Modern Ego Psychology and Human Sexual Experience

"This book transcends the limitations of current approaches to sexuality by taking practitioners on an extraordinary journey into understanding the unique emotional meanings of sexual feeling, fantasy, behavior, and physical experience." Francine Cournos, professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University "Dr. Marcuss work is one of the most important psychoanalytic contributions to our understanding of human sexuality since Sigmund Freuds Three Essays on Sexuality. His highly original application of modern ego psychology illuminates the complexity of the human sexual experience, utilizing and synthesizing concepts from all branches of psychoanalysis. This book is an invaluable resource for psychoanalytically understanding, teaching, and treating human sexuality. This work will be a classic." Les Fleischer, associate professor, faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences, Lakehead University; psychoanalyst, private practice "Marcus brilliantly uses Freudian ideas to decode the meaning of psychotic hallucinations and delusions in his book Psychosis and Near Psychosis. Marcus now, in another brilliant and revelatory work, turns to an experience equally misunderstood, sexual experience; manifest in symbol, fantasy, or rigid arrangements acted out in reality. He shows how physical sexual experiences and longings, carry and express our relationships, personalities, deep concerns, fears, hopes, wishes, traumas, and conflicts. He explains why sexual experiences are so powerful in our lives, how they can get stuck, and how treatment can help." Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself "This book by a master clinician and educator is an ideal book for learning about human sexuality and its psychodynamics. It is appropriate for all levels of training and education. I will use it in my teaching." Eileen Kavanaugh, director, Psychiatric Institute Residents Clinic; medical director, Psychology Externship, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical Center

Eric R. Marcus is Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Supervising and Training Psychoanalyst at Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research.

Introduction 1. Meaning 2. Symbolic Alterations of the Body 3. Fetish 4. Fetish Enactment 5. Attachment 6. Masturbation 7. Threesomes 8. BDSM 9. Treatment