This seminar will present an overview of human sexuality, including the physical, emotional, and spiritual dynamics that form the complexity of this fundamental and perplexing of human drives. Current collective views on the nature and meaning of sexuality will be explored, focusing on the subjective, cultural influences on our ideas and views about erotic experiences. The perspective of analytical psychology will be used to encourage a deeper understanding of clinical material that will be presented to demonstrate how the psyche expresses itself and its intentions through sexualization.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe the conventional use of the concept of sexuality and be able to specify how these common understandings limit our comprehension of the dynamics of sexuality.
- Contrast the collective view with a psychodynamic understanding of sexuality.
- Describe and contrast how sexuality is understood through drive theory and object relations theory.
- Describe how sexual images in dreams are related to and differentiated from conscious experiences of sexuality.
- Give examples of sexual behaviors that compete with the goals of psychotherapy.