Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Psychosexual Development”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,117 records · Page 62Linked to original sources
PubMed1982

The personality and psycho-sexual development of boys with 47 XXY chromosome constitution.

Twelve XXY boys identified at birth in a population screening study were followed up at a mean age of 16.7 yr and compared with a control group of chromosomally normal boys matched for age and social class. Assessment of personality and psycho-sexual development showed the XXY boys to be more timid and less self-confident and to have problems in relating to their peer group than the controls. They also showed some evidence of delayed or impaired development of sexual interest. In general, the differences were not marked. Possible causes for these differences and potential methods of preventing them are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

The impact of paternal alcoholism and maternal social position on boys' school adjustment, pubertal maturation and sexual behavior: a test of two competing hypotheses.

Two competing hypotheses concerning the effects of stressful environments on the onset of puberty were tested using longitudinal data for a sample of boys from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Paternal alcoholism and maternal social position were used as indicators of family stress. School placement was monitored from school entry to 14 years of age. Teachers rated the boys' disruptive and anxious behaviors, while the boys reported on parenting behaviors at 10 years of age. Pubertal maturation, age of first sexual intercourse and sexual behavior were assessed between 11 and 14 years of age. The prepubertal data indicated that boys with an alcoholic father, or a mother from a low social position, were more stressed and had more behavior problems: the boys with alcoholic fathers perceived their parents as being more punitive, and as setting fewer rules concerning their behavior; those who had at least one maladjusted parent were more often placed out of an age-appropriate regular classroom, and were rated more disruptive and more anxious by their teachers. Paradoxically, the results for the onset of puberty gave support to the two rival hypotheses. Paternal alcoholism led to a delay of male pubertal onset, as suggested by the hypothesis that stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and inhibits the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. However, sons of alcoholic fathers had more frequent sexual intercourse and more sexual partners, as suggested by the evolutionary theory of socialization. High maternal social position acted as a protective factor for school placement of boys with an alcoholic father. These results challenged a key hypothesis of the evolutionary theory of socialization for males. They indicated that the link between childhood family environment, behavior development, pubertal maturation and sexual promiscuity are more complex than anticipated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

The space between love and not touching in psychotherapy.

The present paper discusses the advent and significance of erotic feelings in psychotherapy based on the intersubjective theory. It briefly reviews the coalescence of the tradition of avoidance of physical contact in psychotherapy, and the classical and contemporary approaches to erotic transference. A clinical case is presented in an attempt to expand the significance attributed to erotic feelings in therapy and ways of relating to it: in their intrapersonal and interpersonal meanings and in the dialectics between them. I will later discuss the father figure in feminine development and its transferential and metaphoric meaning against the background of a clinical case, and the importance of the erotic component in the processes of change and development. The paper includes mythological metaphors illustrating the issues in a cultural perspective that constitutes the traditional framework of thinking relevant to the issues which are the subject of this paper.

Emotions↗
PubMed1978

Sib group therapy: a prevention program for siblings from drug-addicted families.

To prevent drug abuse among younger siblings of addicted adolescents, weekly group therapy sessions were implemented at a suburban therapeutic drug community. The concept evolved as an outgrowth of family therapy which revealed that intergenerational addictive patterns might impose a high future risk of similar behavior among latency age children. Results after 18 months indicate that although severe group acting-out behavior has diminished, underlying psychodynamics appear somewhat unchanged. Some evidence of experimentation with alcohol has emerged. Conclusions are that superego development is still impoverished but the tenacity of the group's existence provides positive speculations of ultimate success.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

The transitional oedipal relationship in female development.

The concept of the oedipal transitional relationship is proposed as a way of understanding the nature of the psychological-interpersonal process mediating the little girl's entry into the Oedipus complex. This transitional relationship serves to allow the little girl to discover non-traumatically the father as external object in the context of the safety of the dyadic relationship to the mother. In this early phase of oedipal development, the little girl falls in love with the mother-as-father and the father-as-mother, i.e. the mother in her unconscious identification with her own father. In this way, paradoxically, the first triangulated object relationship is experienced in a two-person relationship; the first heterosexual relationship develops in a relationship involving two females; the father as libidinal object is discovered in the mother.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hormones and psycho-sexual development in young men following chronic heroin use.

