Enhancement of fantasy-induced sexual arousal in men through training in sexual imagery.

Men who in earlier experiments in the same laboratory had been unable to enhance penile tumescence to any substantial degree by engaging in erotic fantasy were given two sessions of either sexual imagery training or general imagery training. Participants in the sexual imagery training program subsequently demonstrated increased physiological and subjective sexual arousal during unstructured as well as structured sexual fantasy. The gains were undiminished at follow-up, 1 month after the end of training. In contrast, general imagery training did not enhance fantasy-induced sexual arousal. Both training programs improved vividness of imagery, as assessed by the Betts QMI Scale, but only sexual imagery training led subjects to report that they were able to form sexual images with higher clarity when engaging in fantasy. Sexual arousal was thus enhanced through context-specific imagery training, a strategy commonly used in the clinical practice of sex therapy.