Then there's the notion that prolonged sexual abstinence can be a way of "sublimating," or diverting, energy to higher things-the dross of mere physical desire transformed into the gold of great art or literature. This notion, often ascribed to Freud, is a much more ancient human idea - but there doesn't seem to be much evidence to support it.

History does have its share of accomplished poets, artists and scientists who seem to have been sexual teetotalers- but a much greater number of famous people were known to have an enthusiastic appetite for the pleasures ofthe flesh.

After studying the tiny proportion of men in his sample who reported having sex twice a month or less for the past five years, Dr.was particularly skeptical that there was anything to the idea of sublimation. Virtually all of these men were in poor health, extremely timid or inhibited, restrained by religious conviction or simply had very low levels of sexual desire. At least among this group, Dr. found no evidence at all that any of them had successfully sublimated their lowly desires into lofty achievement.