Discussion of Rundel “Fire of Eros” Paper

Reviewing Rundel’s spectrum model of differentiation–dedifferentiation and its role in sexuality and oceanic experiences, Vaughan discusses another way of conceptualizing Rundel’s clinical material in terms that do not involve a binary with poles. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s work on the body in the mind and on metaphor as arising from properties of the physical and bodily world. In addition, Vaughan notes, the friction produced by the literal and figurative rubbing up against bodies and boundaries in sexuality is partly responsible for the Fire of Eros. In transcendent experiences of sexuality we are at once both most fully ourselves and most interdigitated with and connected to others.