Sixteen former addicts who began heroin use during early puberty were compared with seventeen current heroin users and ten drug-free control subjects with respect to psycho-sexual development and pituitary gonadal hormone levels. Plasma testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH) levels did not differ between the former addicts and normal control subjects, but were significantly suppressed in the current heroin users. Measures of sexual behavior and physical development did not differ significantly between the three subject groups. Recurrent heroin use during early puberty did not significantly disrupt pubertal development in males. It is postulated that tolerance to opiate induced suppression of pituitary gonadal hormones occurs in pre-pubescent as well as post-pubescent males.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

The fathers (not the mothers): their importance and influence with infants and young children.

This review is primarily concerned with the behavior and influence of fathers with respect to their infants and children in early childhood as a mediating variable in forms of psychopathology. Three developmental periods are surveyed in relation to what is known of paternal behavior and its influences on the child: pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood. Throughout, it is appreciated that influences may be bidirectional (i.e., father-child and child-father) and that behavior problems in children are usually determined by the coexistence of several factors. The objective here, however, is to examine the father-child relationship specificially as a possible early determinant of behavior deviance in children. Because the literature is sparse, it is necessary to carefully take into account manifestations of paternal behavioral deviance and behavioral deviance of children as they may influence each other.

Age Factors↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The differentiation of an androgynous imago.

Global phobic-obsessive states accompanied by androgynous images broke, with treatment, into alternating phobic and obsessive phases characterized by paternal images in the former and maternal images in the latter. The dynamics of the phobic states related to the patient's wish for and dread of the paternal phallus, complicated by the father's death during a transitional anal period. The dynamics of the obsessive states were related to wishes and fears of destructiveness of or by the maternal insides. The maternal insides were also experienced as both dangerous and life-giving to the father. As the patient worked through her paternal and maternal fantasies, especially in the transference, her fears of the outside world (the father) and her need to control the insides of her home (the mother) markedly diminished. Active and passive-responsive tendencies bound up and distorted in her obsessive and phobic states were able to undergo fuller differentiation and development with regard to both the internal maternal and paternal objects and the ego's modes of relating to them.

Adult↗
PubMed1983

The current status of the psychoanalytic theory of instinctual drives. I: Drive concept, classification, and development.

The evolution of Freud's theory of instinctual drives, with the accompanying models of a mental apparatus, is remarkable for its tenacious adherence to addressing the fundamental problems of human psychology, here phrased as the problems of body-mind-environment relationships. The concept of instinctual drives continues to be one of the most pervasive concepts of psychoanalysis, weathering considerable attack over the last several decades, although losing some clarity in the process. I have cited and discussed as basic issues of the concept of instinctual drives: the relationship of observational data and theoretical constructs in psychology; whether our construct of drives is or should be or can be purely psychological; the problem of conceptualizing the ontogenetic origin of mind; the issues of the "force-meaning conjunction" and the problem of psychic energy in psychoanalytic constructs; and the relation of our concept of instinctual drives to the concept of instincts in general. It seems that progress with these fundamental issues might be made by utilizing models that are more homologous with present knowledge in related fields than is Freud's reflex arc model of the nervous system, in order to build a better drive construct within the framework of psychoanalysis. The classification of instinctual drives remains a problem. Clinically, aggression seems to be a factor in conflict, very much like sexuality. Despite widespread acceptance of the idea of aggression as simply parallel to sexuality in all respects, there are major discrepancies. Perhaps aggression cannot be viewed as a drive after all; perhaps our drive construct needs to be modified to accommodate aggression. Certainly, controversy in this area has interfered with the production of good clinical studies which could begin to increase our understanding of aggression and its place in the human personality. The psychoanalytic theory of drive development has probably undergone less change in the last forty years than other aspects of drive theory, although careful observational work has led to alterations of our views of the age of onset of genital awareness, of female sexual development and function, and of the latency period. This is the conclusion of the first of two papers examining the post-Freud development of the theory of instinctual drives in psychoanalysis. The companion paper follows on p. 402 of this issue of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly.

Aggression↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Parental overstimulation in asthma.

