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Psychopathology (sexual dysfunction chapter
Sexual dysfunction sample essay
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Orgasm Inc. describe the process pharmaceutical companies took to coin the concept of female sexual dysfunction and create a drug for it. Initially the concept of FSD was taken seriously by many people in the medical industry as well as women who had a difficult time reaching orgasm. The definition of “normal” orgasms for many of the women in the documentary, however, were considered to be orgasming during sexual intercourse. Women were comparing the sex scenes in movies and how those women always seemed to orgasm to their own lives. This led many women to believe that they were not normal, so when the idea of Female Sexual Dysfunction came out they found comfort in knowing there was a name for their issue and they weren’t the only ones.
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Also, the pornography that women watched in the surgeries often showed women having orgasms during intercourse, which continues to express a standard of orgasm that is not common for many women. To further to evidence that FSD is socially constructed, at a conference to adhere to the issue, there was a booth that was promoting one of the remedies for FSD being vaginalplasti, or plastic surgery for the vaginal lips
and hood. Promoting plastic surgery as a means to increase orgasms seems unrealistic enough, and further deepens the evidence for a social construct of the disorder.
The scams created by the pharmaceutical companies, unfortunately, did not go without encouragement. Many of the companies, aside from Vivus, ended up making millions of dollars off of their false products, and even when the FDA denied companies rights to market these products they were able to sell them in Europe. The Berman sisters, despite their lies, continue to be recognized for their advances in women’s health and be paid millions of dollars. It is a shame to see that companies and individuals are able to make so much money through the exploitation of people’s insecurities about how their bodies work and their personal sexual
since the FDA allowed companies to advertise directly to consumers we saw an increase in
Medicalization describes the shift in authority concerning abnormal human conditions. Quirks previously seen as by-products of maturation began to see heavy examination and were classified under medical terms. As a result, the past few decades have seen an obscene number of compulsions and disorders deemed medical conditions, further exacerbating the unnecessary institutionalization of many harmless irregularities. This string coincides with the growing popularity of sex addiction and the debate over its inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The mere thought of such a neurotic desire potentially joining the DSM alongside major mental and learning disorders epitomizes the depths to which society has sunk in recognition of truly straining abnormalities. The medicalization of sex addiction demonstrates the lengths at which medical authority will go to inject another fabricated disease into the blood of society.
Erection of the Clitoris is a psychological sign of sexual arousal. During erection the shaft of the clitoris becomes firmer, but the glans remains soft. The reason for this is that the shaft surrounds by a layer of tough connective tissue that restricts its expansion, whereas the glans is free to expand LaVay & Baldwin 2012. Usually, the glans of the clitoris is visible in the nonaroused (flaccid) state, but it may disappear under the clitoral hood during erection or with increasing sexual arousal, so sexual stimulation of the clitoris may occur through the hood rather than directly on the clitoral glans (or shaft). There 's quite a bit of variation from female to female regarding her clitoral anatomy and what kind of clitoral stimulation she finds arousing. The clitoris is more erotically sensitive in the erect than in the flaccid state LaVay & Baldwin, 2012.
Masters and Johnson were a pioneering team in the field of human sexuality, both in the domains of research and therapy. William Howell Masters, a gynecologist, was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1915. Virginia Eshelman Johnson, a psychologist, was born in Springfield, Montana in 1925. To fully appreciate their contribution, it is necessary to see their work in historic context. In 1948, Alfred C. Kinsey and his co-workers, responding to a request by female students at Indiana University for more information on human sexual behavior, published the book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. They followed this five years later with Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. These books began a revolution in social awareness of and public attention given to human sexuality. At the time, public morality severely restricted open discussion of sexuality as a human characteristic, and specific sexual practices, especially sexual behaviors that did not lead to procreation. Kinsey's books, which among other things reported findings on the frequency of various sexual practices including homosexuality, caused a furor. Some people felt that the study of sexual behavior would undermine the family structure and damage American society. It was in this climate - one of incipient efforts to break through the denial of human sexuality and considerable resistance to these efforts - that Masters and Johnson began their work. Their primary contribution has been to help define sexuality as a healthy human trait and the experience of great pleasure and deep intimacy during sex as socially acceptable goals. As a physician interested in the nature of sexuality and the sexual experience, William Masters wanted to conduct research that would lead to an objective understanding of these topics. In 1957, he hired Virgina Johnson as a research assistant to begin this research issue. Together they developed polygraph-like instruments that were designed to measure human sexual response. Using these tools, Masters and Johnson initiated a project that ultimately included direct laboratory observation and measurement of 700 men and women while they were having intercourse or masturbating. Based on the data collected in this study, they co-authored the book Human Sexual Response in 1966. In this book, they identify and describe four phases in the human sexual response cycle : excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. By this point in time, the generally repressive attitude toward sexuality was beginning to lift and the book found a ready audience.
