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The effectiveness of the new sex therapies and the other behavior therapies has a number of implications for psychoanalytic theory and practice. In the recent past, such implications were obscured by the heated polarization of viewpoints between psychotherapists of psychodynamic and behavioral schools of thought (Breger and McGaugh, 1965; Eysenck and Rachman, 1965). However, many contemporary clinicians have concluded that these polemical debates of the recent past seemed to serve political rather than scientific purposes (London, 1972) and have shown a willingness to impartially examine the usefulness of differing theoretical models and to suggest integrated approaches utilizing major contributions from theoretically dissimilar systems of thought (Hunt and Dyrud, 1968; Marmor, 1971; Segraves, 1982).
The sex therapies evolved from the tradition of behaviorism, and the earlier models of behavioral sex therapy emphasized the provision of sexual information, reassurance, and behavioral homework assignments. Traditional psychoanalytic techniques such as interpretation of unconscious aspects of psychological conflicts underlying symptom formation and character pathology were not utilized by these therapists (Segraves, 1980). Surprisingly, many patients with psychosexual disorders responded to these brief, simple, symptom-oriented therapies with symptom remission and with minimal evidence of symptom remission