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PubMed1986

Determinants of sexual and dating behaviors among adolescents.

The study of adolescent sexual development has typically focused on the incidence and age of onset of particular behaviors. Recent developments in the analysis of covariance structures permit more powerful simultaneous tests of the determinants of adolescent sexual behavior. These new methods allow the assessment and evaluation of the interrelatedness between unobserved, latent constructs. Data were obtained from 183 males and 193 females ranging in age from 12 to 18 years old, selected from three birth cohorts using a stratified random sample. Eight latent constructs--Sexual and Dating Involvement, Self-Acceptance, Feminist Sex Role Attitudes, Deviant Social Network, Importance of Dating, Lack of Heterosexual Competence, Sexually Active Social Network, and Stressful Change Events--were hypothesized to explain the variance in 26 observed variables. Several causal models were tested that specified structural relationships among the latent constructs. A theoretically meaningful model was arrived at that linked the eight, error-free factors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

The roles and rules of law in sexual development.

This article provides an overview of the diverse sources of law that regulate sexual development and its resulting behaviors, dispositions, and outcomes. After exploring how the law influences sexuality by regulating families, schools, media, and social service delivery, the article examines the role of criminal and civil law in regulating partners influences on sexual relationships. The article then briefly analyses how the law influences the manner individuals themselves influence their intimate relationships and social environments. The article emphasizes that the necessary brevity of the overview masks many complexities but that existing laws and trends highlight how the law plays a dominant role in our lives, how the law seeks to promote certain dispositions, that the law must be harnessed to foster healthy relationships, and that contending with the law s dictates provides social scientists with important opportunities to foster social reform and structure healthy, supportive social environments conducive to responsible behaviors, attitudes, and dispositions.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1982

Anal erogeneity: the goose and the rat.

A case is presented in which the patient's traumatically derived intense anal erogeneity (associated with traumatic anxiety as well as with castration anxiety) inhibited his phallic sensations and potency and also his power to sustain productive thought. His passive cravings were disguised and reacted against in his compulsive-exhibitionistically phallic role of a Don Juan. He described at least two levels of anal feelings: a dangerous but exciting, tolerable or even pleasurable tension associated with the imago of the goose; and an unbearable, terrifying overcharged level embodied in the imago of the rat. (He had read of, and had felt himself identified with, Freud's Rat Man.) Contrasts are presented with François Rabelais' account of the instinctual development and anal training of Gargantua, in which the connotations of the goose lead to a happy anal, phallic and intellectual control. Generalizations are ventured about the crucial attainment of command over the anal sphincter for the taming of 'primal affect'(Fliess). With early psychopathology there is a defensive overcathexis of anal control (and of anal mechanisms and character traits) to try to contain over-stimulation. In contrast true anal mastery contributes to the acquisition of optimal genital feelings and functioning and to the capacity for sustaining integrative thinking so necessary for 'owning' one's affects and impulses, and therefore for a feeling of identity. Finally, some remarks of Freud on Rabelais are reviewed in relation to levels of urethral erogeneity, seen as developmental way stations between the anal and the phallic, and partaking of both.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

The body in adolescent diaries. The case of Karen Horney.

The role of the body and its functions in the psychic life of the individual has occupied a central place in psychoanalytic thinking and writing. Developmentally, the body and the ego as a psychic organization have an integral, mutual relationship which becomes particularly important during adolescence, when the body matures physically while at the same time cognition, self-reflection, and social relations develop. This contribution presents results of the content analyses, focusing on the body, of 40 diaries written by twenty women during their adolescent years, compared with Karen Horney's adolescent diaries. In contrary to these diaries of the other young women, Karen Horney's adolescent diaries lack a focus on the body. Instead, idealized relationships with teachers are frequently mentioned. Only in the last diary, written at the transition to young adulthood, is the body, with a focus on sexual relations, more prominent. This discrepancy between Horney and female age-mates in normative samples is noteworthy. It is discussed here with emphasis on theoretical approaches about the body in adolescence in psychoanalysis, the importance of body and sexuality in Karen Horney's later life, Horney's contributions to female psychoanalysis, and her relationship with her father.

Defense Mechanisms↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Homosexual identity formation as a developmental process.

Homosexual identity is conceptualized as a life-spanning developmental process that eventually leads to personal acceptance of a positive gay self-image and a coherent personal identity. Habermas' theory of ego development is utilized to provide a synthesis and understanding of the literature on the construction and maintenance of the homosexual identity. It is concluded that the homosexual identity generally emerges in a three-stage process in which the person progresses from: (1) an egocentric interpretation of homoerotic feelings to (2) an internalization of the normative, conventional assumptions about homosexuality to (3) a post-conventional phase in which societal norms are critically evaluated and the positive gay identity is achieved and managed. Developmental tasks associated with each stage are outlined in terms of their ego-integrative functions. Although the stages in the process of homosexual identity formation are theoretically the same for females and males, because of the paucity of research on the homosexual identity in females, this paper deals chiefly with males.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Masochism and the inner mother.

My understanding and treatment of patients with severe masochistic features has evolved and changed radically over the last fifteen years. My work with John and his subsequent life led me to search for new techniques and eventually to the discovery of a different way of understanding and treating these patients. I analyzed John in accord with the classical Freudian formulation of masochism. The paternal transference was central and-while a maternal transference and work with the residues of his experience with his mother were present and partially analyzed-the real power of the inner mother was not touched. It was only when I saw him years later in a near-moribund state that I realized the centrality of what we had not analyzed: the attachment to a punishing inner mother. This led me to conceptualize masochism in a new way. Of central importance in the formation of severe masochism is the relationship between an indifferent, possessive, or rejecting mother and a helpless child in the earliest years, before object constancy. This is a time when the child is unable to differentiate between self and mother. What results is a preverbal conviction that they are ungrateful or "bad" if they think, feel, or behave differently than the mother. This leads to a powerful and rigid attachment to this early mother, internalized as a punishing inner mother. This is the precursor of masochism, not a regression from the Oedipus complex. The child will tolerate physical and mental suffering to remain attached to the needed-even though pain inducing-mother. If the child is not attached, he feels helpless and fears survival. This attachment and fear is internalized and becomes unconscious as development proceeds. Eventually, what is observed in adult patients is a person who is sensitive to others, but unable to be sensitive to him/herself. Awareness of the importance and power of the attachment to the punishing inner mother enables the analyst to hear and perceive masochistic material with a shifted focus. This shifted focus naturally leads to different psychoanalytic treatment techniques throughout the analytic process. Two other cases of masochism are used to illustrate the techniques and course of their analytic processes with this "inner mother" focus. The psychoanalytic understanding of many forms of disturbance has shifted from the oedipal period to the early years in recent years. There is also a corresponding emphasis on the actual experiences with early figures, most prominently the mother. The particular dynamics I have described is part of this general trend.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

At the sources of the symbolization process. The psychoanalyst as an observer of early trauma.

This paper presents a psychoanalytic study of mothers and infants, concentrating on very early traumatization and its impact on the symbolization process. This can be traced in the analysis in the destruction of freedom of association and the symbolization process, leading to petrifications, somatizations, or acting out. A theory of the origin of the symbolization process is developed by observing the kinesthesia of traumatized infants. This approach, based on years of observation, offers a perspective on the landscape before representation, before the object has become represented. The theory takes account of forces from the area of the unconscious as described in "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (Freud, 1920). A new view of the complexity and multi-dimensionality of the mind emerges from this study. The author tries to demonstrate that the mind is multi-dimensional and that our theory of the mind therefore needs the complexity of UCS/PRC/CS. If psychoanalytic theorizing is to remain faithful to the forms and movements of the associative mind, it should not be simplified into linear causalities, as it would be if we were concerned only with object representations.

Adoption↗
PubMed1975

Implications and applications of recent research on feminine development.

The traditional feminine role pattern is no longer adaptive and functional for many women, because of pressures for change associated with such components of the social climate as the lengthening life span and concern about the population explosion. It is no longer physically possible nor considered socially valuable to spend a lifetime bearing and rearing children, even for those women who desire to do so. Thus the prospect or actuality of defining one's life by the wife-and-mother role creates anxiety and anger, which is increased by the awareness that society pays only lip service to so-called "feminine" qualities and behaviors, reserving power and prestige for those who achieve high status in the world of work. Clearly women need alternate bases of gratification and identity. However, these involve interconnected changes that are often painful and that require understanding and support from others which has been slow in coming. The general purpose of this paper is to provide evidence that changes in the feminine role pattern are a matter of urgency and will be beneficial to both sexes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Anorexia, masochism, self-mutilation, and autoerotism: the spider mother.

In summary, both self-mutilators and eating-disordered individuals come from dysfunctional homes with a very controlling mother and usually absent father. They often have a history of trauma. They are depressed and obsessive, attached to their mothers, who discourage attempts at emancipation. The symptoms serve the purpose of keeping them as little girls with negative feelings toward menstruation, sexual maturity, development, and femininity in general. These symptoms comprise self-destructive behavior in the service of removing sexual thoughts, temptation, and activities. Favazza (1987) included both eating disorders and self mutilation in his "deliberate self-harm syndrome." The symptoms, whether they be anorexic, bulimic, or a form of self-mutilation are seen as "autoerotic in nature and a substitute for normal masturbation" (Hull & Lane, 1988). Eating disorders and delicate self-mutilation are said to have "a cathartic, self-purifying, function in that they modulate states of anxiety, sexual tension, anger or dissociated emptiness, and they bring about a tremendous quasi-physical sense of relief" (Cross, 1993, p. 50). These patients' use of substitutes prevents maturation and growth as women, causing regression to pregenital phases with the use of pregenital defenses, and the demise of the demands of puberty and mature sexuality.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Child sexual abuse: associations with the sexual functioning of adolescents and adults.

