Prologue

“Deep in the heart of the hot, wet African rainforest, there lives a tribe of peacemakers who share a multiplicity of pleasures and make a very special kind of love. South of the sprawling Congo River, in the midst of war-ravaged territory, some 2,000 miles from the arid Ethiopian desert where the oldest human fossils have been found, lies this lush and steamy jungle paradise, the only natural habitat of the bonobo.”
{r}Susan Block, The Bonobo Way

“Compersion: it is the feeling of joy in seeing a loved one feel joy. It is the opposite of jealousy.

Nina Hartley

Cultural and political

An attempted coup by political evangelists was the last straw for a country where religious conservatives, and politicians exploiting them, increasingly restricted individual liberties. While raging about how the country did not give him loyalty – even kingship – he suffered a fatal cardiac event on live TV. Peripherally splashed by scandal, the Vice President struck a deal with the Speaker of the House, to name a consensus, rather nonpolitical figure to the Speakership. Both then resigned and the new President, a woman with extensive government experience but not as a partisan politician, took office.

Many called the new movement the Restoration, after a re-invocation of some principles of the Eisenhower Administration. As opposed to that movement of the 1950s, there was much emphasis on individual freedom, including sexual. Sexual harassment, however, received its own social backlash.

Erotic therapy

Sexual liberalization entered into medicine, as experiments. Some randomized controlled trials showed that sexual release relieved pain and anxiety while accelerating healing. It needed medical controls both to avoid scandal and to make sure it didn’t make things worse. Mental health professionals were fully aware that not all patients had sexual issues.

At public hospitals, the Erotic Therapists wore standard masks to protect their identities. Often, ETs were ceremonially escorted, and the room guarded. Whenever a spouse, SO, or friend could provide the service, that was preferred, although sometimes with medical guidance. An enthusiastic amateur accidentally hitting a broken bone was not desired. Erotic therapy was introduced much more carefully into psychiatric practice. It was accepted that therapists needed to be available for all gender variations.

It was not uncommon for erotic therapy assistants to come from the ranks of medical trainees, much as scribes and EMTs fed into the ranks of Physician Assistant clinical contact tours. The more advanced Erotic Therapy Technicians could cooperate with medical therapy, even with selected ICU patients. They drew techniques from tantric yoga, which did not have to be orgasmic.

Especially in private hospitals, the therapies could be even more intimate, Since the J6 vaccine had essentially eliminated sexually transmitted diseases.

If anything, it improved sensitivity. Still, it was not erotic therapy that drove the observation of a sensitive orthopedist on examining the images of a charming gymnast’s knee: “what’s a joint like you doing in a nice girl like this?”