HUMAN TOUCH, HEALTH, AND VIOLENCE

I get my health care through the OneMed health care service. They send out occasional memos to members on health matters. Today they sent one out on: HUMAN TOUCH CAN IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH Marvin Gaye said it best, Sexual healing is something that's good for me. And he was right: Physical touch can make you happier, lower blood pressure, lessen anxiety, and even boost immunity. So whether you’re getting up close and personal with your summer crush or just hugging friends and family, remember that human interaction and touch are important — and good for your health. Following are excerpts from my The Treachery of Realities: Safeguarding Truth in the Age of Science Denial (Brill, 2025). If you are going to find meaning anywhere, it’s going to be in your community, in your networks. And it is going to involve sex or more generally sensual pleasures. We haven’t learned the first thing about sex. The first thing is that sex is everywhere all the time, like gravity (labelled “Sexity." In fact, it is the Eroic force that is everywhere. We are bathed in Eroic force from conception to death just as we are bathed in the force of gravity. Until we learn this lesson, we will continue to make life miserable for humanity. Lesson number two is that sex, as a manifestation of the Eroic force, comes in many forms, is multi-dimensional, and more complex than anyone has yet imagined. Lesson number three is that sex exists for humans of all ages, keeping in mind that sex is a particularly focused form of sensuality. One must be sensual first. Lesson number four: touching is the alpha and omega of life. In an important sense, nothing else matters without it. Now what? Are there sensual and sexual issues of consent and violence because we don’t yet understand sex? Imagine a world in which movies, video games, and stories featured love, romance, sex in all of their consensual combinations and permutations and contained no violence, no guns, no mayhem. What would that say about that world? And what does it say about our world that this is not the case with us? There are sociologically sound reasons for all of the barriers and taboos we have erected around sex, the sensual, and touching. However, because we are the most radically social of the social species, touch is more important in social life than we have realized. Damming it up is a major cause of violence, from the everyday violence of bullying, mugging, and spousal assaults to terrorism and even war. There was more to our '60s slogan of MAKE LOVE NOT WAR than may be at first apparent. What if the relationhips in the slogan is causal? MORE LOVE LESS WAR. Sound too romantic, too idealistic for you? Maybe a little anthropological science will help: Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin, by Ashley Montagu, 1968 (New York: Morrow). With more than 300,000 copies sold, this landmark book is an impressive examination of the importance of touching. "All professionals concerned with human behavior will find something of value. . . . Parents . . . can gain insight into the nurturing needs of infants."--Janet Rhoads, American Journal of Occupational Therapy.