As we move into the 21st century, information about sex is widespread and more accessible to the general public than ever before. This interest in sex also increases the focus on symptoms and patterns associated with sexual problems. However, the etiology of sexual dysfunction is multifaceted and poorly understood. One factor that has received growing attention is the role that early sexual abuse plays in sexual development and later sexual functioning, and how these associations differ between males and females. Despite high prevalence rates of child sexual abuse (CSA), which occurs to approximately 1 in 3 females and 1 in 10 males under the age of 18, we do not completely understand the complexities of how and to what extent CSA affects sexual functioning. Nonetheless, the research highlights the need to recognize the potentially powerful influence that abusive childhood experiences contribute to sexual health, performance, and satisfaction. We review research on the relationship between CSA and adolescent and adult sexual functioning. We use a developmental framework to guide our understanding of the effects of CSA, as well as gender and ethnic differences, on the sexual functioning of male and female survivors.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

The meaning of perineal activity to women: an inner sphinx.

This paper is an inquiry into the close association of anal and genital functions in women and the background and meaning of that association. Excerpts from the analyses of two women with sexual and intellectual inhibitions illustrate aspects of erotic life deriving from anal-phase development, and the unconscious fantasy of an inner, erotic, and powerful "organ." Along with the lifting of their inhibitions, both analysands achieved integration of anal-sadistic and incorporative wishes with vaginal receptivity. Female anatomy and physiology are so arranged that the action of perineal and sphincter musculature also stimulates the genital. This fosters overlapping mental representations of vagina and rectum which in turn affect body image and unconscious fantasy in women. The experience of perineal contraction acquires complex psychic meanings with both libidinal and aggressive charge. The libidinal aspect is the largely covert erotic sensation that informs the mental representation of the genital and is destined to be integrated into female sexuality. The aggressive component may present as an unconscious fantasy of possessing an inner, powerful, and dangerous organ--a focus for conflict between anal-sadistic wishes and early elements of the superego.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The theory of gender identity disorders.

Experience with more than 500 patients over the last decade has led to the conclusion that the quest for sex reassignment is a symptomatic compromise formation serving defensive and expressive functions. The symptoms are the outgrowth of developmental trauma affecting body ego and archaic sense of self and caused by peculiar symbiotic and separation-individuation phase relationships. The child exists in the pathogenic (and reparative) maternal fantasy in order to repair her body image and to demonstrate the interconvertability of the sexes. Gender identity exists not as a primary phenomenon, but in a sense as a tertiary one. There is, no doubt, a tendency to gender-differentiate in a way concordant with biological endowment. Nevertheless, gender formation is seriously compromised by earlier psychological difficulty. Gender identity is a fundamental acquisition in the developing personality, but it is part of a hierarchical series beginning with archaic body ego, early body image, and primitive selfness, representing their extension into sexual and reproductive spheres. Gender identity consolidates during separation-individuation and gender pathology bears common features with other preoedipal syndromes. Transsexualism is closely linked to perversions, and the clinical syndromes may shade from one into another. However, what is kept at the symbolic level in the perversions must be made concrete in transsexualism. In this regard there is a close relation to psychosis. The clinical complaint of the transsexual is a condensation of remarkable proportions. When the transsexual says that he is a girl trapped in a man's body, he sincerely means what he says. As with other symptoms, however, it takes a long time before he begins to say what he means.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Sexuality in children and adolescents with cancer: pediatric oncology nurses' attitudes and behaviors.

It is essential that health professionals openly discuss how cancer may affect the developing sexuality of childhood cancer patients. This study was conducted to explore nurses' attitudes and behaviors regarding sexuality in cancer patients. Results are reported for a subset of a larger study (N = 937) from subjects who indicated that their practice included children and/or adolescents (N = 156). The Williams-Wilson Sexuality Survey was used to measure attitudes towards sexuality in cancer patients, behavior in nursing care related to the sexuality of a cancer patient, and attitudes towards sexuality in the child and/or adolescent with cancer. The majority of subjects agreed that sexuality should be a routine component of nursing care, yet less than half had actually discussed an alternation in sexuality with an adolescent patient. More than one third said they were not comfortable in initiating such discussions. However, they were comfortable in discussing sexuality concerns when these discussions were initiated by the patient and/or family.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1997

Splitting and the psychodynamics of adolescent and young adult suicide attempts.

