Originally published in 1956, this survey of the interpretations of sex by the major figures in Christian thought and in psychoanalysis made an important contribution to the re-thinking of our sexual morality at the time. The author refutes the common belief that the negative attitude toward sex and the body, which had been predominant in western civilization, originated with Christianity. He shows that such a viewpoint was widespread in the early Hellenism Age, nearly three centuries before Christ. He emphasizes the essentially positive view which Biblical religion demands and shows how Christianity’s attitude early became corrupted by the dualism of the Orient. He points to the need for a return to essential naturalism and the Biblical interpretation of sex. The first part of the book consists of a historical treatment in the Christian tradition, touching upon the teaching of Jesus, Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and others. He analyses the classical and contemporary attitudes and ideas in both Catholic and Protestant circles and shows how Christian understanding comes into conflict with psychoanalysis. In the later portions of the book the author discusses sex and psychoanalysis and the major problems in sexual mores. He ends with a synthesis of the religious and psychoanalytic points of view and a critical reconstruction of a Christian interpretation.

Donated by Sydney Harris.

In this pioneering study in religion and culture, Mielke acknowledges the power that pornographic images continue to assert in a culture whose conscious intention is to deny their attraction. Mielke's unique analysis brings together a wide range of sources--contemporary as well as historical Christianity, sex therapy, secular feminism, contemporary psychoanalysis, and behavioral science research studies--in an attempt to explain the prevalence of pornographic themes and imagery in human sexual arousal and fulfillment.

Routledge Library Editions: Psychoanalysis brings together as one set, or individual volumes, a series of 8 previously out-of-print titles, originally published between 1923 and 1993. Written by international authors from a variety of backgrounds, this set looks at psychoanalysis in a number of different areas including, culture, religion, sociology, postmodernism, literary criticism and others.

From its etymological roots, sex is related to a scission, Latin for sectus, secare, meaning "to divide or cut." Therefore, regardless of the various studies applied to defining sex as inscribed by discursive acts, i.e. merely a 'performatively enacted signification,' there is something more to sex than just a social construction or an aprioristic substance. Sex is irreducible to meaning or knowledge. This is why psychoanalysis cannot be formulated as an erotology nor a science of sex (scientia sexualis). In this matter, sex escapes the symbolic restraints of language; however, it is through its failure that it manifests itself through the symbolic, e.g. symptoms or dream life. So, what is sex? Sex and Nothing embarks upon a dialogue between colleagues and friends interested in bridging psychoanalysis and philosophy, linking sex and thought, where what emerges is a greater awareness of the irreducucibility of sex to the discourse of knowledge and meaning: in other words, sex and nothing.

This book briefly surveys the traditional teaching of the Christian Church about the relationship of men and women, and then examines some of the new factors which have made necessary a critical reassessment of it, particularly of those emphases which are negative. One of the most powerful of these factors is the emancipation of women and the recognition that they are not of a lower status than men. Against this background the inner meaning of sexuality is examined, and stress is laid on both the difficulties and the opportunities of the new situation. Mr. Greet believes that we must guide the revolution in sexual relationship towards the creation of a society in which men and women make their free, equal-though-differing contributions to the richer texture of life which is God's will for them both in marriage and within the wider life in the community.