Complementary Sexual Styles
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Classification of psychological types of sexual partners by Sergei Liebig (1982)
from the book “Functional female sexopathology” (1)
For practical purposes of psychoprophylaxis and psychotherapy of sexual disharmonies, we (S.S. Liebig) proposed the following working classification of psychological types of sexual partners.
Male Types
"Man-father." An older man, psychologically needing a woman to admire him, would be significantly younger, physically weaker, and inexperienced. His sex drive may be low (or diminished), but his skill in courting women allows him to charm some women, and during sexual intercourse, to satisfy them through good preparation and the use of varied and carefully chosen caresses, despite his low potency.
"Man-Man." Two types can be distinguished here:
a) the active (aggressive) type. A young or middle-aged man with good physical fitness, assertive, somewhat rough, does not differentiate caresses much, but delivering them intensively. During sexual intercourse, he favors prolonged periods of friction and is sometimes prone to causing pain and emotional suffering on the woman.
b) the passive (needing a woman's aggressiveness). A young or middle-aged man who "idolises a woman," considers himself unworthy of her, guilty, craves her punishment and even contempt. He prefers women tendencies in sexual life.
"Man-son." Always young, infantile, physically weak, often a loser, he's not afraid to tell a woman this, wanting her to "pity" him. He's somewhat affected, capricious, and passive in caresses, expecting a woman to take care of him and be active in their sex life.
Female types
"Woman-mother." Most often middle-aged (at a younger age, she has undifferentiated sexuality), but can also be young. The motive of "saving," "supporting," and "educating" predominates in the system of caresses. Sometimes she goes to get closer to alcoholics, psychopaths, and chronic losers with the goal of "saving" them, "making them human." The lack of beauty, physical weakness, impracticality, lack of talent, and morbidity of a man not only do not repel them, but, on the contrary, can be factors that attract and excite them.
"Woman-woman": Two types can be distinguished here:
a) passive (feminine, "suffering") type. Often younger than the man, inclined to submissiveness, self-sacrifice, gentle, compliant, accepting the style of behavior and tactics of a man in sexual life, but reacting negatively to his passivity, weakness, and failures. Her ideal of a man includes physical strength and somewhat standard, yet attractive appearance. In the old days, she liked to marry "by stealing."
b) active (aggressive, "woman-dominant"). She strives to actively choose her partner and dominate him. She expresses love through irony, criticism, and ridicule. She is active in caresses; emphasizing a man's incompetence, she can scold and caress at the same time, and even cause him pain.
"Woman-daughter." Usually much younger than a man, she notes that from her youth, she has been attracted to those who were "much older." She found her peers boring. She has a greater need for sexual "foreplay" than for the intensity of sexual act itself. Even the physical signs of aging, such as wrinkles, are liked by such a woman.
Comparing the socio-psychological characteristics of these types of men and women, one can see that, for example, man-son and woman-mother represent psychological and sexual harmony. The same can be said about man-man and woman-woman. At the same time, the relationships of man-father and woman-mother, man-son and woman-woman indicate a certain disharmony in sexual needs and expectations.
Thus, all stages and variations of so-called "sexual technique" should be considered not only from the point of view of the mechanical impact of certain stimuli, but also from the point of view of their psychological content, their correspondence or discrepancy with a person's personal needs, values, views, and attitudes.
About the author: Sergei Liebig (1932 – 2007) - Russian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, sexologist, professor, doctor of medical sciences, founder of the Department of Sexology at North-Western State Medical University.
1 - V. Zdravoyslov, S. Liebig, Z. Anisimova. 1985. Functional female sexopathology, Chapter 5 - Family and sexual problems. Функциональная женская сексопатология, В. И. Здравомыслов, С. С. Либих, З. Е. Анисимова. Глава 5 - семья и проблемы сексуальной жизни.