The authors point to a link between the contradictory meanings and functions of adolescent and young adult suicide attempts and splitting mechanisms that may explain the normal coexistence of opposite tendencies. They argue that suicide attempts of young people reveal a deadlock in development, in which individuation and the need for dependence are equally intolerable because of the arousal of anxiety linked to persecution or abandonment. The sexualisation of the body and of intimate relationships engenders a risk of psychic decompensation, which is temporarily set aside through the reinforcement of splitting and denial; the suicide attempt, however, is precipitated by conditions that provoke a traumatic return of that which has been split-off and denied. Suicide attempts thus represent an act of compromise, the object of which is to avoid psychic disorganisation through the re-establishment of a precarious equilibrium between antithetical tendencies that splitting can simultaneously address. In particular, suicide may represent an attempt at individuation and flight from incest while at that same time satisfying fusion needs and the realisation of oedipal fantasies. Clinical examples are presented to illustrate the manifestation and the function of splitting in young people's suicide attempts.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Adaptation for Brazilian Portuguese of a scale to measure willingness to wear condoms.

INTRODUCTION: We describe the process of translation and adaptation into Brazilian Portuguese of the Stages of Change for Condom Use, developed at the University of Rhode Island, USA. The scale aims to evaluate the readiness to wear condoms based on the Stages of Change model. The goal of this study was to translate, perform the necessary adaptations and evaluate the applicability of the scale in Brazilian Portuguese. METHOD: A first Portuguese version of the scale, complying with internationally accepted criteria for transcultural adaptation of instruments, was applied to 15 individuals who differed regarding their sociodemographic variables. RESULTS: adjustments were needed in order to render the adaptation viable, what allowed to obtain the final version of the Stages of Change for Condom Use. Subjects of this sample demonstrated good acceptance and understanding of the items presented in the scale. CONCLUSION: The utilization of the scale with individuals of different sociodemographic strata enabled the necessary adaptations to the Brazilian sociocultural reality and to the level of understanding of ordinary individuals.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

The vanished pregnant body in psychoanalytic female developmental theory.

The author contends that the pregnant body-the premier icon of the mature female body-has vanished from our psychoanalytic theory of female development. Until we are able to restore this missing entity on a par with the phallus, the developmental theory for both sexes remains fixated in phallocentricism. The author traces some of the evidence for this claim in a brief overview of the literature, a study of the relevant aspects of the case of Little Hans, and a look at the history of medical teaching, in particular illustrations from the first dissections of female bodies in the sixteenth century, which demonstrate a view of the female body as essentially male. A puzzle remains about the marked tendencies that both males and females had, and still have, to distort the female body image. The author offers a clinical example, and the suggestion that the plasticity of the female form in all its developmental phases may underlie the paradoxical requirement that stable mental representations be established upon an elusive set of shifting images.

Anatomy↗
PubMed1996

The sexual desire inventory: development, factor structure, and evidence of reliability.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop a self-administered questionnaire to measure sexual desire. In the development phase, items were generated and pilot-tested with 24 subjects. Based on these data, items were deleted, added, or modified. Next, in Study One, the Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI) was administered to 197 females and 117 males. Factor analyses revealed that the SDI was multifactorial; however, none of the generated factor solutions up to five factors yielded a good fit. Interpretation of the factors led to revisions of the SDI. It was hypothesized that sexual desire might consist of two related dimensions; dyadic sexual desire and solitary sexual desire. Items on the SDI were modified to measure these two dimensions, and the revised SDI was administered to 249 females and 131 males. Factor analysis supported the presence of these two dimensions. Internal consistency estimates using Cronbach's alpha revealed coefficients of .86 for dyadic sexual desire and .96 for solitary sexual desire, providing preliminary evidence for the reliability of the SDI. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

The value of the historical perspective to contemporary psychoanalysis: Freud's 'seduction hypothesis'.

In this paper the authors re-examine the development of Freud's ideas on seduction, with a special focus on the evidence which Freud presented and upon which he relied as he attempted to confirm these ideas. Through this re-examination Freud's struggle with seductiveness, both in relation to his patients and in relation to his theories, comes to the fore. While the wish to be with the other through exerting an influence over him or her is perverted in the act of sexual seduction, it is, nevertheless, a force that must be recognised and contended with in other creative interchanges, including the analytic one. In studying Freud's struggle with this force, there is attained a better appreciation of the humanness, including the inevitable human limitations, of Freud and his thinking that rest at the foundation of psychoanalysis. This study thus has clear implications for the history of psychoanalysis, but, more importantly, it reveals the value for contemporary psychoanalysis in recognising this history.

Defense Mechanisms↗