Handbook of Sexual Dysfunction
The area of treatment of sexual disorders has undergone an enormous expansion during the last few decades. The introduction of pharmacological treatment of these disorders (e.g., sildenafil for erectile dysfunction or antidepressants for paraphilias) rekindled the interest of physicians from different disciplines (psychiatrists, urologists, gynecologists) in sexual dysfunctions. Physicians are finding these disorders amenable to pharmacotherapy. However, the new developments in the area of “sexual pharmacology” have unfortunately also led to a biological reductionism in the field. In the past, most physicians viewed the etiology of sexual dysfunctions/disorders as mainly psychological, rooted in internal conflicts, deep-seated anxiety, and so on. In the present time, physicians in many disciplines view sexual dysfunctions as mostly, if not purely, of biological origin and discard any notion of psychological factors in the etiology of sexual problems. The initial hype about the su...