Scientific Research of Sexual Disorders
Wallace Luyten
Week 4 Discussion
NIU Psych 316
Chapter 7 covered sexual disorders including paraphilic disorders, sexual dysfunctions, gender dysphoria, and sexual disorders. The case report on Shaun Boyden made me sick to my stomach. I try not to judge others for their actions, but this deviant sexual behavior makes me wonder what in the world could have happened to these pedophiles in their own childhood?
Abuse of some form seems to be the common theme. My brother in law was sexually molested as a child, and the mental damage is just as evident today as it was 20 years ago when the molestation occurred. He turned to drugs and alcohol to suppress those memories, but thanks to years of intense therapy, he made a miraculous recovery. I feel a strong sense of empathy for people like Chaz Bono with gender identity disorder. It must be such a confusing, frustrating feeling to know that you are in “the wrong body”. Sometimes we take for granted something as common as feeling comfortable with our own gender. I thought Margaret Kemeny wrote an exceptional article in “The Psychobiology of Stress”. The interrelationships among the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system, and the immune system were particularly interesting. These relationships make so much more sense to me when explained with scientific research to back up the theory. We learned last week that stress is a vital part human beings survival and this article reiterated that point. I think everyone in this class has experienced decreased levels of lymphocytes, due to the stresses of work, school, family, or all the above! I really enjoyed the end of the article, when Margaret compared the metabolic changes of stress to those of a demanding metabolic exercise. This analogy makes perfect sense to me. Sexual dysfunction is a topic that is rarely discussed among men because everyone is hoping they will never be
Week 4 Discussion
NIU Psych 316
Chapter 7 covered sexual disorders including paraphilic disorders, sexual dysfunctions, gender dysphoria, and sexual disorders. The case report on Shaun Boyden made me sick to my stomach. I try not to judge others for their actions, but this deviant sexual behavior makes me wonder what in the world could have happened to these pedophiles in their own childhood?
Abuse of some form seems to be the common theme. My brother in law was sexually molested as a child, and the mental damage is just as evident today as it was 20 years ago when the molestation occurred. He turned to drugs and alcohol to suppress those memories, but thanks to years of intense therapy, he made a miraculous recovery. I feel a strong sense of empathy for people like Chaz Bono with gender identity disorder. It must be such a confusing, frustrating feeling to know that you are in “the wrong body”. Sometimes we take for granted something as common as feeling comfortable with our own gender. I thought Margaret Kemeny wrote an exceptional article in “The Psychobiology of Stress”. The interrelationships among the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system, and the immune system were particularly interesting. These relationships make so much more sense to me when explained with scientific research to back up the theory. We learned last week that stress is a vital part human beings survival and this article reiterated that point. I think everyone in this class has experienced decreased levels of lymphocytes, due to the stresses of work, school, family, or all the above! I really enjoyed the end of the article, when Margaret compared the metabolic changes of stress to those of a demanding metabolic exercise. This analogy makes perfect sense to me. Sexual dysfunction is a topic that is rarely discussed among men because everyone is hoping they will never be