SEXOLOGY

Talking about sexuality is always difficult, especially in our country, where there are so many different thoughts and opinions, with predominant parties against sexual therapy and taboos that unfortunately dominate a big part of human sexuality, mainly due to the lack of knowledge and ignorance.

Sexology can be considered a specialisation of psychoanalysis more than of medicine, meaning the two disciplines are integrated; analysis needs technique and technique needs analysis and this is useful to get a good result.

Sexology is the result of group work. In fact, besides Freud, who was the first to become interested in sexual problems at an analytical level and tried to solve them solely through analysis even though he did not obtain great results also due to a very timely therapy, other researchers, especially Americans, began to work in teams.

Master and Jonson can be considered as the pioneers of this field; the former was a doctor and the latter a psychologist analyst. They followed the couple in all aspects, with brief behavioural therapies, techniques and very specific exercises in order to solve the sexual dysfunctions that troubled the couple’s good performance and balance.

The two specialists aimed at the realization of pleasure; in fact, they stated: “Sexual pleasure is not fixed in a void, but it rather comes from a mutual satisfaction of desires and needs of a man and a woman who are physically and emotionally meant for each other.”

Master and Jonson’s work has been revised, expanded and further analyzed by many other sexologists including Helen Singe Kaplan, in particular, who tried to enrich the technical knowledge both from a psychological and psychophysical point of view.

In Italy, the first specialists in sexology appeared with the Italian Society of Clinical Sexology foundation in 1977. Only doctors and psychologists preferably specialized in Psychotherapy could at the time and even today have access to this branch.

The sexology discipline was imported to Europe from America by Willi Pasini and Giorgio Abraham who operated together in Geneva.

The team to which I referred to must be composed of various specialisations, each of which has its importance to help those requiring action: a gynaecologist, urologist, andrologist, neurologist and psychologist, it would be preferable if the latter has an analytical preparation, since he/she has the task of coming into direct contact with the patients and their anxieties.

When a patient presents himself/herself with whichever disorder, it is necessary to carry out a careful and detailed analysis of all aspects of the problem, this way one can avoid negative results from lack of information.

The first intervention to be performed is the biological one, i.e. eliminating potential physiological deficiencies that could therefore require medical intervention which in turn can provide the specific overview of the patient’s organism.

The second intervention, once it has been established that there are no physiological dysfunctions, is of an INVESTIGATIVE nature. This takes place at an individual’s intra-psychic level, then at the couple’s relational level, then this relational level extended to the environment in which the person lives (behaviour within the family that resembles a small society) - and finally evaluating moral and social values with non-verbal communications.

To provide an answer and start therapy, it takes an average of three sessions. In fact, the formula to be adopted with the patient by the therapist is composed of three factors: listening, understanding and reflecting, and finally responding; meaning he/she must be sure of the dysfunction in question before starting the therapeutic treatment.