Phenomenology and Treatment of Psychosexual Disorders

This is the sixth in a series of volumes sponsored by the Department of Psychiatry of Baylor College of Medicine, each reviewing one broad category of psychiatric disorders. Earlier conferences have focused on well-established psychiatric categories such as depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism. Psychosexual disorders are usually considered as a subgroup of psychiatric dis­ orders, and form one of the major categories of the DSM -III Classification of Mental Disorders. However, psychosexual disorders are also of concern to all physicians and clinicians, working in virtually every field of medicine. The whole area of human sexuality has been characterized by rapid advances during the last few decades. Notable contributions have been from psychoan­ alysis, from the work of Kinsey and associates, and particularly from the work of Masters and Johnson, which has led to new stress on psychosexual dysfunc­ tions, in addition to the earlier interest in paraphilias, gender identity disorders, etc. Still later there has been increasing emphasis on disorders of sexual desire.