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Although “lovemap” is not the usual term that an analyst might use when describing sexual development, it is an interesting context in which to consider the extraordinary range of possible outcomes in the development of sexual preferences and identities that William Arndt attempts to present in his comprehensive text. Lovemap, a term coined by John Money, describes the long and complex road young boys travel to arrive at the stage of adult sexuality.
Now is as good a time as any to point out that the only problematic aspect of this otherwise helpful compendium of research and clinical theory on gender disorders and the paraphilias: that is the heavy emphasis on male sexual development that is at the core of the book.
I assume that Arndt would justify this imbalance by referring to the actual predominance of such dysfunctional conditions among men. And, to his credit, he gives statistical evidence to back this point of view. For example, in the chapter on masochism, Arndt refers both to the analytic literature describing the dynamic elements in female masochism and to the statistical studies that ultimately point to the higher numbers of practicing male masochists. Arndt believes that the disparity between the numbers of deviant men and of women stems in part from the greater freedom women have in finding socially acceptable pathways for their impulses. He quotes a frequently told story about sex differences in exposing one's genitals. “If a man stops by a window to watch a woman undress, the man is arrested for peeping. If a woman stops by a window to watch a man undress, the man is arrested for exposing” (p. 288). (It is important to remember that this book is a clinical description of the disorders recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. Arndt is therefore writing of “hard core” behaviors rather than the more subtle psychodynamic underpinnings of sexual choices psychoanalysts typically consider.)
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