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Sent: 30 October 2012 18:05 Hi all, We(Barry Reay, Nina Attwood, and Claire Gooder) have written an article on (the myth of) sex addiction for the journal Sexuality and Culture. It is available in electronic form now and hard copy later. See http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12119-012-9136-3 Abstract: This article takes a critical look at the recent history of the concept of sex addiction, an archetypal modern sexual invention. Sex addiction began as a 1980s product of late twentieth-century cultural anxieties and has remained responsive to those tensions, including its most recent iteration, ''hypersexual dis- order.'' Its success as a concept lay with its medicalization, both as a self-help movement in terms of self-diagnosis, and as a rapidly growing industry of therapists on hand to deal with the new disease. The media has always played a role in its history, first with TV, the tabloids, and the case histories of claimed celebrity victims all helping to popularize the concept, and then with the impact of the internet. Though it is essentially mythical, creating a problem that need not exist, sex addiction has to be taken seriously as a phenomenon. Rarely has a socio- psychological discourse taken such a hold on the public imagination-and proven an influential concept in academic circles too. We argue that this strange, short history of social opportunism, diagnostic amorphism, therapeutic self-interest, and popular cultural endorsement is marked by an essential social conservatism-sex addiction has become a convenient term to describe disapproved sex. Sex addiction is a label without explanatory force. We (Barry Reay, Nina Attwood, and Claire Gooder) are also writing a book on the subject for Polity Press. Best, Barry Professor Barry Reay Keith Sinclair Chair in History Dept of History University of Auckland Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142 New Zealand ________________________________________ From: History of Sexuality [H-HISTSEX@H-NET.MSU.EDU] on behalf of Hera Cook [h.cook@BHAM.AC.UK] Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2012 8:36 PM To: H-HISTSEX@H-NET.MSU.EDU<mailto:H-HISTSEX@H-NET.MSU.EDU> Subject: FW: [CRITSEX] Female Hypersexuality/Sex Addiction From: docx2 [mailto:docx2@ix.netcom.com] Sent: 30 October 2012 03:27 Dear folks, I think this is a bigger issue. Who is defining these women as "addicts" (the author or the women themselves)? Who is defining that this has been a "struggle" (the author or the women themselves? The term hypersexuality also has its problems, what is non-hypersexuality? I would argue that these terms are misunderstood by the medical community and often inappropriately applied. The concept of hypersexual women, appears to be a repackaging of nymphomania. There are individuals with self-perceived out of control sexuality (SPOOCS). Some SPOOCS may benefit from psychiatric interventions, some many benefit from sex education, and some benefit from finding a support group. A few things I have written on the subject. Moser, C. (2011). Hypersexual disorder: Just more muddled thinking. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(2), 227-229. Moser, C. (2009). When is an unusual sexual interest a mental disorder? Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(3), 323-325. If anyone is interested, my CV can be accessed here: http://home.netcom.com/~docx2/CV.htm Take care, Charles Moser, PhD, MD Original post - Subject: [CRITSEX] Female Hypersexuality/Sex Addiction Hi all, I was wondering if anyone is able to offer me any advice or point me to the direction of recruiting some Female Sex Addicts. I am in my final year of my PhD and having much difficulty getting females among the British population who are willing to talk about their struggle with the addiction. Any help would be great. Many thanks in advance.
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