Sex, Attachment and Couple Psychotherapy

by Clulow, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9781855755581
• ISBN10: 1855755580
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-31
• Publisher: KARNAC BOOKS

Summary

What, from a psychoanalytic point of view, constitute the 'facts of life'? What are the stories that our professional mentors tell us about the psychological equivalents of the 'birds and the bees'? How useful are these stories, and in what ways do they help those of us who work with couples understand and change the sexual difficulties that they present us with? Do these stories, indeed, have anything to say about sex, or might they, like the inventions of embarrassed parents, deflect our attention away from what we really need to know in relating to the sexual lives of our patients? This book explores sexuality in the contexts of couple relationships and psychotherapy. It presents a range of psychoanalytic and psychodynamic perspectives from which problematic sexual experience ' that is, sexual experience that has troubled couples sufficiently for them to seek outside help ' might be understood and worked with. Rooted in clinical practice the book assembles a rich diversity of approaches that will interest anyone wanting to learn more about the affective dimensions of sexual experience and seeking to apply this in their work with couples. The contributors are all closely associated with the Tavistock Centre of Couple Relationships, either as staff, neighbouring colleagues at the Tavistock and Portman Clinics, or through its professional association, the Society of Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapists.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
About the Editor and Contributors	p. xi
Foreword	p. xvii
The facts of life: an introduction by Christopher Clulow	p. xxv
Psychoanalysis and sexpertise	p. 1
What do we mean by "sex"?	p. 25
Lively and deathly intercourse	p. 45
Separated attachments and sexual aliveness	p. 63
Dynamics and disorders of sexual desire	p. 75
Sexual dread and the therapist's desire	p. 103
Loss of desire and therapist dread	p. 119
Loss of desire: a psycho-sexual case study	p. 141
Power vs. love in sadomasochistic couple relationships	p. 165
From fear of intimacy to perversion	p. 185
Perversion as protection	p. 199
Intimacy and sexuality in later life	p. 217
Index	p. 21337
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