the nakedness of your brother.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of the woman and her daughter; you shall not take her son's daughter, nor her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; they are relatives, it is evil.

You shall not take a wife together with his sister, to make her his rival, uncovering her nakedness before her in her life.

And you shall not come to a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual impurity.

Furthermore, you shall not have a carnal act with your neighbor's wife, contaminating yourself with her. (Adultery is condemned)

And he is not your son to offer Molech by fire; so do not defile the name of your God. I God.

You shall not lie down with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination.(Male homosexuality is condemned)

Neither shall you have intercourse with any animal defiling yourself with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to intercourse with it; it's perversion. (Bestiophilia is condemned)

In none of these things will you defile yourselves; for in all these things the nations that I drive out before you have corrupted themselves, and the earth was defiled; and I visited her wickedness upon her, and the earth vomited out her inhabitants. Keep ye therefore my statutes and my ordinances, and do not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the foreigner that dwells among you (for all these abominations were done by the men of that land which were before you, and the land was contaminated); lest the land vomit you out because you have polluted it, as it vomited out the nation that inhabited it before you. For whoever does any of these abominations, the people who do them will be cut off from among his people. Therefore keep my ordinance, not doing the abominable customs that they practiced before you, and do not defile yourselves in them. I your God. Lev. 18.

In Lev. 19,29 prostitution is condemned: »Do not degrade her daughter by making her a prostitute, so that the earth may not be a prostitute nor be filled with wickedness.

Lust in the Catholic Church

For the Catholic Church, lust is a cardinal sin.

Detail Lujuria, Table of deadly sins by Hieronymus Bosch.

According to the Catholic Church, humans are sexual beings, whose sexual identity extends beyond the body, also involving the mind and soul. The sexes are destined by divine design to be different and complementary, both with equal dignity and made in the image and likeness of God. Sexual acts" They are sacred within the context of the marital relationship, which reflects a "total and temporally unlimited gift to each other of man and woman". Sexual sins, therefore, do not violate only the body, but also the whole being of the person. In his 1995 book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, John Paul II reflected on this matter:

"In the end, young people are always looking for beauty in love. They want their love to be beautiful. If they fall into weakness, following the patterns of behavior that can be considered exactly as a "scandal in the contemporary world" (and these are, unfortunately, widely diffused models), in the depths of their hearts they can still desire a beautiful and pure love. This is as true as for boys as for girls. In the last analysis, they know that only God can give them that love. As a result, they are willing to follow Christ, if they care about the sacrifices that this may have. "

In the Ten Commandments in Catholicism, the sixth commandment states: "You shall not commit impure sexual acts".

In the poem Hell from the Divine Comedy, those who have sinned with lust are found in the second circle of Hell. Dante condemns these "carnal malefactors" for letting their appetites overcome his reason. They are the first to be truly punished in Hell. These souls are condemned to be impelled by a strong wind that rams them against the floor and walls, agitates them and makes them collide with each other without rest, in the same way that in life they were carried away by the winds of passion.

In the poem Purgatory from the Divine Comedy, the seventh tier corresponds to lust, which has an immense wall of flames through which everyone must pass. Souls repenting of their misdirected sexual desire run through the flames screaming examples of lust (Sodom and Gomorrah and Pasiphae) and of chastity and marital fidelity. As a prayer, they sing the hymn Sumas Deus Clementiae (God of Supreme Mercy) from the Liturgy of the Hours (Cantos XXV and XXVI).

Religion also maintains that sexual desire is not bad in and of itself. Lust – the misuse of sex – is a deformation of the legitimate human sexual desire, just as liver cancer is an alteration of the liver, an organ that has nothing ignoble about it. Confusing sexual desire with lust would be like confusing an organ with the tumor that is destroying it. In the same way that a tumor destroys an organ when its own cells develop outside of their natural function, it can be said that the search for sexual pleasure outside of its natural laws produces an alteration in man's natural sexual function. To maintain respect and honor in the couple relationship, each one should exercise self-control and mitigate desires.

In 1589, Peter Binsfeld, drawing loosely on earlier sources, associated Lust with the demon Asmodeus.

Chastity is one of the Seven Virtues that are part of the catechism, which helps Christians know how to face the temptation of lust.

Lust in Islam

Islam requires marriage, where only sexual relations can take place. Unlike Christianity, it does not recommend monasticism or celibacy. If sexual relations are prohibited outside of marriage, Islam condemns premarital relations, considering them in any case adultery (zina); it also condemns masturbation. It also condemns the satisfaction of relationships between people of the same sex (homosexuality and lesbianism). The only acceptable path out of marriage is abstinence or chastity; thus, lust would be inscribed in all condemned behaviors - all sexual relations outside of marriage.

Lust in Hinduism and Buddhism

Lust can be included in several of the afflictions or evils that cause pain, at least in selfhood and attachment.

In Hindu philosophy afflictions are the causes of human pain and misery. Five are distinguished:

• Ignorance: it is the absence of knowledge and therefore it is not consistent, but it is the lack of wisdom.
• Yoness: is the consequence of ignorance and is the identification of oneself with its objects of experience and gives rise to the feeling of the individual ego.
• Attachment: it is a consequence of ioliness. Some experiences are pleasant and this causes a pleasant impression in the mind that causes a desire to repeat it again.
• Aversion: on the contrary, if the experiences are unpleasant, the mind is also impressed and provokes a desire that this will not happen again.
• The desire to cling to life: attachment and aversion make the individual want to continue experimenting, and therefore living.^{[chuckles]required]}