This disorder is believed to mess with not only a woman’s hormones, but with her mind as well. Paracelsus theorized that “disorders of the uterus could result in hysterical fits that take away all reason and sensibility”(96). This explains why women lack reason and therefore are inferior to man, as we’ve seen throughout the course. Walter Johnson, in his Morbid Emotions of Women, implies- “Woman’s nature, her supposedly greater role in reproduction, makes her more vulnerable to insanity”(100). Although there’s some speculation on page 98 that hysteria could also be found in men, the idea was rejected and it was concluded that hysteria was of female essence. Any case of hysteria found in a male would be considered a rare exception to the rule. Because this disorder alone disrupts the female body so significantly, nineteenth-century medical scientists saw “the arousal of [sexual] appetite as the greatest danger to a woman’s mental well-being”(104). They feared that the sexual hormones on top of the reproductive hormones would be just too much for women to handle. English gynecologist, Isaac Baker Brown concluded that “the only effective cure [was] the destruction of the nerve through clitoridectomy”(105) Fortunately for women, protests eventually lead the circumcision of females to it’s demise
...n appreciates” (SOURCE) and Hearst’s magazine urged husbands to purchase them as Christmas gifts to “keep their wives young and pretty and free from Hysteria.” However, as Freud initiated a new type of thinking in the psychiatric world, vibrators fell out of use and were replaced by more “modern” cures such as psychoanalysis.
serious gender stereotypes were making their way in scientific materials and further into our culture.
As more studies were conducted, however, some doctors began to link hysteria with restricted activity and sexual ...
In an age where bustles, petticoats, and veils stifled women physically, it is not surprising that society imposed standards that stifled them mentally. Women were molded into an ideal form from birth, with direction as to how they should speak, act, dress, and marry. They lacked education, employable skills, and rights in any form. Every aspect of their life was controlled by a male authority figure starting with their father at birth and persisting through early womanhood into marriage where it was the husband who possessed control. Men believed that it was the law of the bible for one of the two parties to be superior and the other inferior. Women were ruled over as children and were to be seen, but not heard.
This toxic combination prevented women from voicing their individual needs and assessing their means of treatment (Poirier 16). Physicians during this time were considered moral authoritative figures over their patients and assumed a duty to control every aspect of their patient’s lives. This duty was extreme in female patient’s cases. Weir Mitchell, one of the most well-respected psychiatrists at the time, was intelligent, but not exempt from being susceptible to societal beliefs. Mitchell whole-heartedly understood that a woman’s life revolved around her womb, and that a woman’s greatest achievement and responsibility in life would be the bearing and raising of a child (Poirier 19). Mitchell so firmly believed that God created women and their physiology for the sole purpose of reproducing to such a degree that he could not understand why some women did not experience success with his treatment (Poirier 22-23). This strong belief system prevented Dr. Mitchell from possessing an in-depth understanding of post-partum depression. If he did not understand and have a fondness for women, why would he agree to treat them? One influence that motivated Mitchell to treat patients, regardless of gender, was his own bouts with nervousness. Many aspects of his treatment came from his personal experience (Poirier 18). Perhaps this is why his treatment proved to successfully treat more men than women. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is successful in proving the unhealthy relationship between women and medical language (Suess
Depending on the social contexts, there are some illnesses without diseases or the meaning of illnesses is independent from the biomedical entity. Illness is socially and culturally constructed and can reflect cultural biases or set limitations on particular groups. Historically, cultural assumptions of women’s nature have limited women’s ability to access resources and participate in the public sphere. Physicians have acted as agents of social control through defining women’s natural ability as secondary to men, and medicalizing of women’s problems, such as childbirth, menopause and premenstrual syndrome. These biased assumptions have become more complex and less visible, however they continue to limit and control women’s agency in society. Feminists have accused the medicalization of menopause as devaluing women, despite that fact that aging is a natural process. However, different cultures construct different understandings, definitions, experiences and medical practices of illness. Illness, such as anorexia can reflect the changing social expectations and roles of women in different cultures. The creation and treatment of illnesses are unequal. “Stigmatized illness”, including AIDS and epilepsy can create moral meanings that cause the perception of illness and individuals with illness stigmatized. Furthermore, factors such as whom and how many are affected
McCabe, M.P. (2005). The role of performance anxiety in the development and maintenance of sexual dysfunction in men and women. International Journal of Stress Management, 12(4), 379-388.
There is hope though for women in this area. More and more women are realizing that they can rectify systemic injustices. They look toward a future when feminist theorizing has a more profound influence on society including medicine and health. This, in a way, is where they are most capable because of their motherly instincts. They look toward a future when the voices of the socially marginalized are fully recognized, and the needs of all social groups are incorporated into a system of healthcare justice that is responsive to the diverse needs of all across the globe.
patients regardless of contradictory views. I cannot say I would rally with other feminist women
Horzepa, Haley Rose. "Common Response to Sexual Response." Huffington Post. N.p., 22 Apr. 2011. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.