desire phase

Definition

Or: desire stage , according to sex therapist Helen Singer Kaplan, the first of three steps in the sexual response cycle in which the desire for sexual activity increases, leading to the physiological changes of sexual arousal in the excitement phase and possible culmination in orgasm. Source: H. S. Kaplan, Disorders of Sexual Desire and Other Concepts and Techniques in Sex Therapy (New York: Bruner/Mazel, 1979).
See also: excitement phase; plateau phase; orgasmic phase; resolution phase.