Disorders Of Desire: Sexuality And Gender In Modern American Sexology

Janice Irvine

Temple University Press, 2005 - Social Science - 304 pages

Disorders of Desireis the only book to tell the story of the development and impact of sexology - the scientific study of sex - in the United States. In this era of sex scandals, culture wars, "Sex in the City," and new sexual enhancement technologiies (like erectile dysfunction drugs), its critique of sexology is even more relevant than it was when the book was first published in 1990. Revised throughout, this new edition features a chapter on the invention of the diagnosis of "sex addiction" in the 1970s, examining the social and political implications of this "disorder." The new Afterward focuses on recent developments within the field of sexology. In particular, it discusses the "Viagra Revolution" that began in the 1990s, analyzing the role of the pharmaceutical industry in developing sexual enhancements and in searching for the female equivalent of Viagra.

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Review: Disorders Of Desire: Sexuality And Gender In Modern American Sexology

User Review  - Brad - Goodreads

No nonsense and exhaustively well-researched/documented. No stone left unturned in this history. Helps the reader understand the tacitcs used my nutty christian fundamentalists to shutdown open (and NEEDED) dialogue about sexuality in this country.

Contents

• Toward a ValueFree Science of Sex The Kinsey Reports: 15
• Science Medicine and a Market: 45
• Sexology at a Crossroad Consolidation and Confusion: 67
• The Humanistic Theme in Sexology: 75
• Sexual Science and Sexual Politics: 97
• Conflict and Accommodation Who Defines Sexuality?: 111
• The Practice of Scientific Sexology Sex Therapy and Gender Research: 133
• Repairing the Conjugal Bed The Clinical Practice of Modern Sex Therapy: 139
• Regulated Passions The Invention of Inhibited Sexual Desire and Sex Addiction: 163
• Boys Will Be Girls Contemporary Research on Gender: 185
• Conclusion: 225
• Afterword: 233
• Notes: 255
• Index: 297

Popular passages

Page 278 - George Herbert Mead, Mind. Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, ed Charles W. Morris (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), see back cover. 9. TV Smith, "Social Philosophy of George Herbert Mead," American Journal of Sociology 37 (1931): 369.‎

About the author

Janice M. Irvine is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of Talk About Sex: The Battles over Sex Education in the United States and the editor of Sexual Cultures and the Construction of Adolescent Sexualities (Temple). In 2005, she received the Simon and Gagnon Award from the Sexualities Section of the American Sociological Association.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Disorders Of Desire: Sexuality And Gender In Modern American Sexology
• Author: Janice Irvine
• Edition: 2, revised
• Publisher: Temple University Press, 2005
• ISBN: 1592131514, 9781592131518
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Human Sexuality; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / Sociology / General