A discussion of "The Role of Primal Scene and Masochism in Asthma," by Cecilia Karol, M.D. The author presents case material corroborating Dr. Karol's hypotheses about the role of primal scene exposure and sadomasochistic fantasies in asthma and which documents the thesis that primal scene is a part of a global pattern of parental overstimulation which in the pregenital maturational phases establishes the predisposition to develop asthma. He further confirms Melitta Sperling's hypothesis that unconscious conflicts of the mother or father predispose a child to the development of psychosomatic disease and that specific parental habits and fantasies involving the lungs determine the choice of the respiratory system for symptom formation.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Menarche: the beginning of menstrual life.

Menarche represents a developmental milestone in a woman's life. This paper reviews current knowledge about the physiological aspects of menarche and its place in the sequence of pubertal development. Hypotheses regarding the mechanisms that trigger menarche are presented, as is our current understanding of the influence of hormones, genetic factors, nutrition, exercise, and illness. Also discussed are the ways in which the changes of puberty and menarche affect the adolescent girl's psychosocial development, the unique problems of the early maturing girl, and the kind of preparation for menarche that is needed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Gender change from female to male in classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia.

The psychoendocrinology of the development of normal gender identity and its variations is poorly understood. Studies of gender development in individuals born with endocrinologically well-characterized intersex conditions are heuristically valuable for the disaggregation of factors that are acting in concert during normal development. Four 46,XX individuals with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and atypical gender identity entered a comprehensive research protocol including systematic interviews and self-report inventories on gender role behavior and identity, sexual history, and psychiatric history. Some of the data on gender variables were compared to data from 12 CAH women with the salt-wasting variant (CAH-SW) with female gender identity. The four patients (ages 28, 35, 38, and 30 years) represented three different subtypes of classical early-onset CAH: 21-OH deficiency, simple virilizing (CAH-SV); 21-OH deficiency, salt-wasting (CAH-SW); and 11-beta-OH deficiency. Their medical histories were characterized by delay beyond infancy or lack of surgical feminization of the external genitalia and progressive virilization with inconsistent or absent glucocorticoid replacement therapy. Although three patients had undergone one or more genital surgeries, all had retained at least some orgasmic capacity. In regard to childhood gender-role behavior, the four gender-change patients tended to be more masculine or less feminine than (behaviorally masculinized) CAH-SW controls. All patients were sexually attracted to females only. The process of gender change was gradual and extended well into adulthood. The most plausible factors contributing to cross-gender identity development in these patients appeared to be neither a particular genotype or endocrinotype nor a sex-typing bias on the part of the parents but a combination of a gender-atypical behavioral self-image, a gender-atypical body image, and the development of erotic attraction to women. Implications for psychosocial management are also discussed.

Adrenal Hyperplasia, Congenital↗
PubMed1990

Health, growth and sexual development of teenagers exposed in utero to medroxyprogesterone acetate.

General health, growth and sexual development were evaluated in 74 teenage boys and 98 girls who had been exposed to medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) in utero, and 385 boys and 448 girls not exposed. In this 17-year prospective study, the ascertainment of the end points was 'double blind' in that neither the interviewer nor the subject was aware of our interest in MPA. On average, girls exposed to MPA reported reaching the menarche 4 months earlier than the comparison group. This difference disappeared, however, in a multiple regression analysis taking into account social class, the mother's age at menarche and height of the girl's mother and father. Boys exposed to MPA reported their growth spurt to have occurred an average of 6 months earlier and voices to have broken 5 months earlier than unexposed boys. Again, the differences between them and the comparison group disappeared after controlling for confounding variables. There were no significant differences between the MPA-exposed and comparison groups in a wide variety of indices of health reported by the teenagers' mothers. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that intrauterine exposure to MPA, in the doses used for pregnancy maintenance or for contraception, poses no threat to the long-term health and development of the progeny.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

[Studies on sexual development, sexual behavior and ability to experience sex of young women with Ullrich-Turner syndrome].

