Identity, Gender and Sexuality

Contributors: Susan Coates, Cláudio Laks Eizirik, Peter Fonagy, Richard C. Friedman, André E. Haynal, Rainer Krause, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Linda C. Mayes, Friedemann Pfäfin, Anne-Marie Sandler, Sheila Spensley, Sverre Varvin, and Rudi Vermote. "Sex has undoubtedly become more complex since Freud's original descriptions, yet in another way it has changed little. It is still there as the primary motor ensuring the survival of our species, the perpetuation of our genetic material. For all mammals the process of reproduction is at the centre of their behavioural systems. For mammals with minds, this is unlikely to be different. Sexual inhibition and dissatisfaction, conflicts and perversions, the sheer intensity of guilt, jealousy, and rage that sexuality entails, are indicators of how central sexual function remains for us. Psychoanalysis cannot shirk its traditional responsibility of casting light into the darkest recesses of our mental existence." --Peter Fonagy "All the contributors to this volume agree that understanding sexuality in its current manifestations, its 'normalities' and 'pathologies', its relevance to illness and the process of recovery from trauma and failed developments within the therapeutic dyad and other relationships remains a central topic for future psychoanalytic research. Sexuality has to be rediscovered by psychoanalysis as its genuine field of research, which earns a high priority in our everyday clinical practice as well as in theorizing and research." --Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber