This book examines some of the ways in which sexuality has been described and interpreted in the West. The main models examined are: the Christian view of sex as sinful; the psychoanalytical model, including such notions as the sexual drive, infantile sexuality, the Oedipus complex, and the distinction between male and female sexuality; the 'social construction' model, which proposes that 'sexuality' is a modern concept; and the links between sexuality and spirituality. There is also some consideration of feminist and gay approaches to sexuality, and the complicated subject of male sexuality.

This book is a philosophical study of love between equals, intended for the general reader. The Introduction explains the importance of analytic philosophy. Subsequent chapters deal with (1) love as desire or need, (2) love as intrinsic friendship, (3) the politics of love, (4) altruism and paranoia, (5) justice and communication, (6) sex, and (7) the value in loving an equal, together with some remarks on the human condition in general and the importance of reason in dealing with it. A brief list of further reading is appended.

Over the last fifteen years, psychological research regarding sexual orientation has seen explosive growth. In this book, Anthony R. D'Augelli and Charlotte J. Patterson bring together top experts to offer a comprehensive overview of what we have discovered - and what we still need to learn - about lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities. Writing in clear, nontechnical language, the contributors cover a range of topics, including conceptions of sexual identity, development over the lifespan, family and other personal relationships, parenting, and bigotry and discrimination. Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities Over the Lifespan is essential reading for researchers, students, social scientists, mental health practitioners, and general readers who seek the most up-to-date and authoritative treatment of the subject available.

How can contemporary psychoanalysis be used to understand the sexuality and experiences of bisexual or lesbian women without marginalizing them? Burch explores how lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual women's experiences may be incorporated into psychoanalytic theory, arguing convincingly that the dynamics of lesbian and bisexual relationships are part of women's development and desires, rather than dysfunctions of them.

A comprehensive overview of feminist debates surrounding sexuality identifying the main theoretical positions and trends. Contributors include Judith Butler, bell hooks, Luce Irigaray, Catherine MacKinnon, Adrienne Rich, Gayle Rubin, Judith Walkowitz and Monique Wittig.

Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, is what fired the Greek imagination. The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in their attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violence-top 40 song cliches for us-locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, and femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself. In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Seualily, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretensions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions.

Adam Parkes investigates the literary and cultural implications of the censorship with which several major works of modern fiction were received in their time. He situates modernism in the context of this reception, examining the relations between such authors as D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Radclyffe Hall, and Virginia Woolf and the public controversies generated by their fictional explorations of modern sexual themes. These authors located "obscenity" at the level of stylistic and formal experiment. Lady Chatterley's Lover, Ulysses, The Well of Loneliness, and Orlando dramatized problems of sexuality and expression in ways that subverted the moral, political, and aesthetic premises on which their censors operated. In showing how modernism evolved within a culture of censorship, Modernism and the Theater of Censorship suggests that modern novelists, while shaped by their culture, attempted to reshape it.

A popular belief is that whatever takes place in private between consenting adults should be allowed. This is the first book to offer a systematic philosophical examination of what might be meant by consent and what role it should play in the context of sexual activity.Investigating the adequacy of standard accounts of consent, the book criticizes an influential feminist critique of consensuality. David Archard then applies this new theoretical understanding of sexual consent to controversial topics, such as prostitution, rape, sadomasochism, and the age of consent.Written in clear, jargon-free language that combines philosophical analysis with practical discussion of real and imagined legal cases, "Sexual Consent" is both a provocative and fascinating study for philosophers, lawyers, and general readers.

The intellectual movements of psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and feminism have redefined the ways in which we think about human experience. And yet, an integration of these movements has been elusive, if not impossible. In this landmark book, J.C. Smith and Carla J. Ferstman combine these disparate traditions to create a provocative, unified, and tightly woven perspective that transcends the misogyny implicit in much of Freudian psychoanalytic theory.

The dialectics of domination and submission are central to Smith and Ferstman's argument. Men and women, they insist, must avoid the temptation to fetishize equality and recognize the roles of domination and submission in the human psyche, or, in Nietzsche's terms, the Will to Power. They argue that the unification of psychoanalysis, postmodernism, and feminism leads us to a shocking conclusion--that women and men cannot move beyond the suffering which so haunts the human condition, unless heterosexual men surrender the power that is causing their misery and affirm life by joyfully accepting domination by women. And women, conversely, must reaffirm their power by rejecting Oedipal genderization and embracing a liberating matriarchal consciousness and a matriphallic sexuality.

