Sexuality and Medicine

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxxii

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2. Human Sexuality

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Medical and Psychiatric Perspectives on a ‘Healthy Sexuality’

      • Robert C. Kolodny

      Pages 3-16

   3. Medical and Psychiatric Perspectives on Human Sexual Behavior

      • Frederick Suppe

      Pages 17-37

   4. The Origins of Sexual Identity: A Clinician’s View

      • Stephen B. Levine

      Pages 39-54

   5. Theories of Transsexualism

      • Leslie M. Lothstein

      Pages 55-72

   6. Sex Research and Therapy

      • Vern L. Bullough

      Pages 73-85

   7. A Survey of Human Reproduction, Infertility Therapy, Fertility Control and Ethical Consequences

      • Fritz K. Beller

      Pages 87-108

3. Sexuality and Sexual Concepts

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 109-109

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   2. Philosophy, Medicine, and Healthy Sexuality

      • Alan Soble

      Pages 111-138

   3. Concepts of Disease and Sexuality

      • Joseph Margolis

      Pages 139-152

   4. Freud and Perversion

      • Jerome Neu

      Pages 153-184

   5. The Politics of the Natural: The Case of Sex Differences

      • Sandra Harding

      Pages 185-203

   6. Heterosex

      • Robert C. Solomon

      Pages 205-224

   7. Bisexuality: Challenging our Understanding of Human Sexuality and Sexual Orientation

      • Eli Coleman

      Pages 225-242

   8. Sex and Love: Sexual Dysfunction as a Spiritual Disorder

      • Peter Robert Breggin

      Pages 243-266

4. Back Matter

   Pages 267-272

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When confronted by the concerns of human sexual function or dys­ function, American medicine finds itself well impaled on the horns of a dilemma. Currently it is acceptable medical practice to treat sexual dysfunctions, disorders, or dissatisfactions that arise from psy­ chogenic etiologies, endocrine imbalances, neurologic defects or are side effects of necessary medication regimes. In addition, implanta­ tion of penile prostheses in cases of organic impotence is an increas­ ingly popular surgical procedure. These clinical approaches to sexual inadequacies, accepted by medicine since 1970, represent one horn of the dilemma. The opposite horn pictures the medical profession firmly backed into a corner by cultural influences. For example, when hospital admissions occur, a significant portion of the routine medical history is the section on system review. A few questions are asked about the cardio-respiratory, the genito-urinary, and the gastro-intestinal sys­ tems. But in a preponderance of hospitals no questions are permitted or, if raised, answers are not recorded about human sexual functioning. Physicians tend to forget that they are victims of cultural imposition first and of professional training a distant second.

• health
• infertility
• philosophy
• sexuality
• therapy

• Institute of Religion, and Center for Ethics, Medicine, and Public Issues, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

  Earl E. Shelp

Policies and ethics