In this investigation 25 female patients were included with the Turner syndrome (TS). From the 25 patients 6 had spontaneous menstruations, 19 had menstruations only after a hormonal stimulation. In a semi-structured interview the patients were questioned about their sexual activities, behavior and orgastic capacity. The findings were related to a matched normal female population. Moreover an analysis of personality traits by means of the Freiburger Persönlichkeitsinventar [FPI], the Giessen Test [GT], and a questionnaire on education styles of parents [EMBU] has been undertaken. The endocrine profile of the patients with induced menarche showed an elevated value of LH and FSH in serum, and a low level of estradiol. The sexual development of all patients was normal during the prepubertal phase. However the biological puberty was delayed by three years in the study patients, in relation to a normal population. Each of these women had a normal female identity and was heterosexual oriented. In concordance with the literature, patients who were substituted too late, showed defined deficits in their psychic well being, as well as in their social and psychosexual functioning. These deficits only were significant in relation to delayed menarche, but not to chronological age, gynecological age, karyotype, body height or parental education style. Therefore, an early and adequately dosed hormonal intervention and a consequently and regularly performed substitution therapy with sexual steroids has to be undertaken beside the well known intervention with growth hormone.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1981

Narcissistic personality disorder as a regression to a preoedipal phase of phallic narcissism.

The Narcissistic Personality Disorder in males is described in terms of the presenting picture and the psychodynamics involving unconscious phallic narcissistic transferences and wishes. A regression to preoedipal phallic narcissism is reconstructed as having occurred in childhood. The permanency of this regression prior to analysis gives an impression of great tenacity and pathology, as if the narcissism had been arrested in its development. However, oedipal dynamics and transference neuroses do emerge from repression after several years of analysis. A hypothesis is proposed in agreement with the findings of Edgcumbe and Burgner (1975) that a preoedipal phase of phallic narcissism is a regular and universal phase of childhood development. A further hypothesis is offered based on the implications of the findings of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, that a two-step sequence of narcissistic development, followed by object libidinal development, occurs in the oral, anal, and phallic erotogenic zones. This hypothesis suggests the idea of three different types of Narcissistic Personality Disorders: the oral, the anal, and the phallic varieties.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

[Psychosis: possible model for approaching it by theoretico-clinical observation of children and their families].

In this work we intend to define the constitution of the psychosis in children through a methodological proposal called "genetic model". This model includes the clinical investigation about the child and his family. We have come to this research after several years of having worked as adult and child analysts of diverse pathology. Our research has an initial point, both theoretical and clinical, in the early constitution of the child's psychosis. In our daily practice as analysts we have observed that the aspects dealt with in this work were the commonest to appear, not only in the direct work with the psychotic child and with his family, but also through the task of supervising therapies carried out in hospitals and private health-service clinics in the city of La Plata. We have performed this work with the theoretical guide of Sigmund Freud and Piera Aulagnier's studies. By "genetic model" we understand all the work we have carried out from the anamnesis with the parents and clinical investigation in the child as regards the living conditions in the environment so that the child's ego could emerge. Our observation, while performing the "model" already mentioned, detected that living conditions in our middle-class children are visibly distressing, psychotic in its greatest form. Therefore, we reconsider the existence of an early symptomatology in the constitution of the child's psychosis. The symptomatology commonly found shows the following items: loss of diminution of the libidinal interest on the part of the child towards his mother mate; loss of interest about his nutrition; diminution or loss of perception of his basic needs (absence of vital force); loss of interest to communicate with the external environment; loss of smile and entertainment, within the latter: loss of vocal and corporal play. These symptoms may last for a short period of time (days, weeks) but others may last forever. Generally, they are not detected by the pediatrician or neurologist. Thus, they are not properly dealt with. We believe that this early moment, which will determine the individual's destiny, is detected during the psychoanalytical work with his parents. In this work we realize of the existence of a number of conditions which favour the psychotic state. Among the most outstanding ones we find a daily violence exercised upon the child, a predominance of the death compulsion towards the child who acquires different characteristics: actual hatred, an interest which suffocates and does not let him grow or the most absolute indifference. All these features create subhuman living conditions for the creature's ego. In general, his ego does not grow properly and independently. The parents' failure limits prematurely the child to an infrahuman way of living. It's true that these conditions are necessary but not enough to give place to the psychotic development of the child. The lack of love between parents and the predominance of Thanatos are the two constant factors found when performing our analytical task.

Displacement, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

A biologic perspective on sexual orientation.

Sexual orientation may be defined as the sustained erotic attraction to members of one's own gender, the opposite gender, or both--homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual, respectively. Interest in sexual orientation is as old as the science of psychology, yet many fundamental issues remain unresolved. This article reviews research in the development and psychopathology of sexual orientation as well as the results of family and twin studies. Research in genetic linkage, sex hormones, and brain differences also is discussed.

Adolescent↗