Introduction
Attempting to replicate the complex experience of human sexual response with a simple diagram is daunting. Basson attempted this in 2001, and that model remains essentially the same in her recent publications (Basson, 2001, 2015; Basson & Weijmar-Schultz, 2007). A linear model by Masters and Johnson (Masters, Johnson, & Reproductive Biology Research Foundation (USA), 1966) and expanded by Lief and Kaplan (Lief, 1977; Kaplan, 1977) had begun the endeavor three decades earlier and opened the discussion of how to identify fundamental aspects of sexual experience. Although entitled human sex response “cycle,” the Lief, Kaplan, Masters, and Johnson model was linear such that any inherent cyclicity was not apparent. This linear model reflected one type of sexual experience – one where there seems to be an already present sense of sexual desire at the outset of sexual activity in both partners, an increasing degree of sexual arousal to a plateau of high arousal which could reach...
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Basson, R. (2020). The Circles of Sex: Basson’s Sex Response Cycle. In: Lykins, A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sexuality and Gender. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59531-3_37-1
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