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‘Sexuality’—the word is writ large over a cover illustration of overlapping faces, bodies and, possibly, body parts: the kind of part-figurative collage that, for the last 30 years or so, has been used to signify that ‘modern’ ideas are contained within a certain kind of textbook. On one level this juxtaposition of the tantalizing word with the safe design gives the reader a sense of what to expect; it is a book about sex, but it is not provocative. Debate hots up as we reach the middle chapters, but the tone is always thoughtful. Clinical material is far from sensational; vignettes illustrating theory in practice rather than offering to share the intensity of the psychoanalytic work. The book exemplifies what psychoanalysis is good at; it is thorough—within its parameters—and it invites us to make our own connections, to draw together the issues raised by the 10 contributors. It encourages a reasonable, flexible and open-minded approach to the material and its application in our work.
As a textbook, this publication is very welcome and, in fact, as Celia Harding tells us, the contributions started life as part of a lecture series. It provides a lively and straightforward overview of psychoanalytic theories of sexuality (particularly in Robert Young's first chapter), including recent