This collection is the first to be devoted entirely to medieval sexuality informed by current theories of sexuality and gender. It brings together essays from various disciplinary perspectives to consider how the Middle Ages defined, regulated, and represented sexual practices and desires.

Always considering sexuality in relation to gender, the gender, the body, and indentity, the essays explore medieval sexuality as a historical construction produced by and embedded in the cultures and institutions of that period. Topics include the medieval understanding of sodomy, the historical construction of heterosexuality, and the intersections of sexuality with race, gender, and religion.

How does sexual behavior change over one's life-span? How does sexual satisfaction affect the quality and stability of marriage? How has the AIDS epidemic affected sexual attitudes in America over the past three decades?
In this wide-reaching volume, distinguished sociologist Alice S. Rossi addresses these questions and others through fourteen diverse essays on sexual behavior, covering adolescence through old age and studying such groups as singles, married couples, and homosexuals. This extensive study also explores the effects of chronic disease and medication on sexual functioning, recent developments in psychotherapy for sexual problems, and sexual abuse of children, incest, and rape.
"The interdisciplinary nature of the project has resulted in a text that is accessible to anyone with a behavioral science background. Well written, well edited, and well received by this reviewer."--Joan C. Chrisler, "Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy"
"This is a book that needs to be on the bookshelf of any AIDS researcher."--"AIDS Book Review Journal"

This study argues that modern fiction, from Kate Chopin and Virginia Woolf to William Faulkner and Doris Lessing, surges with libidinal currents. The most powerful of these fictions are not merely about sex; rather, they attempt to incorporate the workings of eros into their narrative forms. In doing so, these modern fictions of sexuality create a politics and poetics of the perverse with the power to transform how we think about and read modernism. Challenging overarching theories of the novel by mapping the historical contexts that have influenced modern experimental narratives, Joseph Allen Boone constructs a model for interpreting sexuality that reaches from Freud's theory of the libidinal instincts to Foucault's theory of sexual discourse. A study of the links between literary modernity and the psychology of sex, this text is a survey of modernist fiction, gay studies/queer theory, feminist criticism, and studies in sexuality and gender.

Psychological approaches to sexual health have arisen independently in a variety of different contexts. Psychology of Sexual Health is the first book to draw together the knowledge base and expertise of clinicians and researchers from all disciplines in the psychological management of sexual health. The authors have presented advances in theory and practice in a practical way that will be accessible for all disciplines.

There have been rapid developments in the psychological management of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV and AIDS. A significant proportion of those attending genitourinary clinics do not have a disease or infection, but rather are seeking help with sexual health issues relating to behaviour, prior sexual experiences and relationships. Sexual health problems are being increasingly raised by patients across many other health specialties. Hence an increasing number of practitioners are needing to understand the psychological issues underlying sexual health.

With contributions from experts around the world, this book addresses a wide range of issues including sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse, rape, abortion and genetic counselling.

This is the only book that systematically examines transgender sex work in the United States and globally. Bringing together perspectives from a rich range of disciplines and experiences, it is an invaluable resource on issues related to commercial sex in the transgender community and in the lives of trans sex workers, including mental health, substance use, relationship dynamics, encounters with the criminal justice system, and opportunities and challenges in the realm of public health. The volume covers trans sex workers' interactions with health, social service, and mental-health agencies, featuring more than forty contributors from across the globe. Synthesizing introductions by the editor help organize and put into context a vast and scattered research and empirical literature. The book is essential for researchers, health practitioners, and policy analysts in the areas of sex-work research, HIV/AIDS, and LGBTQ/gender studies.

Sex, for the entirety of human history, has never been about reproduction. Statistically speaking, only one out of every one thousand sexual acts between a man and a woman will result in a pregnancy. And, as we know, sex does not solely take place just between men and women. So: what is sex for? In this wide-ranging and powerful new history of sex, Dr Fern Riddell will uncover the sexual lives of our ancestors and show that, just like us, they were as preoccupied with sexual identities, masturbation, foreplay, sex and deviance; facing it with the same confusion, joy and accidental hilarity that we do today. By looking at how history has dealt with different parts of our sexual experience, we're taken on an illuminating and entertaining journey about why we have sex - and what that means today.

Reproduction is a fundamental feature of life, it is the way life persists across the ages. This book offers new, wider vistas on this fundamental biological phenomenon, exploring how it works through the whole tree of life. It explores facets such as asexual reproduction, parthenogenesis, sex determination and reproductive investment, with a taxonomic coverage extended over all the main groups - animals, plants including 'algae', fungi, protists and bacteria. It collates into one volume perspectives from varied disciplines - including zoology, botany, microbiology, genetics, cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, animal and plant physiology, and ethology - integrating information into a common language. Crucially, the book aims to identify the commonalties among reproductive phenomena, while demonstrating the diversity even amongst closely related taxa. Its integrated approach makes this a valuable reference book for students and researchers, as well as an effective entry point for deeper study on specific topics.

"Good fish get dull but sex is always fun." So say the Mehinaku people of Brazil. But Thomas Gregor shows that sex brings a supreme ambiguity to the villagers' lives. In their elaborate rituals--especially those practiced by the men in their secret societies--the Mehinaku give expression to a system of symbols reminiscent of psychosexual neuroses identified by Freud: castration anxiety, Oedipal conflict, fantasies of loss of strength through sex, and a host of others. "If we look carefully," writes Gregor, "we will see reflections of our own sexual nature in the life ways of an Amazonian people." The book is illustrated with Mehinaku drawings of ritual texts and myths, as well as with photographs of the villagers taking part in both everyday and ceremonial activities.

