Book review of The psychology of eating. J. Ogden. Oxford: Blackwell publishing, 2003. i–xii + 302 pages ISBN 0-631-23373-3 (hbk) 0-631-23374-1 (pbk)

Abstract

This study examined the importance of the nature of the relationship between sexual partners in predicting types of sexual practices for 293 gay and bisexual men. Demographics, personal beliefs, substance use, and variables from the health belief model, theory of self-efficacy, and theory of reasoned action were used to predict sexual behaviors. Sexual practices varied by type of partner relationship and duration, with a higher probability of risky behaviors occurring with primary partners than with non-primary partners; relationship status also moderated the effects of safer sex partner norms and denial on sexual risk-taking. In addition, men who were younger, had less education, and used alcohol or drugs prior to sex engaged in higher risk behaviors. This study indicates that a more comprehensive assessment of dimensions of partner relationship will lead to greater understanding of sexual risk-taking.     

Who is a homosexual? A critique of the heterosexual‐homosexual dimension

Abstract

The heterosexual‐homosexual distinction as a construction inhibits appreciation of the diversity of sexual experience by encouraging use of static labels to classify people's continually evolving sexual histories. Distinguishing sexual preference may expedite comprehension of sexual acts, but is counterproductive when considering whole persons. We question the need for biological explanations of homosexuality and propose that “coming out” as homosexual is a personal choice to be celebrated, not a biological abnormality. We perceive sexuality as merely one aspect of per‐sonhood. When people instead see self‐proclaimed homosexuals as “homosexuals and only homosexuals” sexual behavior overshadows other salient individual characteristics, and sexual desire becomes inseparable from personality style.     

Evaluation of the Delayed Discovery Case

Summary

In this chapter, practicing lawyer Michael S. Morey guides the reader through the complex legal and non-legal issues involved in evaluating whether legal action should be pursued on behalf of an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse. After analyzing how evaluation of sexual abuse cases differs from that in most other personal injury cases, he presents a model for non-suggestive yet thorough client interviewing and case evaluation to help both survivor and lawyer decide whether to pursue litigation. Viability of a case, determined by three critical legal issues, does not necessarily mean litigation ought to be pursued, and he explores how to make the initial interview a valuable resource to survivors, whether or not legal action is ultimately sought, with practical tips and a reproducible intake form.     

Trivial Personal Differences

Abstract

In Reasons and Persons, Derek Parfit argues that personal identity is indeterminate and that identity is not what matters in personal survival. Parfit argues that traditional views of personal identity have counterintuitive consequences and that they violate a plausible requirement, suggested by Bernard Williams, that must be met by any acceptable criterion of identity. Parfit argues that, unlike traditional determinate views of personal identity, his view succeeds in accommodating intuitions and in meeting (an analogue to) Williams' requirement. I argue that Parfit's view has more counterintuitive consequences than do the traditional views of identity. Though the traditional views do seem to violate Williams' requirement, Parfit's view fares no better. In fact, it seems that any theory of personal survival that appeals to connections that may hold to a greater or lesser extent will fail to meet the relevant requirement. This is an important general point, since the requirement is a plausible one.     

Prevalence and correlates of sexual morbidity in long-term breast cancer survivors

Objective: Breast cancer survivors report adverse sexual effects (sexual morbidity) such as disrupted sexual function, sexual distress and body dissatisfaction. However, most studies have failed to evaluate the persistence of these effects in long-term survivors. The present study comprehensively assessed the prevalence and predictors of sexual/body image problems among survivors three or more years post diagnosis.

Design/outcome measures: Eighty-three breast cancer survivors completed surveys a median of seven years post diagnosis. Survey items probed demographic, diagnostic and clinical information, in addition to sexual activity, sexual function (Female Sexual Function Index [FSFI]), body image, and distress regarding body changes and sexual problems (Female Sexual Distress Scale-revised; FSDS-R).

Results: Seventy-seven percent of all participants and 60% of sexually active participants qualified for sexual dysfunction based on the FSFI. Between 37 and 51% met criteria for female sexual dysfunction, based on two FSDS-R clinical cut-offs. Body satisfaction was worse than normative values, while body change stress was mid-range. Notable sexual morbidity predictors included mastectomy, which was associated with worse sexual/body change distress, and post-treatment weight gain, which predicted greater body dissatisfaction/body change stress.

