Talk:La petite mort

correct spelling
List_of_French_phrases_used_by_English_speakers - la petite mort - an orgasm; lit. the little death

Le Petit Mort, Lumiere Records, ASIN: B000FJH14Y, Amazon

Le Petit Morte, 24 hour service station, ASIN: B0008GGLE0, Amazon

La petite morte, Métailié, ISBN: 2864241382 , Amazon

La Petite Mort, Quai Voltaire, ISBN: 2912517222, Amazon

La Petite Mort : Anthologie érotique de littérature fantastique, Albin Michel - L'Echo des Savanes, ISBN: 2226104496, Amazon

Petites morts, Editions du Rouergue, ISBN 284156102X, Amazon

Grimion gant de cuir, tome 3 : La petite mort, Glénat, ISBN: 2723408248, Amazon

La petite mort: sex equated to death Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut.(Critical Essay): An article from: Journal of Evolutionary Psychology, Institute for Evolutionary Psychology, Amazon

French Wikipedia entry for Mort, " "la petite mort est un moment qui peut suivre l'orgasme et pendant lequel on peut paraître inconscient. "

Pathol8 "La petite mort Cette expression si française,  reprise parfois par des écrivains non francophones fait l'objet d'une question. ", "L’orgasme est appelé « petite mort »."

Gérard d'Houville – Petite morte "

Facettes de la petite mort

Groupe La Petite Mort sur Info-Groupe.com

Galerie La Petite Mort

La Petite Mort (film)

Atom 20:38, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

Dwarves
"Medieval folk belief that only dwarves could experience orgasm, an act that would lead to their death"

If you can find a reference to corroborate that, go ahead and add it back. I'm removing it for now, because it seems absurd to me, besides that it's unsupported. Elliotbay 06:41, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

that is a reference to American Dad "Klaus: Speaking of killing, do you know what the French call an orgasm? "The little death." It harks back to the Middle Ages when only midgets were allowed to have orgasms. It's true. Read the Bible."

Murdats (talk) 17:50, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

I didn't find anything on google.fr with a french request (except American Dad) about Dwarves and the expression "petite mort". I really think it's just Klaus who made it up... ("Read the Bible".. hum..it's just a joke,no? ) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.230.74.236 (talk) 22:56, 15 April 2016 (UTC)


 * The correct plural of "dwarf" is "dwarfs" unless you're writing about JRR Tolkien's fictional race. It doesn't need capitalising either. 2.31.162.93 (talk) 10:40, 19 July 2021 (UTC)

La mort
Just to be clear, in French mort is feminine when it means "death" as a noun, and masculine when it refers to a dead person or victim of a murder. This is supported in my Larousse. La petite mort is clearly, to myself at least, the more accurate saying (meaning "the small death", rather than "the small dead boy")--Larineso 23:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

This is wrong
Everything I've ever learned as this meaning a regret. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Losteem (talk • contribs) 04:40, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Correct Translation?
Does it mean little death, or is it really the small death? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.9.59.249 (talk) 21:03, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Same difference ? Little = small, pretty much. I suppose 'little' is more likely to mean 'partial', as in 'Every time we say goodbye, I die a little' (Cole Porter). I doubt he meant orgasm, though ! --195.137.93.171 (talk) 04:22, 4 March 2008 (UTC)
 * I have to say, for the most part there does not seem to be a significant difference, but some English Usage dictionaries, such as the Oxford's 2005 Practical English Usage will describe something like the following distinction:

 Small simply refers to size. It is the opposite of big or large Could I have a small brandy, please? You&#39;re too small to be a policeman. The adjective little usually expresses some kind of emotion Poor little thing &#8211; come here and let me look after you. They've bought a pretty little house in the country. So it seems that one is most likely to see this translated as &#8220;little death&#8221; given the emotional aspect and abstract comparison to any &#8220;larger&#8221; death. Enderandpeter (talk) 23:57, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Incorrect Reference
Reference 1 to the Psychoanalytic Quarterly (The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 21, 1952, No. 2. Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 34:353) is incorrect. There is no reference to "post-orgasmic fainting spells" in either pages 34 or 353. Vol. 21 No. 2 is from pages 153-293. 128.143.167.232 (talk) 17:37, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Etymology?
all right, we know that "petite mort" means "little death" and is a euphemism for orgasm. but how did this usage come about? who used it first? is it from literature? Pgilman (talk) 18:13, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Roland Barthes and La petite mort
Might anyone know where Roland Barthes's statement regarding la petite mort as the ultimate affect from great literature can be found? You should let me know either here or my talk page. Thank you! Enderandpeter (talk) 23:26, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

I am very wary about this. The line in question in this wiki page seems to be thinking of 1973's Le Plaisir du texte, but I do not believe that Barthes uses the phrase 'petite mort' there. He does say that literature is about pleasure, and that, as an extreme pleasure and an experience of subjective loss (i.e. petite mort), jouissance is one experience of reading literature. But to say it is for Barthes an 'objective' seems overly interpretative for me. And to impute a loaded term like 'mort' to him without reference is dangerous (we think for example of his separate theory of the 'Death of the author' (1968).

Anyone who can provide a better reference connecting Barthes specifically to the 'petite mort' should flag it up, I guess. IroningOutThe (talk) 14:57, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

Real Death
Does anyone mind improving the paragraph below, in order to indicate how does this relate to a "small death"? For me, as it is right now, the fact seems a bit "stretched" in order to make it fit into this article. 159.245.16.100 (talk) 07:47, 2 May 2012 (UTC)

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.""

Oxytocin
"... melancholy or transcendence as a result of the expenditure of the "life force," the feeling which is caused by the release of oxytocin in the brain after the occurrence of orgasm."

A reference is needed to justify this assertion. I have read the Wikki entry on oxytocin & can find no reference to melancholy or feeling of transcendence as an effect of oxytocin, although 'contentment' is mentioned. g4oep — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.60.31 (talk) 08:54, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Omne Animal post coitum triste est
The reference below, which includes a further reference to Kinsey, opens up a wider picture of the petite mort, which might be worth exploring if this wikki article is to be elaborated further.

http://www.forum2.org/mellon/lj/glenn.pdf

g4oep — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.96.60.31 (talk) 09:01, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Unclear?
The article says: "When referring to orgasm, it is unclear whether "la petite mort" or "little death" describe a normal post-orgasmic state, or whether they refer to a medical condition, such as sexual headaches, Dhat syndrome, post-coital tristesse (PCT), or postorgasmic illness syndrome (POIS)".

I have never ever came (sic) across the latter meaning, it was always used (both in books/articles and in conversations) as the former one, which is the normal post-orgasmic state. I have no idea where the user who edited that in the article found this unfounded hypothesis.

The reason why it remained in usage - after being used to refer to the brief loss of consciousness in the previous centuries, as an euphemism for sex (back when it was improper to simply say it clearly) - is because it works as a figure of speech, using a term belonging to the negative death drive (la mort, the Death), to instead refer to the positive life drive (sex -> orgasm).

88.177.158.231 (talk) 17:50, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

___

What even is this
''The term "little death", with which "la petite mort" is often compared, has a similar, though slightly different meaning. Namely, it means "a state or event resembling or prefiguring death; a weakening or loss of consciousness, specifically in sleep or during an orgasm".[2] As with "la petite mort", the earlier attested uses are not related to sex or orgasm.''

"Compared"? It's -the literal translation of the phrase-. What is this paragraph even trying to say? 108.34.206.74 (talk) 07:02, 25 June 2018 (UTC)

Other use of the term "La Petite Mort"
During the plague and up through the Renaissance the term "La Petite Mort" also referred to the act of Sneezing. It was thought that each time one Sneezed their heart stopped. With each Sneeze one's soul went to heaven and God determined whether to grant continued life, or not. Hence the original phrase "God has blessed you". Meaning that you had been granted life.

https://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/sneeze.html

Why do people say, “God bless you,” after someone sneezes?

There are varying accounts as to the origin of this response. One belief is that it originated in Rome when the bubonic plague was raging through Europe. One of the symptoms of the plague was coughing and sneezing, and it is believed that Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) suggested saying “God bless you” after a person sneezed in hopes that this prayer would protect them from an otherwise certain death.

The expression may have also originated from superstition. Some people believe that the custom of asking for God’s blessing began when ancient man thought that the soul was in the form of air and resided in the body’s head. A sneeze, therefore, might accidentally expel the spirit from the body unless God blessed you and prevented this from occurring. Some ancient cultures also thought that sneezing forced evil spirits out of the body endangering others because these spirits might now enter their bodies. The blessing was bestowed to protect both the person sneezed and others around him. Edallen33 (talk) 05:35, 30 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Your link appears to be broken. Do you have another source indicating that "la petite mort" has ever referred to sneezing? I remember being told the same thing, but can't find any sources (other than your comment) to support that. BatmanAoD (talk) 14:18, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

French speaker here
I'll admit to not reading Barthes, but I can also tell you no French person I have ever come across in two decades has known this expression. Pretty anecdotal, I know, but it does seem to be something the English conjured up, and as mentioned elsewhere it doesn't really appear in any significant literature. ABAlphaBeta (talk) 10:42, 7 January 2020 (UTC)


 * You can't be serious. Open a book please. I'm French too. This expression has been a sophisticated way to talk about orgasm for a very long time now. Of course nobody uses it in everyday discussions, but that doesn't mean it's made up. 2A01:E0A:8E5:9D90:F559:1E6C:956A:68B1 (talk) 21:38, 19 October 2023 (UTC)


 * It seems like bad grammar to me. Shouldn't it be La Morte Petite?
 * No. There is quite a number of adjectives that are supposed to come before the noun, even in French. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:E0A:8E5:9D90:F559:1E6C:956A:68B1 (talk) 21:39, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

Reference in French
An article from the website of the radio station "France info" : "Why do we say little death ?" https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/sexo/journee-mondiale-de-l-orgasme-pourquoi-parle-t-on-de-petite-mort_5555007.html 2A01:E0A:8E5:9D90:F559:1E6C:956A:68B1 (talk) 21:45, 19 October 2023 (UTC)