“The Little Death.” I had heard the term some time ago, but while reading Huxley’s Brave New World this weekend, the phrase popped up again, rekindling my curiosity. By context I knew it meant “orgasm,” but where did the invigorating saying come from?

In the old days I would have gone for an Encyclopedia, or perhaps the school library, and it would have taken me hours to find out what Wikipedia just spat out at me:

La petite mort, French for “the small death”, is a reference for sexual orgasm. The term has generally been interpreted to describe the post-orgasmic fainting spells[1] or unconsciousness some lovers experience.
Mentioned briefly in Jean Rhys ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’ as Rochester talks of his sexual relationship with his new wife.
“Then try, try, say die and watch me die.’ ‘Die then! Die! I watched her die many times”
More widely, it can refer to the spiritual release that comes with orgasm, or a short period of melancholy or transcendence, as a result of the expenditure of the “life force”.
A recent study of brain activation patterns using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) give some support to the experience of a small death:
To some degree, the present results seem to be in accordance with this notion, because female orgasm is associated with decreased blood flow in the orbitofrontal cortex, a part of the brain that is crucial for behavioural control.[2]

Ah, progress! Death in itty bitty doses. We are, of course, left to extrapolate that “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” by the Cutting Crew is about “la petite mort.”

Tags: blood flow | brain activation patterns | brave new world | cutting crew | emission tomography | euphamism | female orgasm | huxley | jean rhys | jean rhys wide sargasso sea | la petite mort | little death | orbitofrontal cortex | school library | sexual orgasm | sexual relationship | transcendence | unconsciousness | Wikipedia

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