I don't know, but carnal desire would seem much more worthwhile and gratifying if it occurred piecemeal (after a relationship had been established), and didn't involve just one type of attraction, rather a whole/complete form of desire that encompasses understanding, and physical and emotional intimacy.
Understanding can only come from unlimited disclosure, and a willingness to do so, of each other's thoughts and feelings. From that understanding you create a bond. It is almost like our subjective worlds become one – something extraordinarily special.
Where sex is apparently essential within general society, it takes a back seat or, a standing of equal importance to all other elements of a relationship – it isn't the only reason.
A relationship focused on sex cannot offer anything tenable, or worthy of continuous ties. It lasts on one urge, and not an entire cause. When someone of greater physical attraction flutters by, one of the presumed partners will shift necessarily to the greater urge. It is a fancy of little connexion and attributes. Sigmund Freud's pleasure principle inherently misses a crucial component to existence – meaning. Attaining sex, for the simple reason of pleasure will push the human psyche into a closed corner. Man will face defeat by losing sight of the meaning of their pleasure.
Avoiding the self-defeatist approach of life, that of focusing on pleasure, one discovers that appropriate fulfilment is ancillary to holding meaning and not the meaning itself.
Putting it another way – one cannot pursue happiness, but rather allow it to ensue from the attainment of meaning. The former leads to the corruption of the self. Hence, sexual desire based solely on attaining pleasure without cause will inevitably falter.
I also question whether the serial monogamist is any different to the sexually promiscuous. If it lacks an ultimate purpose, it lacks raison d'être.
As Viktor Frankl hypothesises on the existential vacuum, sexual pleasure can be used by individuals, in certain circumstances, to escape from existential frustration. Pleasure elevates itself from a subsidiary to meaning and by that very turn, lowers one's self from achieving fulfilment.
To clearly state my position, if it hasn't availed itself to you yet, I hold a relationship as a significant step in forming a raison d'être. A loose and licentious attitude to my objective will only serve to impede my goals.
