Sex by Prescription: The Startling Truth About Today's Sex Therapy (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For St Augustine, sexual desire was a disease; to the great doctors of coitus today, lack of sexual desire is a disease. For Dr Szasz, both these presumptions are absurd and unscientific. He argues persuasively that human sexuality - however it may be expressed - reveals and reflects who we are and who we want to be. There are no "sexual disorders" that need to be cured by "sex therapies" - there is only the never-ending task of having to develop and shape our lives. Szasz maintains that we evade that task by handing the management of our sexual lives over to sex education and sex therapists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse University Press (December 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815602502
• ISBN-13: 978-0815602507
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #270,953 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #56 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Sexuality > Therapy
  #63 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Sexuality > Psychology of Sexuality

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars flawed, but fun, August 24, 2002

By A Customer

Szasz's intentions here are good here; as usual he seeks to expose the messianic pretensions of the mental health movement. In this case, his target is the sex therapy and sex education rackets. Unfortunately, his partisanship sometimes leads to attacks based on shoddy reasoning. A few examples will suffice: Szasz accuses the noted sex therapist William Masters of continuing the psychiatric persecution of homosexuals. His evidence? While visiting California once, Masters declined to comment on the Briggs Initiative, an anti-homosexual ballot measure. I certainly think this initiative deserved to be condemned, but Szsaz gives no context for Masters' silence(which, after all, was just that, silence). We are not told why Masters refused to comment, or even how much he knew about the initative. Perhaps Masters didn't know anything at all about it. I am speculating, of course, but can do little else given the paucity of details in Szsaz's account.
One more example: Szasz claims that Mary Calderone, the doyenne of sex education, is actually a sexual authoritarian. He bases this accusation partly on her stated opposition to handing out contraceptives to teenagers. Making a fine art of literalism here, Szasz argues that Calderone must oppose handing out birth control to married nineteen year olds. I think most intelligent readers would asume that by "teenagers" Calderone meant minors.
All this said, the book is entertaining, and makes valid points about the pathologization of sexual behaviour by self-styled "experts". Particularly interesting are passages attacking circumcision, sex change therapy, and the use of porn films in medical schools. Fans of Szasz's potent combination of moral passion and acerbic polemicism will not come away disappointed.