The erotic is easy: it is the use of sex to express intimacy and attachment, and primarily it is playful and profound, messaging, ‘I want you as you, and you and me as we.’ The sensual is shallower and may involve little mutuality or connection, but it can be comforting, if only because touch expresses a message of ‘I’m with you’. Many heterosexual prisoners will talk about this when describing their same-sex relationships in prison. Carnal desire is not playful, and it is uninterested in co-operation or exchange; it is about appetite.