Conclusions: Breast cancer survivors report substantial sexual morbidity years after treatment, especially after mastectomy or post-treatment weight gain. Breast cancer patients and their providers should be aware of these potential sexual effects.     

Challenges of Being Simultaneously Gay or Lesbian and Spiritual and/or Religious: A Narrative Perspective

The purpose of this article is to describe the struggle that gays and lesbians face as they incorporate their sexual orientation and identity within the context of an existing religious or spiritual identity. An overview of the religious and spiritual context that makes individuals unique will be followed by how the narrative perspective can help individuals who identify themselves as gay or lesbian with their struggle for identity. Finally, new narrative directions will be suggested for marriage and family therapists and their work with gays and lesbians who are confronted with these issues.     

Childhood Sexual Abuse and Revictimization In Adolescence and Adulthood

Abstract

Childhood sexual abuse must be seen as a pervasive risk factor in children's lives: No demographic or family characteristics have as yet been identified to rule out the possibility that a child will be or has been sexually abused (Finkelhor, 1993). The adverse consequences of sexual abuse, both immediate and long term, have been documented by a large body of research. After a summary of the main findings from this research, the main objective of the present chapter is to examine the impact of childhood sexual abuse on a particular aspect of psychological functioning: the development of sexual behavior and sexual relationships. In this analysis, special consideration is given to the question of whether individuals who were sexually abused as children are at greater risk of experiencing sexual victimization in later life than individuals without experience of abuse. This question has generated a substantial body of evidence (see Messman & Long, 1996, for a review), and researchers are beginning to understand pathways from the experience of abuse in childhood to revictimization in adolescence and adulthood.     

Conceptualizing Excellence: Past,Present, and Future

While an historical glance through the sport psychology literature reveals an interest in performance excellence since its beginning, a focus of personal excellence has been a more recent trend. This review will address the relationships between performance and personal excellence. More specifically, we question whether performance excellence in high-level sport, by virtue of the exceptional demands on the elite athlete, occurs at the expense of development in personal excellence or whether performance excellence is possible only through personal excellence. Furthermore, we propose that the field may reconcile these ideals in the future through an athlete-centered sport model. This model is defined by the philosophy that developmentally appropriate sport can be used as a vehicle for enhancing overall well-being and the acquisition of lifelong skills. Performance excellence, therefore, co-exists in the same environment as personal excellence. The implications of implementing an athlete-centered sport system for athletes and coaches and for the research and practice of those in sport psychology will be addressed.     

Experience of traumatic events and personal myths of birth

ABSTRACT

Focusing on the analysis of a clinical case, this article studies the manner in which certain traumatic events can induce some individuals to produce auto-traumatic processes. In parallel, it demonstrates how the foundations of a subject’s origins can, at an early stage, find themselves undermined by an environment that does not recognise the subject, and that sends out messages that seem to exclude him or her from their filiation. What can follow is a partial breakdown in the ideation of origins that leads some individuals to create a personal myth of birth. This myth, that borrows some elements from collective myths, can to some extent substitute itself for the representation of filiation. This process will be differentiated here from delusional phenomena, or the ‘sexual theories of children’. This article also demonstrates the important role of the analysis of ‘anxiety dreams’ in these traumatic configurations: this analysis has the power to bring to light the different conflicting elements with which the ego identifies, so as to put an end to the auto-traumatic process, as well as giving clues for lifting the amnesia regarding a childhood personal myth of birth. Under these conditions ‘acts of birth’ can become inscribed into the analysis.     

Sexual Intimacy-Towards Equal Relationships Between Men and Women (with Treatment Assistance of a Computer Program)

SUMMARY

By rethinking sexual basic concepts we liberate sexology from mere biological and technical models. The sexual focus combined with the Object Relation Theory creates a promising therapeutic perspective for couples. Special attention will be given to male processes. Some vignettes of the computer program Sexpertise illustrate this article.     

