Sexuality in the Therapeutic Process: A Round Table Discussion

The members of this panel will elaborate on different aspects of sexuality as an expression of the individual's total personality. Man as a totality continuously develops his sexuality from his own psychophysiologic sources, in addition to interacting with other human beings.

Understanding the literal and symbolic forms of expression in sexuality is a major objective of the therapeutic process. Constructive utilization of the patient's overt and covert sexual behavior will be demonstrated by clinical observations. Sexuality in the patient-analyst relationship, as manifested by verbal expressions, body activity, dreams, and fantasies, will be explored. Theoretical considerations which are shared are considered a vantage point from which a fruitful discussion can evolve among the panel members and the guests in the audience.

I think it wise to begin by clarifying two points concerning my theoretical position. To my mind, psychoanalytic therapy is a collaborative procedure between patient and therapist for the purpose, mainly, of producing insight into the patient's difficulties in living. My assumption is that such difficulties are likely to be the result of unconscious, hitherto unformulated but tenaciously maintained, convictions about oneself, about others and about one's relationships with others. When such convictions can be brought into awareness with unmistakable clarity, both as to their nature and as to the circumstances in which they were originally arrived at, they can then be tested against reality. This works therapeutically, in my experience.

I should also like to make clear that I do not use the term “pregenital” as referring to early stages of libido development. In my opinion, while most of the observations upon which Freud based his libido theory—those concerning infantile sexuality—are of undoubted validity, the theory itself is a dubious one and its clinical usefulness