Disappointing comments here . This is a thematically dense lecture with many questions that are not being addressed very deeply here . Maybe because this is only a clip of a lecture or the context is not understood ? Mr . Watts is addressing an audience that existed perhaps forty or fifty years ago , in its own time and with its own understanding of history , it seems almost basic to suggest that we not approach it as though it is identical to our own cultural conditioning . To quickly summarize the point Emphasis on rejecting sexuality is not unique to European cultures but has a peculiar expression or so it seems to Mr . Watts in his own time this is derived from a greater universal religious and spiritual theme found to some degree all over the world namely , that great interest in the body and its drives is likely to lead to distress since it is generates a dependence on the transient . Again this is a clip taken from a larger lecture so we do not know more than the simple facts stated here which is more of an introduction to several key ideas than it is a positive conclusion about anything .