Knowledge,beliefs, peer norms,and past behaviors as correlates of risky sexual behaviors among college students

Abstract

HIV/AIDS knowledge, age at onset of sexual activity, perceptions of personal risk and peer norms were explored as correlates for risky sexual behaviors among college students. Ninety-nine male and 185 female college students completed a 66-item questionnaire. A majority reported being sexually active with most in mutually monogamous relationships or not currently in a sexual relationship. Multiple regression correlation analyses showed knowledge about HIV/AIDS to be very high but that this knowledge did not independently relate to the extent of risky behaviors. Perceptions of risk were positively related to number of partners and single-time partners but not condom usage. In contrast to previous studies, perceived peer norms did not independently relate to behaviors. Instead, age at first intercourse was found to have substantial overlap with current perceptions, attitudes, and likelihood for engaging in risky behaviors. The necessity for including previous behaviors in analyses of the impact of attitudes and perceived norms on behavioral intentions is discussed.     

The Attitudes and Attitude Estimates of Catholic,Protestant, and Jewish Students

Summary

This study was a cross-cultural extension of previous research concerning the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality, attitudes toward heterosexual sexual practices, personal sex-guilt, and sex stereotyping. One hundred twelve Brazilian male college students completed a series of attitude measures previously administered to a comparable sample of Canadians. As had been previously found in Canada, antihomosexual (Anti-H) Ss were more disapproving of various heterosexual sexual practices and reported greater personal sex-guilt than prohomosexual (Pro-H) Ss. The intercorrelations among the three principle attitude scales were only moderately positive in both samples, suggesting that attitudes toward homosexuality are somewhat independent of more general sexual attitudes. Anti-H Ss also stereotyped the sexes more than did Pro-H respondents and were more willing than Pro-H Ss to label a male as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought was a single feminine characteristic. In these respects the Brazilian and Canadian results were strikingly similar.

More antihomosexual prejudice was found in the Brazilians. They also assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did Canadian Ss. The findings of this study provide potent cross-cultural confirmation of Churchill's theory of antihomosexual prejudice within a sex-negative environment.     

Sibling Child Sexual Abuse Research Review and Clinical Implications

SUMMARY

Although sex play is a part of normal childhood development, some sexual activity may be coerced or forced and may have negative long-term consequences and, thus, be considered abusive. However, childhood sexual abuse perpetrated by siblings, cousins, or peers receives relatively little attention from either researchers or practitioners. In the present article, the literature on sibling child sexual abuse is critically reviewed, and particular attention is focused on defining sibling sexual abuse, and determining its scope and effects. Clinical Implications are derived as well. Although the article focuses on sibling sexual abuse, the concepts considered here also apply to other forms of same-age (or near same-age) child sexual relationships.     

Freud,the Serpent and the Sexual Enlightenment of Children

Abstract

This paper examines Freud's interpretation of the myth of the Fall, which he sent to Jung in December of 1911. After a textual-historical exegesis of the Genesis narrative, I argue that many features of the myth, which Freud construed in Oedipal terms, are more intelligible in light of his theories of infantile sexual researches, which he abandoned in 1910. The etiological shift away from infantile sexual researches (and the consequent Oedipalization of analytic theory) were 1) not prompted solely by clinical considerations, and 2) heralded dramatic changes in attitudes toward children and the rejection of paternal authority in Freud and his circle, and 3) corresponding changes in the structure and organization of the psychoanalytic movement itself, creating an orthodoxy or “party line”.

The term “orthodoxy” means “uniformity of belief”, and is usually applied to religious groups, whose dogmatic emphasis on a specific body of doctrine serves to define the group's membership and boundaries, and to exclude “unbelievers” from its midst. In this sense, Freud's style of leadership was distinctly “religious”. Due to deep seated resistances in the analytic world, it is possible that disparities between Freud's earlier and later attitudes toward children will never be thematized and explored with the attention and seriousness they deserve. But the attempt must be made, and by exploring the Genesis narrative, we can grasp the personal and political motives that molded Freud's theory of religion, and glimpse the outlines of paths not taken in the clinical theory.     

The Roman Catholic Pedophilia Crisis and the Call to Erotic Conversion

Abstract

The abuse of children and associated cover-ups have damaged the laity's trust in priests, unsettled the church's finances and exposed a culture of self-deception. Consequently, there is more focus on priest's sexual orientation and a clerical culture that includes hidden sexual behavior. Yet, Rome and the bishops are creating an environment which encourages the suppression of sexuality. In this climate, priests may be more prone to a less healthy and less mature incorporation of sexuality into daily living. Meanwhile, little theological discussion has occurred regarding the contribution of the church's narrow view of sexuality on this crisis. As a response, this article will use Lonergan's methodology to introduce the notion of Erotic Conversion, or, ‘turning with’ our sexual energies in an affirming manner. This concept will be brought into dialogue with the concept of embodiment and those theologies which have arisen from the gay and lesbian liberation movement.     