A work of tremendous insight and extraordinary intellectual energy, The Castration of Oedipus will provoke strong reactions in all readers regardless of ideology.

The study of sexuality is moving from margin to centre stage in sociology, as the 1994 British Sociological Association annual conference on 'Sexualities in Social Context' demonstrated. Drawn from that conference, the papers in this volume contribute to the debates which have developed on the relationship between the sexual and the social, and between gender and sexuality. The focus is on women, and from different perspectives the authors explore the themes of gendered identity, the construction of sexuality, embodiment and control. The social contexts in which these themes are elaborated include the family, the law, the education system, medical practice and discourse, and cultural representations and texts.

Shannon McSheffrey studies the communities of the late medieval English heretics, the Lollards, and presents unexpected conclusions about the precise ways in which gender shaped participation and interaction within the movement.

Sexual confessions on television talk shows. Gender and medical discourse in colonial India. River Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho." White women in a German colony. Henry James' thwarted love. What do these seemingly diverse subjects have in common?

All address, in different ways, social and cultural attempts to contain eroticism by delineating the perimeters of genders. They scrutinize the political investments in the construction of gender in such disparate locations as contemporary Hollywood, Renaissance England, colonial India and Africa, and in modern and contemporary homosexual discourse communities and in Freud's sessions with Dora.

But whether the gendering of the subject follows the dictates of conservative politics or the radical agenda of a marginalized interest, the essays reveal the erotic overflow--the flood--that cannot be contained within any one gender identity. In examining how the erotic escapes containment, this work discloses problems inherent in the intersections of gender and desire.

go to the Genders website ]

Sexuality is a complex and multifaceted domain - encompassing bodily, contextual and subjective experiences that resist ready categorisation. To claim the sexual as a viable research object therefore raises a number of important methodological questions: what is it possible to know about experiences, practices and perceptions of sex and sexualities? What approaches might help or hinder our efforts to probe such experiences? This collection explores the creative, personal and contextual parameters involved in researching sexuality, cutting across disciplinary boundaries and drawing on case studies from a variety of countries and contexts. Combining a wide range of expertise, its contributors address such key areas as pornography, sex work, intersectionality and LGBT perspectives. The contributors also share their own experiences of researching sexuality within contrasting disciplines, as well as interrogating how the sexual identities of researchers themselves can relate to, and inform, their work. The result is a unique and diverse collection that combines practical insights on field work with novel theoretical reflections.

"An original, liberating interpretation . . . should become a standard of cultural and psychoanalytical studies."
--"The Guardian"

The aura of passivity that has for centuries surrounded female sexuality in popular culture, psychology, and literature has, in recent years, dissipated. And yet fetishism, one of the most intriguing and mysterious forms of sexual expression, is still cast as an almost exclusively male domain. Most psychoanalytic thought, for instance, excludes the very possibility of female fetishism.

The first book on the subject, "Female Fetishism" engagingly documents women's involvement in this form of sexuality. Lorraine Gamman and Merja Makinen describe a wide array of female fetishisms, from the obsessional behavior of pop fans (and pop performers such as Madonna) to fetishism in advertising to women's involvement in the world of dress clubs and fetish magazines. The authors provide provocative evidence of food fetishism among women, arguing that many eating disorders are best understood from this perspective.
A latter portion of the book includes a discussion of how feminists have treated the political and cultural significance of female fetishism.

"Thoughtful, probing, and caring. . . Destined for distinction as one of the best books of the year."
--Janice G. Raymond
author of "Women as Wombs: Reproductive Technologies and the Battle Over Women's Freedom" and "A Passion for Friends"

""Changing Our Minds" is a brave, invigorating, and important book. . . essential reading for anyone in, or anyone who studies, the helping professions; it is even more essential for any woman in distress who wants 'help'."
--Phyllis Chesler, Ph.D.
author of "Women and Madness, About Men," and "Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and Custody"

"A wide-ranging, hard-hitting analysis of psychology and its dangers. "Changing Our Minds" should be compulsory reading for all psychologists and deserves a place on every feminist's bookshelf."
--Sue Wilkinson
editor of "Feminism & Psychology: An International Journal"

Women today are being instructed on how they can raise their self-esteem, love their inner child, survive their toxic families, overcome codependency, and experience a revolution from within. By holding up the ideal of a pure and happy inner core, psychotherapists refuse to acknowledge that a certain degree of unhappiness or dissatisfaction is a routine part of life and not necessarily a cause for therapy. Lesbians specifically are now guided to define themselves according to their frailties, inadequacies, and insecurities.

