This research is an indirect outgrowth of the Task Force on Sex Bias and Sex-Role Stereotyping in Psychotherapeutic Practice which reports to the Board of Professional Affairs of the American Psychological Association. Hawever, this article does not necessarily reflect the views of the task force, of the Board of Professional Affairs, or of the APA in general.

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Three hundred forty-seven male and 310 female licensed PhD psychologists responded to a questionnaire on erotic and nonerotic contact with patients. The 21 therapists who admitted having intercourse with patients advocated and used nonerotic contact with opposite-sex patients more often than other therapists, but they did not differ from other therapists on most demographic variables. On the other hand, the 30 who admitted engaging in nonintercourse erotic contact did not differ from other therapists in their use of nonerotic touching. But these therapists were older and more experienced than the rest of the sample. The differential application of nonerotic hugging, kissing, and touching to opposite-sex patients but not to same-sex patients is viewed as a sex-biased therapy practice at high risk for leading to sexual intercourse with patients.The well-established sanction against sexual intimacies between therapist and patient, first set forth in the Hippocratic oath and recently reaffirmed in ethics codes by the American Psychiatric Association (1973) and the American Psychological Association (APA; 1977), sometimes has appeared.to be jeopardized by another equally wellestablished tradition-healing by the "laying on of hands." In psychotherapeutic practice, touching may be used to relieve acute distress, to give emotional support (Holroyd & Brodsky, 1977), or to stimulate self-exploration and disclosure (Pattison, 1973). The use of physical contact has been associated with the humanistic therapy movement as part of the establishment of an authentic "I-thou" relationship. The concern, which is supported by some research (Kardener, Fuller, & Mensh, 1976), is that touching can become erotic and might be one of the factors that leads to therapists having sexual intercourse with patients.Investigation of specific psychological and social antecedents of therapist-patient intercourse has proceeded slowly. Involved therapists fear possible negative consequences if they are discovered. Chesler (1972) noted her sample of sexually intimate therapists to be significantly older than their patients, and Butler and Zelen (1977) reported that the therapists in the sample they interviewed were emotionally needy, with unsatisfying love and sexual relationships. In a large-sample study of physicians, Kardener et al. (1976) found that those who had intercourse and/or erotic contact with patients were not older than other therapists nor did they differ from others in marital status or years in practice. The "erotic practitioners" tended to believe, however, that nonerotic contact would benefit patients, and they used nonerotic hugging, kissing, and affectionate touching more than other physicians. This might suggest that sexual behavior with patients is related more to liberal attitudes about touching or to actual touching of patients than to demographic variables. However, Holroyd and Brodsky (1977) found that erotic contact and sexual intercourse were not more prevalent among humanistic or female therapists than among other categ...

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