The Case Study Method of Rehabilitating Drivers

Summary

This study was designed to examine the relationship between attitudes toward homosexuality and attitudes toward certain aspects of heterosexual sexuality and to personal sex guilt and sex stereotyping. One hundred twenty-six Canadian male students completed a series of specially devised attitude scales pertaining to these areas. On the basis of their responses to the anti-homosexual scale, subjects were divided into a prohomosexual (Pro-H) and antihomosexual (Anti-H) group.

Results showed that Anti-H respondents were more intolerant of a variety of heterosexual behaviors. Anti-H Ss reported more personal sex-guilt and higher level of repression of their own sexual impulses than did Pro-H subjects. The Anti-H group also demonstrated a greater stereotyping of the sexes by their sex-typing of a variety of personality characteristics, hobbies, and professions. These Ss were also more willing to label a man as homosexual when he exhibited what they thought of as a single feminine characteristic than were Pro-H subjects.

These findings provide supportive evidence for the theoretical formulations of Churchill (4) regarding antihomosexualism in a sex-negative environment. As the intercorrelations between the three principal attitude scales were only moderate, it appears that attitudes toward homosexuality are at least somewhat specific, not just part of a more general sexual attitude. Similarly, anti-homosexual attitudes correlate positively but moderately with general sexual conservatism and with personal sex guilt.

Discussion of these moderate correlations suggested the relevance of various sources of prejudice. The uncritical acceptance of culturally pervasive stereotypes could account for much measured antihomosexual feelings. It was also suggested that development of the culturally acceptable masculine identity is facilitated by the individual's desire to avoid the stigmatization of being “feminine;; which, in cultural terms, means also being “queer.”     

Fifty Shades of Grace: The Crafting of Sexual Wisdom

Abstract

Each of us has lived sexual experience that gives us embodied knowledge. This embodied knowledge is a primary source for the creation of practical sexual wisdom. We learn by doing, bumping up against others and mining the consequences to create a personal ethic. Grace accompanies us along the way. In this article a model of sexual-spiritual integration is proposed in which embodied knowledge is in critical-liminal conversation with other sources of knowledge to create practical sexual wisdom in a poetic and phronetic process. Such integration is an example of the moral creativity of the human being and derives from the function of sexuality in the person, the story-telling tendency of the brain to create identity, and the narrative intelligibility of human life. Implications for theological education (providing safe space, information, and invitations to critical and liminal reflection) are briefly discussed before particular graces (desire, vulnerability, honesty and wrestling) are explored and illustrated by stories and poems.     

Restricted Diachronic Composition,Immanent Causality,and Objecthood: A Reply to Hudson

Abstract

In ‘On Making an Effort’ E. J. Coffman develops what he takes to be a fairly serious problem for Robert Kane's positive theory of free choice, where the concept of efforts of will is pivotal.¹ Coffman argues that the plausibility of Kane's libertarian account of free choice ‘is inversely proportional to the plausibility of a certain principle of agency’ (p. 12). And since the latter is quite plausible, the former is therefore ‘at best fairly implausible’ (p. 12). In what follows I will show that Coffman's objection is in fact misplaced. Kanean libertarianism not only is in accordance with the essence of the principles of personal responsibility that Coffman advocates, it also affords a more plausible and intelligible account of the sources of personal responsibility superior to the proposed principles.     

Medical Students’ Creation of Original Poetry,Comics, and Masks to Explore Professional Identity Formation

Introduction. This study examines differences in students’ perceived value of three artmaking modalities (poetry, comics, masks) and whether the resulting creative projects offer similar or different insights into medical students’ professional identity formation. Methods. Mixed-methods design using a student survey, student narrative comments and qualitative analysis of students’ original work. Results. Poetry and comics stimulated insight, but masks were more enjoyable and stress-reducing. All three art modalities expressed tension between personal and professional identities. Discussion. Regardless of type of artmaking, students express concern about encroachments of training on personal identity but hoped that personal and professional selves could be integrated.