VIRILITÀ. — age (v.) of life that follows the pubertal and post-pubertal or internubilo-pubertal old age (v.). G. Mariani defines it as the age of life characterized by the complete and harmonious development of the organism in relation to the stabilization, in both man and woman, of all the primary and secondary sexual characteristics.
Its duration is variable, and it is characterized by the state of stable equilibrium established in general metabolism (the relationship between the anabolic and catabolic phases) and in all the interorganic and neurohormonal type (v.). Undoubtedly, the phase of V. (or, better, of “maturity”) is the longest and most important in both man and woman. It is customarily divided into three stages: 1) increasing maturity (between 21 and 35 years in women, 25–28 and 40 in men), characterized by the further perfection of all the various individual activities, especially the psychic ones, while vegetative life is still quite intense; 2) established or constant maturity (between 35 and 48–50 years in women, 40 and 50–55 in men), the period of physical and psychological equilibrium in which the functions of the entire organism remain stationary: this stage most closely corresponds to the concept of maturity set out above; 3) declining maturity (after 48–50 years in women, 50–55 years in men), which begins the downward arc of life, with a reduction in both physical and psychic activity, old age (v.); it is on the threshold of this age that, especially in women, the critical age of the climacteric appears (v. ETÀ).
It is commonly held that an essential characteristic of V. is strong excitation and an intense capacity for sexual activity, linked to the full activity of the gonads and the complete development of the primary and secondary sexual characteristics; this conception is inaccurate, since the activity of the gonads, insofar as it concerns the formative activity of the reproductive sexual elements, has already begun at puberty (v. ADOLESCENZA); moreover, according to Kinsey’s statistics, the height of erotic activity would occur before the age of 20, thus during puberty and the internubilo-pubertal phase. Without denying the importance of the regular functioning of the gonads in maintaining full physical maturity in both man and woman, as shown by the phenomena of aging that appear in women at the time of menopause, all authors agree that not only the gonads but all the endocrine glands are of particular importance in preserving maturity, especially the pituitary and the adrenal gland. It is sufficient for this purpose to mention the phenomena of profound organic deterioration that occur in Simmonds’s cachexia, of pluriglandular pathogenesis, or in Addison’s disease, through atrophy of the adrenals (v. ENDOCRINE, GLANDOLE). V. must not be confused with virilism, a pathological or at least paranormal condition of development in a woman who loses the characteristics of her own sex in order to assume those of the male sex, not only in the physical sphere but also in the psychic; this is related to a particular idiopathic and racial disposition, or to endocrine dysfunction (adrenal virilism), or to the cessation of ovarian activity (climacteric virilism).
During the phase of v., in parallel with the perfection of the individual’s various somatic functions, the highest point in the evolution of psychic faculties is reached, with the development and affirmation of the personality, intimately linked to the individual’constitution (v.), temperament (v.), and character (v.). The primitive apperceptive and mnemonic faculties are followed in maturity by the more complex intellectual activities of association, discrimination, and judgment, while in the affective sphere there is moderation and equilibrium in affective and passionate manifestations, thus allowing the subject’s maximum psychophysical performance.