Any fans of ABC’s hit show "Lost” out there? Two of my current celebrity crushes are on two characters from this show. One, Sayid, is a former member of the Iraq Republican Guard, who tortured citizens under order of Saddam. The other, Sawyer, spent his life as a con man seducing women into surrendering their husband’s money. Yeah, these two are a real pair of Eagle Scouts.

But they’re irresistible! While I wouldn’t go so far as to fantasize about being at the wrong end of Sayid’s blade or bamboo shoots, the fact that he’s an expert on inflicting pain is a surprisingly attractive trait. And while I wouldn’t want to wake up to find Sawyer had taken my cash and left me in a cold bed, it’s awfully exciting to think about him working his wiles upon me. There’s no denying it’s the very badness of these characters that makes them so powerfully attractive.

The bad guy gets us girls with amazing success. First we threw over Luke Skywalker for the rakish Han Solo, now we’re choosing the black-garbed, sinister Anakin over his heroic master in white, Obi-Wan. We definitely prefer Dracula to Van Helsing, unless the latter is rewritten as conflicted and played with a vicious streak by Hugh Jackman. Rhett Butler or Ashley Wilkes? Easy choice.

I’ve written heroes both good and nasty, and I admit the latter group has a powerful appeal to me that is hard to match. Meanwhile however, in real life I truly do try to ally myself with kind, responsible, sensitive men, as I imagine do you. The appeal of the Bad Boy is not based on rational choice…it runs much deeper than that, down in our subconscious. I have my theories why it works this way, borrowed from the famed psychologist Carl Jung.

The psyche, regardless of our intent, strives for balance and completeness. Of course nobody can be all things at once: we have all made choices as to what sort of people we want to be. Typically women, because of the role they play in society, make choices to be kind, nurturing, self-sacrificing, well mannered, and submissive. We are required to get along with male egos in the workplace, provide for husbands and children, do a lot with a little time. Therefore our outward personalities lean very much in the classically "good” direction.

There is nothing more erotic to the subconscious mind than those things it finds lacking. This is the old "opposites attract” principle at full force, and it is for this reason that we so passionately crave the "bad.” Cruelty, dominance, selfishness, and nastiness are qualities in which we have no opportunity to indulge, so they are powerfully appealing to us.

What archetype better exemplifies such traits than the vampire? And for many women, what archetype is more erotically powerful? In addition to balancing out our "niceness,” the vampire also gives us the opportunity to do what we never allow ourselves to do in real life: make a really bad choice just because it feels good, throw morality and responsibility out the window, convert over to an existence of total selfishness. Then of course there’s also the element of encountering a seductive force so powerful it even transcends the will to live. That’s heady stuff.

No wonder Bad Boys win our hearts over and over in fiction and our fantasies. And as for me, I think nothing could be healthier than indulging in such fiction and fantasy. Giving the psyche a chance to play on the Dark Side, to explore and indulge what is forbidden by real life, is a release and a refreshment. It not only lessens temptation to dabble in hurtful things in reality, it makes us more inclined to be good when we need to be, and generally complete and more at peace with ourselves.

People sometimes expect because I claim to write "erotica with soul” that I am some total goody-goody who disdains characters like vampires, thieves, pirates, and slave owners. Well, I’ll admit to being a total goody-goody, but that’s probably why I love these guys. And I love to write about them too.

Of course I, like a lot of writers, do tend to find the good streak in these nasty boys. But then, the whole "redemption of the villain” theme is a ton of fun too. Sayid has given up torturing people, and Sawyer’s done with his life of crime…that makes both of them seem "safe” to be attracted to. And we feel okay about finding Darth Vader hot, because after all he does reform at the end.

Nevertheless, if I were alone with any of them in a fantasy, I’d want to hear about all the bad things they’ve done. And possibly request a demonstration. That’s where the thrill is, and there’s good reason for it: Bad boys, whether they like it or not, are good for you.

Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies published by Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com). Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com, and read her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com. Download her free fiction from the LBR Press READ FREE Project at www.livingbeyondreality.com/readfree.html.