An incisive critique of contemporary feminist psychology and therapy, "Changing our Minds" argues not just that the current practice of psychology is flawed, but that the whole idea of psychology runs counter to many tenets of lesbian feminist politics. Recognizing that many lesbians dofeel unhappy and experience a range of problems that detract from their well-being, "Changing Our Minds" makes positive, prescriptive suggestions for non-psychological ways of understanding and dealing with emotional distress.

Written in a lively and engaging style, "Changing our Minds" is required reading for anyone who has ever been in therapy or is close to someone who has, and for lesbians, feminists, psychologists, psychotherapists, students of psychology and women's studies, and anyone with an interest in the development of lesbian feminist theory, ethics, and practice.

This pathbreaking compilation, long out of print, is a survey of sexual fantasies from early folklore to the bawdy tales of the prolific Victorians to a very modern version of "Little Red Riding Hood." Here, among other selections, are vignettes from Poggio, Rabelais, and the "Divine" Aretino, instructive dialogues from the seventeenth-century Whore's Rhetorick, nineteenth-century flights of invention like Gynecocracy, Prince Cherrytop, and Les Tableaux Vivants, and a "superman" fantasy by Alfred Jarry--excerpts from the entire spectrum of Western erotica.
In their frank and fascinating commentary, the Drs. Kronhausen mine these "mental aphrodisiacs" as a valuable source of psychological and cultural insight. As they point out, it is the element of fantasy that distinguishes human sexuality from that of other species. In a spirit of respect for the play of the human imagination in all its forms, they commend their volume to their fellow professionals and to anyone "with literary interests, a sense of humor, and the moral courage to look at his own unknown psyche and that of his fellow men."

The policing of pornography remains the subject of widespread and ongoing controversy. This book provides a history of this policing which is geared towards understanding the current debate. The authors demonstrate that obscenity law cannot be understood negatively as censorship and must instead be seen as part of the positive administration of a particular practice of sexuality. They also argue that pornography itself should be described negatively as a mere representation of real sex but positively as a real practice of sex using representations. This history indicates that obscenity law is not, as liberals claim, a mistaken attempt to police moral ideas, but rather forms part of the legitimate governmental regulation of a problematic social conduct. At the same time it asks whether feminists might not be mistaken in attributing this conduct to the nature of the male imagination.

"Based on impressive research in a wide variety of sources, including popular literature, advertisements, true confession and physique magazines, advice columns, sex surveys, vice investigation reports, and personal letters, "The First Sexual Revolution" offers a provocative interpretation of the impact of the sexual revolution on men. White's boldly-stated criticism of sexual liberalism is sure to arouse controversy. Yet his view of men confused by new expectations of attractiveness and sexiness, threatened by women's demands for sexual satisfaction, yet essentially still in control, is compelling."
--Leila J. Rupp Ohio State University, Co-author of "Survival in the Doldrums: The American Women's Rights Movement, 1945 to the 1960s,"

In the early 1900s, a sexual revolution took place that was to define social relations between the sexes in America for generations. As Victorian values gradually faded, and a commercialized consumer culture emerged, the female figure of the flapper came to embody early-twentieth century femininity. Simultaneously, masculine ideals were also undergoing radical change. Who then was this New Man to accompany the New Woman? Who was the flapper's boyfriend?

In this remarkable book, Kevin White draws on a vast array of sources to examine the ideology--spread through movies, advertisements, sex confession magazines, social hygienists, sex manuals, and Freudian popularizers --that has defined modern American manhood. Examining attitudes toward masturbation, homosexuality, violence against women, feminism, free love, and the emerging dating system, "The First Sexual Revolution" shows how American men in the Jazz Age were subjected to a barrage ofinformation and advice about their sexuality that stressed not character but personality and sex appeal. Repression was out; sexual expression--performance--was in.

This New Man was more egalitarian and more sexual than the Victorian patriarch. But the diffusion to the middle class of the Victorian underworld ethos of primitivism and violence against women, and the flight from commitment to relationships, heralded instability and tensions that continues to define American sexual relations. To illustrate this point, Dr. White takes a close look--through letters and diaries--at the successes and failures of nine marriages involving actively feminist women, demonstrating the pressures that this revolution in values caused. Dr. White concludes that the return to primitivism characterized by the men's movement marks the most recent aftershock of the revolution that has shaped us all.

