Disorienting Sexuality

Thomas Domenici is a psychologist in private practice in the San Francisco Bay area and a graduate of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Ronnie C. Lesser is a psychologist in private practice in Westchester and Manhattan and a candidate in the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis.

"The essays in this volume are passionate, provocative, often brilliant, always illuminating. Together, they explore the most fundamental questions about the nature of desire, sexuality, gender, and psychoanalytic discourse itself. I cannot imagine a reader who would not come away from this volume with broadened vision and deepened understanding of issues which are among the most central and most vexing in psychoanalysis today." -- Jay Greenberg, Ph. D., Training and Supervising Analyst, William Alanson White Institute and Editor, ContemporaryPsychoanalysis"This stimulating volume represents a vital piece of work in the transformation of psychoanalysis. Whereas up until now the psychoanalytic discussion of homosexuality has treated it as mainly a condition to be analyzed, these essays, mostly by gay and lesbian analysts, take homosexuality as a position from which to critique established ideas about sexuality and gender. Working with an intimate and sophisticated knowledge of both clinical practice and contemporary theory, these writings expose crucial problems in our discipline and open up questions of sexuality and gender in important ways." -- Jessica Benjamin, author of The Bonds of Love and LikeSubjects, Love Objects"All of the articles are well documented and are written with authority . . . Recommended." -- Library Journal"...an important contribution to the changing views toward sexuality and identity..." -- Journal of Religion andHealth

• Introduction, Thomas Domerdci, Ronnie C. Lesser; Part 1 New Voices: Gay and Lesbian Psychoanalysts; Chapter 1 Some Thoughts on the Role of Mourning in the Development of a Positive Lesbian Identity, Lee Crespi; Chapter 2 Exploding the Myth of Sexual Psychopathology A Deconstruction of Fairbairn’s Anti-Homosexual Theory, Thomas Domenici; Chapter 3 Countertransference Obscurity in the Psychoanalytic Treatment of Homosexual Patients, Martin Stephen Frommer; Chapter 4 Objectivity as Masquerade, Ronnie C. Lesser; Chapter 5 Psychoanalysis and Women’s Experiences of “Coming Out” The Necessity of Becoming a “Bee-Charmer”, Maggie Magee, Diana C. Miller; Chapter 6 Current Psychoanalytic Discourses on Sexuality Tripping Over the Body, David Schwartz; Part 2 Rethinking Sexuality: Theoretical Perspectives; Chapter 7 On “Our Nature” Prolegomenon to a Relational Theory of Sexuality, Muriel Dimen; Chapter 8 Re-Reading Freud on Homosexuality, Robert May; Chapter 9 Passionate Differences Lesbianism, Post-Modernism, and Psychoanalysis, Noreen O’Connor; Chapter 10 Psychoanalysis with Gay and Lesbian People: An Interpersonal Perspective, Richard Rutkin; Chapter 11 The Evolution of My Views on Nonnormative Sexual Practices, Roy Schafer; Chapter 12 Psychoanalytic Theories of Lesbian Desire: A Social Constructionist Critique, Erica Schoenberg; Part 3 Lesbian and Gay Psychoanalysts: Their Encounters with Anti-Homosexuality; Chapter 13 Anti-Homosexual Bias in Training, Jack Drescher; Chapter 14 The Difficulty of Being a Gay Psychoanalyst During the Last Fifty Years: An Interview with Dr. Bertram Schaffner, Stephen B. Goldman; Chapter 15 A View from Both Sides: Coming Out as a Lesbian Psychoanalyst, April Martin; Part 4 Conclusion; Chapter 16 The Shaping of Psychoanalytic Theory and Practice by Cultural and Personal Biases About Sexuality, Mark J. Blechner;