October 16, 1984

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1984 The Economy Bankers Trust cut its prime lending rate a half-point, to 12 1/4 percent. While no other major banks followed the move, economists predicted that they soon would because the banks' cost of funds has been dropping recently. The prime dropped to 12 3/4 percent, from 13 percent, last month. (Page D1.)

A STRONOMERS have photographed a disk of material surrounding a young nearby star, providing what may be the first view of a solar system being born. The photograph lends strength to the theory that planets and solar systems like ours developed from such orbiting clouds. The photograph of Beta Pictoris, a faint star in the southern sky 50 light years from Earth, was taken at the Carnegie Institution's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile using electronic light amplifiers and enhanced by computer processing. It shows a thin, disk-shaped cloud of material orbiting the star in a pattern that suggests planets are already beginning to form.

Israeli officials said today that the Reagan Administration had offered to defer $500 million in debt payments until March, and that Prime Minister Shimon Peres had accepted the offer. American officials immediately responded that no such agreement had been reached. Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai said that Mr. Peres had disclosed the American offer of a debt deferment, and his acceptance, at a meeting today in which he briefed the Cabinet on the results of his talks last week in Washington. The state-run Israeli radio quoted Mr. Peres as having told the Cabinet that he had been surprised by the American offer.

The Bankers Trust Company reduced its prime lending rate yesterday to 12 1/4 percent from 12 3/4 percent. No other major banks followed the move but some economists predicted that they would soon. The prime, or base, rate on corporate loans, has been at 12 3/4 percent at major banks since last month, when it dropped from 13 percent. The Wells Fargo Bank, which cut its prime rate to 12 1/2 percent on Sept. 26, has been the exception.

SOME types of excessive sexual activity have all the hallmarks of an addiction and can be treated in a fashion similar to other addictions, such as alcoholism and gambling, a growing number of sex therapists believe. People with this problem, who are now being called ''sexual addicts,'' typically use sex as a psychological narcotic. They are driven to find relief through sex from feelings of agitation and worthlessness. But once the sexual high ends they are again overwhelmed by those same feelings, and once again feel driven to sex. And so the cycle starts over once more. That cycle, many experts are now saying, is identical to that seen in other addictions. Some sex therapists estimate that as many as 1 in 12 people may have this problem, while other experts say it is relatively rare. The issue, experts say, is not one's particular sexual preference. Nor are the therapists equating strong, healthy sexual desire with addiction. Rather they are focusing on the cases in which sex becomes the all-consuming focus of life, an overriding passion that is pursued at the cost of living a normal life, at the expense of career, family or marriage.