Winner of the 2021 SSTAR Consumer Book Award! What makes sex magnificent? What are the qualities of extraordinary erotic intimacy and what are the elements that help to bring it about? Is great sex the stuff that people remember nostalgically from the "honeymoon" phase of their relationships, or can sex improve over time? Magnificent Sex is based on the largest, in-depth interview study ever conducted with people who are having extraordinary sex. It gathers the nuggets for remarkable sex from the "experts", distilling them into an attainable blueprint for ordinary lovers who want to make erotic intimacy grow over the course of a lifetime. Looking at factors including individual and relational qualities, empathic communication and the myths and realities of magnificent sex, this book offers accessible and evidence-based guidance for lovers and therapists alike. It is replete with frank and often humorous interviews with straight and LGBTQ individuals and couples, those who are "vanilla" and "kinky", monogamous and consensually non-monogamous and healthy and chronically ill. This illuminating book explores the implications of the findings to develop a model that effectively tackles the common problems of low desire and frequency. The "cure" for low desire is to create desirable sex!

"Gender Outlaw" is the work of a woman who has been through some changes - a former heterosexual male and one-time Scientologist and IBM salesperson, Kate Bornstein is now a lesbian woman writer and actress who makes regular rounds on the TV talk shows. This book covers: the "mechanics" of her surgery; everything you've always wanted to know about gender (but were too confused to ask); the place and politics of the transgendered; and the questions of those who give the subject little thought. It takes on various communities: gay, lesbian, straight, S/M and transgender, along with society at large. This work also includes Bornstein's play, "Hidden: A Gender".

When you discover that the person you loved and trusted most in the world is hiding a secret life as a sex addict, the result can be devastating. Facing that heartbreak is what this book is all about. The healing process will take time regardless of whether you decide to stay in the relationship or leave.

Facing Heartbreak weaves real life stories with practical therapeutic advice and specific tasks that gently educate, empower, and guide the partner of the sex addict through a process of recovery. Using Dr. Patrick Carnes' thirty-task sex recovery model, readers will learn to heal from the heartbreak and betrayal as they discover hope and healing.

This accessible book offers effective protocol for engaging in better sexual decision-making in clinical practice. It demonstrates that damaging sexual behaviors are often the result of a process in which a clinician progresses towards the crossing of a client-clinician boundary. Sexual Attraction in Therapy explores state-of-the art research from a multitude of related fields and includes sage advice on how to recognize personal risk factors, manage arousal, identify counterproductive sexual behaviors, and use self-talk to exit sexual situations. Sexual boundary violations usually follow a much longer insidious process and the book carefully discusses and highlights the warning signs for clinicians, which can develop into sexual predicaments affecting their lives and those of their clients, their workplaces and colleagues, and the reputation of the mental health field. Chapters provide essential guidance so that therapists can monitor progress along the 'sexual decision cycle' and, importantly, create organizations far more resistant to poor sexual decision-making. This text is an excellent teaching guide for clinicians and treatment professionals who seek therapeutic growth for both clients and themselves. Clinicians will be able to improve their decision-making and prevent themselves from engaging in damaging sexual behaviors, and organizations can redesign their approach to include preventative practices.

This accessible book offers effective protocol for engaging in better sexual decision-making in clinical practice. It demonstrates that damaging sexual behaviors are often the result of a process in which a clinician progresses towards the crossing of a client-clinician boundary. Sexual Attraction in Therapy explores state-of-the art research from a multitude of related fields and includes sage advice on how to recognize personal risk factors, manage arousal, identify counterproductive sexual behaviors, and use self-talk to exit sexual situations. Sexual boundary violations usually follow a much longer insidious process and the book carefully discusses and highlights the warning signs for clinicians, which can develop into sexual predicaments affecting their lives and those of their clients, their workplaces and colleagues, and the reputation of the mental health field. Chapters provide essential guidance so that therapists can monitor progress along the 'sexual decision cycle' and, importantly, create organizations far more resistant to poor sexual decision-making. This text is an excellent teaching guide for clinicians and treatment professionals who seek therapeutic growth for both clients and themselves. Clinicians will be able to improve their decision-making and prevent themselves from engaging in damaging sexual behaviors, and organizations can redesign their approach to include preventative practices.