A sensitive young man I know, midway into his medical school training, described his initial feelings of discomfort, shame, and embarrassment when he was asked for the first time to examine a female patient old enough to be his grandmother. He said he hoped that, 20 years hence, he would still be capable of such feelings. He hoped that his further medical training and later practice would not desensitize him; he hoped he would always be capable of feeling awe in the presence of another person's bodily (and psychic) boundaries.

I start with this anecdote about a medical student because the book under review is not an easy one to read, especially at first. As the reader turns its pages, however, the matter-of-fact, low-key, nonjudgmental approach of the authors may gradually take hold, and the reader's possible initial reaction of squeamishness may abate. The volume's repetitive language and premises may become familiar, even predictable. The reader may be drawn imperceptibly into the world presented here and as any sense of