Sexual Excitement

Robert J. Stoller M.D. was, until his death, Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine. His books on human sexuality include 'The Transsexual Experiment', 'Perversion: The Erotic Form of Hatred', 'Splitting: A Case of Female Masculinity', 'Porn: Myths for the Twentieth Century', 'Pain and Passion: A Psychoanalyst explores the World of S and M', 'Observing the Erotic Imagination' and 'Presentations of Gender'. Dr Stoller was a psychoanalyst but because he recognized the need to understand how biological forces contribute to the development of mental functions, he took account of the important work that had come out of the laboratories. He also emphasized the need for some psychoanalysts to include some of the findings and concepts of leading theorists if they are to understand better the origins and maintenance of the ground themes of personality, of which gender identity (masculinity and femininity) is certainly one.

• Introduction -- Hypotheses on Sexuality -- Sexual Excitement -- Primary Femininity -- Data: Belle -- Case Summary -- The Erotic Daydream -- The Underground Fantasy -- Anality -- Sadomasochism -- Exhibitionism -- Lovely -- Theories of the Mind -- Microdots -- Who Is Belle? -- Conclusions -- Treatment and Research -- Last Thoughts -- Appendix A -- Fixing

'It is a pleasure to give an unreserved welcome to Stoller's book He covers both psychological and biological anomalies of sexual identity which he has been studying clinically for ten years.'- Hugh Freeman, New Society'Dr Stoller's contribution must rank as a milestone in our understanding of the development of masculinity and feminity and can do a great deal to alleviate some fundamental uncertainties in this area.'- Sydney Brandon, British Medical Journal