No abstract

Sado-masochism (SM) is described as a pathology in current psychological and psychiatric textbooks, and is often discussed alongside behaviours such as child sexual abuse and rape. Individuals who engage in SM are invariably positioned as experiencing intra-psychic conflict ameliorated through the displacement of the sexual drive. This is a limited and one-dimensional analysis of a complex phenomenon. This article presents the results of an in-depth qualitative study designed to further our understanding of the psychology of SM consistent with a social constructionist approach. Twenty-four self-identified sadomasochists, recruited through SM clubs and agencies and informal social networks, were interviewed. Thematic discourse analysis was used to generate a four-factor definition of SM: consensuality, an unequable balance of power, sexual arousal and compatibility of definition. Participants positioned SM variously as dissidence, as pleasure, as escapism, as transcendence, as learned behaviour, as intra-psychic, as pathological and as `inexplicable'. The research findings, their relevance to our understanding of SM sexualities and the limitations of the methodology and subsequent formulation, are discussed.

Vulvodynia has recently been recognized as a significant health problem among women, with a considerable proportion experiencing psychological distress and sexual dysfunction for many years. This study used a material-discursive framework and a qualitative methodology to investigate women's subjective experience of vulvodynia within the context of a hetero-sexual relationship, and their negotiation of coitus, commonly associated with vulvar pain. Seven women, who had experienced vulvodynia between 2 and 10 years, took part in in-depth interviews. Thematic decomposition drawing on a Foucauldian framework for interpretation identified that six of the seven women took up subject positions of "inadequate woman" and "inadequate partner," positioning themselves as failures for experiencing pain during coitus, which they interpreted as affecting their ability to satisfy their partners sexually, resulting in feelings of shame, guilt, and a decreased desire for sexual contact. This was interpreted in relation to dominant discourses of femininity and hetero-sexuality, which conflate a woman's sexuality with her need to be romantically attached to a man, position men as having a driven need for sex, and uphold coitus as the organizing feature of hetero-sex. Only one woman positioned herself as an "adequate woman/partner," associated with having renegotiated the coital imperative and the male sex drive discourse within her relationship. These positions, along with women's agentic attempts to resist them, were discussed in relation to their impact on hetero-sexual women's negotiation of vulvodynia. Implications for future research and vulvodynia treatment regimes are also raised.

Epidemiological research consistently reports that women experience higher rates of depression than men. Competing biomedical, psychological and sociocultural models adopt a realist epistemology and a discourse of medical naturalism to position depression as a naturally occurring pathology within the woman, caused by biology, cognitions or life stress. Feminist critics argue that this medicalizes women's misery, legitimizes expert intervention, and negates the political, economic and discursive aspects of experience. However, the alternative model of social constructionism may appear to dismiss the 'real' of women's distress, and deny its material and intrapsychic concomitants, as well as negate relevant research findings. A critical review of sociocultural and psychological research on women's depression is conducted. It is argued that a critical-realist epistemology allows us to acknowledge the material-discursive-intrapsychic concomitants of experiences constructed as depression, without privileging one level of analysis above the other, in order to understand women's higher rates of reported depression.We are consistently told that women are more 'mad' than men, manifested in the current era of psychiatric nosology as higher levels of the psychiatric disorder 'depression'. Epidemiological researchers have reported that women outnumber men in lifetime prevalence of depression at a ratio that ranges from

No abstract

Health care professionals (HCPs) play a key role in providing information and counselling about the implications of cancer for fertility, however, many patients do not receive such information. The aim of this study was to examine the perspectives and practices of Australian HCPs in relation to discussing fertility with cancer patients. A mixed-methods design, comprising of an online survey of 263 HCPs [41.4% nurses; 25.5% doctors; 31% allied health care professionals (AHP)] and qualitative interviews with 49 HCPs, was utilised. HCPs reported that fertility is an important concern for patients and their partners; however, only 50% of doctors and nurses, and 24% of AHPs reported that they always addressed this issue. The primary barriers to discussing fertility were poor patient prognosis; patient gender or age; time constraints; and absence of appropriate resources and materials. Only a minority of HCPs (29%) had undergone training in discussing fertility with cancer patients. The majority wanted further training or education: including nurses (81.8%), AHPs (80.6%) and doctors (55.4%). HCPs agreed that a number of resources would assist them to raise fertility with their patients, including a list of appropriate referral sources, fact sheets, information booklets, a fertility consultation checklist and on-line resources.

These findings confirm differences between GB and heterosexual men in the impact of PCa on HRQOL across a range of domains, suggesting there is a need for GB targeted PCa information and support, to address the concerns of this "hidden population" in PCa care.

No abstract