Sexual Disorders Perspectives

Sexual disorders may arise from multiple causes. Their clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment must take into account the patient's underlying biology, history, and behaviors. Using an approach pioneered at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Peter Fagan applies the four "perspectives of psychiatry" (disease, dimension, behavior, and life story) to the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders.

This book offers therapists an efficient and clinically proven way to organize the range of theoretical methodologies currently available, presenting a framework that is both conceptually cohesive and readily applicable in clinical settings. After an introduction, each chapter offers a case study followed by an analysis based on one perspective methodology as well as a discussion of the clinical implications of that perspective. The book closes with a chapter integrating the approaches. This book will be of interest to mental health care professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, who treat patients with sexual disorders.

Peter J. Fagan, PhD, is an associate professor of medical psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Paul R. McHugh, M.D., is the Henry Phipps Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, the former director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the coauthor of The Perspectives of Psychiatry, also available from Johns Hopkins. He was selected by President George W. Bush to sit on the Presidential Council on Bioethics and by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to be on their National Review Board for the elimination of the sexual abuse of children by clergy.