La petite mort

For other uses, see La petite mort (disambiguation).

"Little Death" redirects here. For other uses, see Little Death (disambiguation).

La petite mort, French for "the little death", is an idiom and metaphor for orgasm.

More widely, it can refer to the spiritual release that comes with orgasm or to a short period of melancholy or transcendence as a result of the expenditure of the "life force", the feeling whereof is caused by the release of oxytocin in the brain after the occurrence of the orgasm. Literary critic Roland Barthes spoke of la petite mort as the chief objective of reading literature. He metaphorically used the concept to describe the feeling one should get when experiencing any great literature.

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."

The term "la petite mort" or "the small death" does not always apply to sexual experiences. It can also be used when some undesired thing has happened to a person and has affected them so much that "a part of them dies inside". A literary example of this is found in Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles when he uses the phrase to describe how Tess feels after she comes across a particularly gruesome omen and meeting with her own rapist:

"She felt the petite mort at this unexpectedly gruesome information, and left the solitary man behind her."

In the 1998 horror film Bride of Chucky, the unrequited love interest of the character Tiffany tries to seduce her by mentioning the meaning of this phrase, thereby asking her if she wants to "die a little."

Further reading

• Vaitl, D; Birbaumer, N; Gruzelier, J; Jamieson, GA; Kotchoubey, B; Kübler, A; Lehmann, D; Miltner, WH et al. (2005). "Psychobiology of altered states of consciousness". Psychological Bulletin 131 (1): 98–127. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.98. PMID 15631555. 
• Janszky, J; Szücs, A; Halász, P; Borbély, C; Holló, A; Barsi, P; Mirnics, Z (2002). "Orgasmic aura originates from the right hemisphere". Neurology 58 (58): 302–304. PMID 11805263. 
• Cohen, Harvey D.; Rosen, Raymond C.; Goldstein, Leonide (May 1976). "Electroencephalographic laterality changes during human sexual orgasm". Archives of Sexual Behavior (Springer Netherlands) 5 (3): 189–99. doi:10.1007/BF01541370. PMID 952604. http://www.springerlink.com/content/w580x14k0h15p38q/. "Left and right parietal EEGs were recorded while seven subjects experienced sexual climax through self-stimulation." 
• Graber, B; Rohrbaugh, JW; Newlin, DB; Varner, JL; Ellingson, RJ (December 1985). "EEG during masturbation and ejaculation". Archives of Sexual Behavior (Springer Netherlands) 14 (6): 491–503. doi:10.1007/BF01541750. PMID 4084049. "...Examination of the literature shows little agreement among reported results of studies of EEG changes during orgasm."