Foundational concepts: Contemporary
Trade Review
"In this remarkable new collection of essays, Alessandra Lemma and Paul E. Lynch have provided us with an up-to-the-minute compendium of current psychoanalytic thinking regarding sexualities. Desire, developmental pathways of gender and sexual orientation, prostitution, perversion, sexual excitement, intimacy, and many other themes are considered from various perspectives that are unfailingly enlightening. Psychoanalysis has struggled with this entire area because of our fear of looking at what is in front of our eyes. This extraordinary book helps us see what we may prefer to avoid in ourselves and in others. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of every psychoanalytically-oriented clinician and will surely be used as a textbook for courses in psychoanalytic institutes. - Glen O. Gabbard, MD. - Training and Supervising Analyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Houston.
This book sets a new standard. Contributors portray extraordinary empathy for and rich clinical documentation of the wide range of psychic and behavioral usages of sexuality and gender. They candidly acknowledge wrestling, like Freud, with old feelings -- discomfort with some current culturally-contested formulations while being at the forefront of contestation. Several chapters provide an original, creative integration of abstract theories about maternal sexuality with research on attachment, mirroring and mentalization and on-the-ground observations of infantile sexuality. I was grateful for recognition of Stoller's contribution and for necessary, and too rare, discussions of the relations between sociology, sexology and psychoanalysis. - Nancy J Chodorow, PhD. Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.
"The book make a compelling argument for how psychoanalytic conepts such as mirroring and revisiting the Oedipal Complex could help us understand sexual variations (a term preferred by some sexologists to "perversions"), gender, and homosexuality... The current sexual climate requires a reevaluation of theories to explain human sexuality to keep pace with changes in issues such as gay and lesbian rights, sexual dysfunctions, and gender issues. Lemma and Lynch have managed to provide updated and integrative discussions on these issues. Lemma nad Lynch have managed to provide updated and integrative discussions on these issues. The book should be of interest to scholars interested in sexology, as well as to historians of psychology and clinicians." - Carlos Escoto, Eastern Connecticut State University, associate editor for Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, in PsycCritiques
"In this remarkable new collection of essays, Alessandra Lemma and Paul E. Lynch have provided us with an up-to-the-minute compendium of current psychoanalytic thinking regarding sexualities. Desire, developmental pathways of gender and sexual orientation, prostitution, perversion, sexual excitement, intimacy, and many other themes are considered from various perspectives that are unfailingly enlightening. Psychoanalysis has struggled with this entire area because of our fear of looking at what is in front of our eyes. This extraordinary book helps us see what we may prefer to avoid in ourselves and in others. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of every psychoanalytically-oriented clinician and will surely be used as a textbook for courses in psychoanalytic institutes. - Glen O. Gabbard, MD. - Training and Supervising Analyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies in Houston.
This book sets a new standard. Contributors portray extraordinary empathy for and rich clinical documentation of the wide range of psychic and behavioral usages of sexuality and gender. They candidly acknowledge wrestling, like Freud, with old feelings -- discomfort with some current culturally-contested formulations while being at the forefront of contestation. Several chapters provide an original, creative integration of abstract theories about maternal sexuality with research on attachment, mirroring and mentalization and on-the-ground observations of infantile sexuality. I was grateful for recognition of Stoller's contribution and for necessary, and too rare, discussions of the relations between sociology, sexology and psychoanalysis. - Nancy J Chodorow, PhD. Training and Supervising Analyst, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.
Table of Contents
Introduction. What happened to psychoanalysis in the wake of the sexual revolution? A developmental model of sexual excitement, desire and alienation. Desire and Its Discontents. Disrupting Oedipus; The Legacy of the Sphinx. No maps for uncharted lands: what does gender expression have to do with sexual orientation? . A Scientific Theory of homosexuality for psychoanalysis. Intimacy, Desire and Shame in Gay Male Sexuality. Objecting to the object: Encountering the internal parental couple relationship for lesbian and gay couples. The Sexual Aberrations: Do We Still Need the Concept? If so, when and why? If not, why not? The prostitute as mirror: Distinguishing perverse and non-perverse use of prostitutes.. On sexual perversions’capacity to act as portal to psychic states that have evaded representation. Working with problems of perversion.
