Sexuality: A Biopsychosocial Approach

by Chess Denman

Of interest to psychotherapists and counsellors of all kinds, this text describes key issues and controversies in human sexuality as they present in therapy practice. The author uses the biopsychosocial approach to human behaviour to analyze sexual behaviour, object choice, transgendered experience, sexual problems, transgressive sex and sex therapy. Issues of sexuality in the consulting room, including transference and countertransference, are discussed and, throughout, therapeutic approaches to sexual problems are presented. The human capacity for inventive imagining is presented as an important force for beneficial change and, in relation to sexuality, discussed in terms of the 'erotic imagination'.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

ILL
for safe. sane and consensual

Table of contents(from the WORLDCAT computer)notes are mine
Cover
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The aims of this book
The biopsychosocial approach
Patients’, clients’ and case examples
1 Approaches I: biology and sociobiology
Biological processes in sexuality
Medical aspects of sex and sexuality … not just a medical matter
Sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
Conclusion
2 Approaches II: anthropology and sociology
Anthropology
Cultural relativism and its limitations
Culture and ritual
Sociology
3 Approaches III: psychological approaches to sexuality
Introduction
Psychoanalysis
Freudian perspectives
Jung and Jungians
French analysts
English developments
American analysts
Psychoanalysis and biology: recent developments
Conclusion: psychoanalysis, lovemaps and the erotic imagination
4 Politics
Introduction: why politics?
Freudiomarxists
Feminism
Feminism psychotherapy and psychoanalysis
Feminism psychoanalysis and biology
Structuralism and poststructuralism
Psychoanalysis and poststructuralism
Queer theory
Sexual politics and therapeutic practice
5 Male and female heterosexuality
The female sexual life cycle
The male sexual lifecycle
6 Lesbians and gay men
Sexuality and identity
Why are some people homosexual?
General principles of therapy with gay men and lesbians
Gay men
Lesbians
7 Transgressive and coercive sex
Transgressive sex and perversion
Causes of transgressive sex: psychoanalytic views
Transgressive sexual acts and psychiatric disorders
Women and transgressive sex
Specific forms of transgressive sex
Coercive sex
Child sexual abuse
Perversion, transgression and normality
8 Transgendered people: the plasticity of gender
Introduction
Definitions
Causes of gender dysphoria: biological and sociocultural issues
Causes of male to female transsexualism
Causes of female to male transsexualism
Causes of cross-dressing
Treatment options
Political considerations
Psychotherapy of transgendered transvestite and intersex conditions
9 Sexology and sex therapy
Introduction
Sexology: a historical review
Sex therapy
Techniques to treat specific sexual disorders
Critique
10 Sex in the consulting room
Sexual feelings towards the therapist
Sexual feelings of therapists towards patients
Gender and erotic transference/countertransference
Sexual orientation and erotic transference/ countertransference
The renunciation of sex in the consulting room and in the Opedius Complex
Transference, countertransference and the erotic imagination
Sexual relationships between therapist and patient
Who has sex with their patients and why do they do it?
Who is abused?
The outcome of sexual relationships in therapy
Treating patients who have been sexually exploited
Primary prevention of abuse
Discussing the taboo
11 Conclusion
Taking stock
The erotic imagination
Pathology and the erotic imagination
Erotic imagination and culture
References
Index of Names
Index of Case Examples