33Rd Annual Meeting*: On “The Effect of Injury, Illness, and Incest on Female Sexual Functioning”

The papers presented essentially related to the psychological consequences on sexual functioning of various physical traumata, including surgery, physical illness, and sexual abuse. Martin Symonds presented material related to the effects of illness and injury on sexual functioning and, importantly, discussed the idealized self-image that is damaged in the context of physical injury. He discussed shock and denial, the time lag frequently evident when an individual is traumatized, the depression that develops, and particularly pointed out that people who focus on the past rather than being future oriented do very poorly in treatment. Leah Davidson presented “Reactions to Hysterectomy.” She discussed the mythology of hysterectomy as it relates to man's fear of woman as the earth mother. She suggested that depression is “more common in dependent traditionally oriented women, whose self-esteem is based on their social value as a sex object or child bearer.”

These two presentations were discussed by Martha Kirkpatrick, who spoke about the relationship of body, body image, and idealized image to traumata. She pointed out, for example, that woman may have a better chance of developing flexibility to traumatic situations, possibly because their lives are more cyclical than linear in contrast to men's. She discussed changing body image with age and the concept of femininity as a psychological state reactive to hormones and