The concept of sex addiction took hold in the 1980s as a product of cultural anxiety. Yet, despite being essentially mythical, sex addiction has to be taken seriously as a phenomenon. Its success as a purported malady lay with its medicalization, both as a self-help movement in terms of self-diagnosis, and as a rapidly growing industry of therapists treating the new disease. The media played a role in its history, first with TV, the tabloids and the case histories of claimed celebrity victims all helping to popularize the concept, and then with the impact of the Internet. This book is a critical history of an archetypically modern sexual syndrome. Reay, Attwood and Gooder argue that this strange history of social opportunism, diagnostic amorphism, therapeutic self-interest and popular cultural endorsement is marked by an essential social conservatism: sex addiction has become a convenient term to describe disapproved sex. It is a label without explanatory force. This book will be essential reading for those interested in sexuality studies, contemporary history, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, media studies and studies of the Internet. It will also be of interest to doctors and therapists currently working in this and related fields.

What exactly is love? How many different kinds of love are there? Have the metaphors for love changed much over the centuries? What are the best classical love stories? Is love universal? In this fascinating and lovely little book, packed with rare and beautiful pictures, Jason Martineau takes us on a journey through the landscape of love, combining ideas from both ancient and modern sources to explore life's most prominent and provocative theme. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

The psychiatric view of homosexuality has undergone a fascinating evo lution in recent years. This includes not only the change from viewing homosexuality as a diagnosable illness, as opposed to an alternative life style, but also the development of considerable professional concern for providing appropriate mental health services to this previously under served minority community. There has been an increasing recognition of the need for comprehensive services including, but not limited to, counseling, individual psychotherapy, and couples therapy. This book is written for the practicing clinician, and offers a compre hensive survey of the important clinical issues involved in the counsel ing and psychotherapy of gay men and lesbian women. It is an extraor dinarily practical book and its breadth and depth make it appropriate for both the novice and the experienced therapist. SHERWYN M. WOODS Series Editor ix Preface We hear our mentors but do not often heed them. Freud's supportive, nonjudgmental approach to homosexuality provided an ambience with in which discoveries could be made, that is, the discovery that homosex uality was not a disease of mental degeneration and that sexuality, in the sense of a fundamental human propensity to find pleasure in social and physical attachments, was at its root directed to both sexes. The ad herence to a nonjudgmental approach was short-lived, suffered repres sion by homophobic defenses, and scientific zeal was directed toward "cure" rather than comprehension of the homosexual state."

In the award-winning Just Sex? The Cultural Scaffolding of Rape, Nicola Gavey provides an extensive commentary on the existing literature on rape, analysing recent research to examine the psychological and cultural conditions of possibility for contemporary sexual violence. Just Sex? argues that feminist theory on sexual victimization has gone both too far and not far enough. It presents the reader with a challenging and original perspective on the issues of rape, sex and the body, incorporating new material on sexism, misogyny and digital culture, as well as debates over gendered analyses of sexual violence. The second edition has been updated and expanded to be extremely timely and relevant, with the most recent high-profile rape cases - the Stanford rape case and the Belfast rape case - being tried in the media and online. The rise of the Hollywood Harvey Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo movement makes this book incredibly useful and necessary to those who are working within the area of sexual violence. This will appeal to academic readers studying psychology, sociology, and criminology, as well as those looking into cultural influences on society. It will also be very useful to those working in the professional sector on prevention and with people who have been subjected to sexual violence.

This new collection explores for the first time male sex work from a rich array of perspectives and disciplines. It aims to help enrich the ways in which we view both male sex work as a field of commerce and male sex worker themselves.

Leading contributors examine the field both historically and cross-culturally from fields including public health, sociology, psychology, social services, history, filmography, economics, mental health, criminal justice, geography, and migration studies, and more.

Synthesizing introductions by the editors help the reader understand the implications of the findings and conclusions for scholars, practitioners, students, and members of the interested/concerned public.

How can we currently understand sexual dysfunction? How can psychodynamic theories contribute to an understanding of sexual difficulties? How can we treat sexual problems psychodynamically?;Counsellors and therapists can be hesitant about addressing the sexual problems of their clients from any perspective and sometimes lack the confidence to tackle the issues as they arise. This is the first book to describe comprehensively a specifically psychodynamic approach to sexual dysfunction. It reviews the range and nature of sexual difficulties, and evaluates the relevance of psychodynamic theory and interventions to the understanding, assessment and treatment of sexual problems with individuals and couples. It is illustrated throughout with helpful case study material. It shows how physical and cultural understandings of sexuality and sexual difficulty need to be an integrated part of work wih clients "Psychodynamic Approaches to Sexual Problems" is a useful book for all trainee and practising counsellors and therapists working within a psychodynamic or integrated framework.

First published in Italian in 1977, Mario Mieli's groundbreaking book is an early landmark of revolutionary queer theory - now available for the first time in a complete and unabridged English translation. Among the most important works ever to address the relationship between homosexuality, homophobia and capitalism, Mieli's essay continues to pose a radical challenge to today's dominant queer theory and politics. With extraordinary prescience, Mieli exposes the efficiency with which capitalism co-opts 'perversions' which are then 'sold both wholesale and retail'. In his view the liberation of homosexual desire requires the emancipation of sexuality from both patriarchal sex roles and capital. Drawing heavily upon Marx and psychoanalysis to arrive at a dazzlingly original vision, Towards a Gay Communism is a hitherto neglected classic that will be essential reading for all who seek to understand the true meaning of sexual liberation under capitalism today.