Coitus Reservatus - The Practice of Karezza

The Practice of Karezza

Stockham writes, "... Karezza signifies 'to express affection in both words and action,' and while it fittingly denotes the union that is the outcome of deepest human affection, love's consummation, it is used technically throughout this work to designate a controlled sexual union." So that in practice, according to Stockham, it is more than just self-control, but mutual control where the penetrative partner helps the receptive partner and vice versa. According to Stockham this is the key to overcoming many difficulties encountered in trying to control sexual expression on an individual basis. Stockham's contribution was to apply this same philosophy of orgasm control to women as much as to men. A form of birth control, the technique also prolongs sexual pleasure to the point of achieving mystical ecstasy, according to J. William Lloyd, a practitioner of Karezza, whose own experience of Cosmic Consciousness appears in Cosmic Consciousness, a book written by the Canadian psychiatrist Richard M. Bucke, a friend of the American poet Walt Whitman. In this practice, orgasm is separated from ejaculation, making possible enjoyment of the pleasure of heterosexual intercourse without experiencing seminal ejaculation, while still experiencing orgasm.

Some would have the principles of karezza applied to masturbation, whereby a person attempts to delay orgasm as long as possible to prolong pleasure in a process known as "orgasmic brinkmanship", "surfing", or "edging" but this is different from the heterosexual practice of "karezza". In Latin literature, this is known as coitus sine ejaculatione seminis.

One purpose of karezza is the maintenance, and indeed, intensification of desire and enjoyment of sexual pleasure within the context of relationships. According to Alice Stockham, a 19th Century author, it takes from two weeks to a month for the body to recover from ejaculation ..."Unless procreation is desired, let the final propagative orgasm be entirely avoided". Stockham advocated that the 'honeymoon period' of a relationship could be maintained in perpetuity by limiting the frequency of ejaculations or preferably avoiding them entirely.