'While Freud opened the door on the formative and motivating power of sexuality, contemporary psychoanalysts, with some notable exceptions, have consigned sexuality to the psychoanalytic closet. This book not only re-opens the door on the broad subject of psychosexuality, but also provides fresh insights into heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, gender identity disorder, transvestism and transsexualism. This publication brings together some of the leading psychoanalytic authorities from around the globe to consider in depth the complex interweaving of identity, gender and sexuality from theoretical, clinical, historical and research perspectives. I strongly recommend "Identity, Gender and Sexuality" to those looking for a book that does not pull punches. The reader will find a debate about the relative merits of clinical, empirical, and conceptual research, critical assessments of interdisciplinary findings from infant and child development research, embodied cognitive science, academic psychology, neurobiology, genetics, ethology, and other fields of inquiry, and honest and illuminating psychoanalytic case studies. - Donald Campbell

About the Author
Peter Fonagy is Freud Memorial Professor of Psychoanalysis and Director of the Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology at University College London. He is Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, London. He is a clinical psychologist and a training and supervising analyst in the British Psychoanalytical Society in child and adult analysis. He has published over 200 chapters and articles and has authored or edited several books. Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber is a training analyst in the German Psychoanalytical Association, former Chair of the Research Subcommittees for Conceptual Research, and a member of the Swiss Psychoanalytical Society. She is Vice Chair of the Research Board of the International Psychoanalytical Association, Full Professor for Psychoanalysis at the University of Kassel, and head Director of the Sigmund Freud Institute, Frankfurt/Main. Her main research fields include epistemology and methods of clinical and empirical research in psychoanalysis, interdisciplinary discourse with embodied cognitive science, educational sciences, and modern German literature.

Reviews
Contributors: Susan Coates, Claudio Laks Eizirik, Peter Fonagy, Richard C. Friedman, Andre E. Haynal, Rainer Krause, Marianne Leuzinger-Bohleber, Linda C. Mayes, Friedemann Pfafin, 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



Book Information
ISBN 9781855757646
Author Peter Fonagy
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Karnac Books
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd