Ph.D. Thesis, 33 l. / Basic thesis: the behavior of any animal is the result of his drives to action and the opposing resistance.

Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / It is a common phenomenon that women’s sexual desire diminishes in relationships, yet, to date, limited research has been done locally on this topic. International studies indicate that low sexual desire affects more than half of women, and that an even greater proportion of women indicate that they have sexual intercourse with their husbands without they themselves having a desire to do so. In spite of this, there is an expectation in society that couples should continue to have an active sex life. Low sexual desire may lead to distress in the individual or discord in the couple, and in this aspect the practitioner can render a service. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of the life-world of women with low sexual desire towards their life-partners, and the extent to which this causes her distress or impedes on her relationship. The objectives of the study thus included providing an overview of models of sexual response, an evaluation of the diagnostic criteria for sexual dysfunctions, and an exploration of factors affecting the experience of sexual desire, including the role of social scripts on sexual behaviour. The context for the study is provided by a review of relevant literature, and a qualitative study with a phenomenological interpretative approach was executed. Data gathering focused on a nonprobable purposive sample of ten participants, and used an interview schedule with open-ended questions. Seven themes emerged from the analysis of the data, namely (1) perceptions of sexual desire, (2) experience of sexual desire, (3) experience of sex life without desire, (4) the perceived impact of low desire on the individual or the relationship, (5) personal reasons for decline in desire, (6) relationship factors affecting sexual desire, and (7) the experience of low desire in the socio-cultural context. It was found that ‘desire’ is difficult to conceptualise, that women put a higher premises on the emotional component of desire, and that there is a difference between innate sexual desires and desire that is evoked by stimuli. Reasons for low sexual desire include an array of personal medial, psychological, and life context factors, and in many cases the lack of desire is specific to the present life-partner. Women are especially sensitive to a wide variety of aspects in the relationship and with regards to their partners, and it emerged that even in happy and intimate relationships low sexual desire is experienced. Women experience a loss of emotional intimacy as a result of low sexual desire but do not necessarily feel that their low desire is abnormal. The impact on the relationship is limited mostly because women concede to sex for many reasons, including a need for emotional intimacy. Many strategies, including faking orgasms, are implemented to cope with sexual relationships in the absence of desire. It also appears that social scripts have a big influence on the inception of negative perceptions on sexuality, and generate unreasonable and idealistic expectations of sexual experiences in long-term relationships. Several recommendations flowed from the findings and conclusions. The most important recommendation is that professional people should gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon of low desire in women, in order to render a more effective therapeutic intervention.

NETO, Isaac Vilanova e Silva. A teoria das pulsões em Freud e Lacan: pontos de convergência e de divergência. 2009. 81f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Psicologia) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Psicologia, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Fortaleza-CE, 2009. / Submitted by moises gomes (celtinha_malvado@hotmail.com) on 2012-01-17T14:39:51Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_IVESNeto.PDF: 519427 bytes, checksum: 56ce0ee33440e2a9b252f1a8c5173fe9 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Josineide Góis(josineide@ufc.br) on 2012-03-08T16:26:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_IVESNeto.PDF: 519427 bytes, checksum: 56ce0ee33440e2a9b252f1a8c5173fe9 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2012-03-08T16:26:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2009_dis_IVESNeto.PDF: 519427 bytes, checksum: 56ce0ee33440e2a9b252f1a8c5173fe9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009

A presente dissertaÃÃo A teoria das pulsÃes em Freud e Lacan: pontos de convergÃncia e de divergÃncia tem como objetivo geral estudar a teoria das pulsÃes em Freud e Lacan, identificando o que à comum e o que diverge entre os dois. Os objetivos especÃficos sÃo, quanto a Freud: a) investigar a construÃÃo do conceito de pulsÃo; b) pesquisar a constituiÃÃo da primeira teoria pulsional: pulsÃes sexuais e pulsÃes do eu; c) estudar a formulaÃÃo da segunda teoria pulsional: pulsÃes de vida e pulsÃes de morte. Quanto ao que Lacan concebeu sobre as pulsÃes, visa-se investigar: a) a Ãnfase dada ao imaginÃrio e b) a Ãnfase dada ao simbÃlico. Para a escolha dos textos de Freud, foram consideradas a construÃÃo do conceito de pulsÃo e as primeira e segunda teorias a este respeito. Na seleÃÃo dos textos de Lacan, utilizou-se o critÃrio de periodizaÃÃo de seu ensino sugerido por Miller (1982, 2005). Dentre outros comentadores consultados, citam-se Brousse (1997) e Leite (1996). A pesquisa realizada aponta as seguintes conclusÃes: A grande convergÃncia da teoria pulsional entre os autores deve-se à afirmaÃÃo de nÃo haver uma base comum entre instinto e pulsÃo e por contemplar em suas teorias a dimensÃo do mais alÃm do princÃpio de prazer. A diferenÃa entre os dois psicanalistas procede de uma distinÃÃo epistemolÃgica acerca da pulsÃo: Para Freud, observa-se que âno princÃpio foi atoâ, ou seja, a pulsÃo representa a exigÃncia de trabalho â ato â feita ao psiquismo inconsciente, em decorrÃncia da ligaÃÃo deste com o corpo. Para Lacan, no princÃpio està o verbo. A pulsÃo ($<>D), neste autor, à verbo, linguagem â constituÃda apenas por dois elementos simbÃlicos, o sujeito ($) e a demanda do Outro â e à concebida como o que advÃm da demanda do Outro quando o sujeito aà desvanece. O conceito de fronteira na pulsÃo à abordado a partir de perspectivas diversas nos autores: em Freud, ocorre entre o somÃtico e o mental, e em Lacan, entre a necessidade e a demanda. Nos Ãltimos textos de Lacan, a pulsÃo à um conceito que està na fronteira entre o imaginÃrio, o simbÃlico e o real. Freud trabalha, desde o inÃcio, com um modelo dualista da pulsÃo, e Lacan enfatiza a pulsÃo, fundamentalmente, como pulsÃo de morte. Consequentemente, a libido, para Lacan, està associada à pulsÃo de morte, enquanto que para Freud a libido à a energia de Eros, ou seja, vinculada à pulsÃo de vida. Percebe-se, em Freud, um destaque do aspecto econÃmico da pulsÃo, e sobre este aspecto em Lacan, os autores divergem: alguns dizem que o aspecto econÃmico està presente; outros, que ele foi suprimido. O investigador, no entanto, considera este aspecto apenas mitigado, porquanto presente em alguns textos lacanianos. / The title of the present dissertationry of the drives in Freud and Lacan: points of convergence and divergenceâ. The main objective was to analyze the theory of the drives in Freud and Lacan, identifying the points in which they differ and the points in which they converge. The specific objectives with regard to Freud were to investigate a) the development of the concept of drives, b) the constitution of the first theory of the drives (sex drive and ego drive) and c) the constitution of the second theory of the drives (life drive and death drive). With regard to Lacan, the specific objectives were to study the emphasis given to a) the imaginary, b) the symbolic. Our review of the literature included texts by Freud dealing with the concept of drive and the first and second theory of the drives, and texts by Lacan selected according to Millerâs periodization of Lacanâs teaching (1982, 2005). The works of Brousse (1997) and Leite (1996) were also consulted. The results show that the main convergence between Freudâs and Lacanâs theories of the drives lies in the absence of a common ground between instinct and drive and the acknowledgment of a dimension beyond the pleasure principle. The difference between the two psychoanalysts lies in their epistemological definitions of drive: To Freud, âin the beginning was the actâ, that is, the drive represents the demand of work&#8213;an act&#8213;made to the unconscious mind due its connection with the body. According to Lacan, âin the beginning was the wordâ: Lacan conceives of drive ($<>D) as word, as language, composed of only two symbolic elements&#8213;the subject ($) and the demand of the Other (D)&#8213;and stemming from the demand of the Other when the subject fades away. The concept of frontier is analyzed in light of several of the authorsâ perspectives: in Freud, the frontier separates psyche and soma, while in Lacan it lies between necessity and demand. In Lacanâs last texts, the concept of drive lingers on the frontier between the imaginary, the symbolic and the real. From the beginning, Freud used a dualistic model of the drives, while Lacan emphasizes drive, essentially, as death drive. Thus, to Lacan libido is associated with the death drive, whereas Freud identified libido as the energy associated with Eros and thus related to the life drive. Freudâs emphasis on the economic aspect of the drives counters Lacanâs views: some authors believe the economic aspect is present in Lacan, others think it has been suppressed. Though the aspect has been included in some of Lacanâs texts, the present author nevertheless considers it to have been merely mitigated.

An adult female sample of childhood sexual abuse survivors (N=467) were surveyed to determine whether internalized shame moderated the effects of sexual inhibited difficulties. Other variables such as severity, duration, and frequency of sexual abuse, as well as whether physical abuse was also part of their experience, were examined to determine their role in later sexual inhibition. It was predicted that there would be a significant positive relationship between 1) Scores on variables of physical abuse, severity of abuse, frequency of abuse, duration of abuse, identity of the perpetrator and scores on the variable of inhibited sexual difficulties; 2) Scores of internalized shame and scores of inhibited sexual difficulties and 3) Scores on variable of physical abuse, severity of abuse, frequency of abuse, duration of abuse, identity of the perpetrator and scores on the variables of internalized shame. Through Structural Equation Modeling using AMOS, the results indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between severity, frequency and inhibited sexual disturbances but found no direct relationship between physical abuse, the identity of the perpetrator, the duration of the abuse and inhibited sexual disturbances. Results also indicated that shame had a direct positive relationship to inhibited sexual disturbances. The third finding was that physical abuse and severity of abuse had a significant positive relationship with shame which implies that shame is a moderating variable for inhibited sexual disturbances in adult women survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Internalized shame may be an important factor for therapists to consider in helping survivors overcome sexual inhibition as a result of childhood sexual abuse. If a woman develops a shame-prone identity she may be at risk for experiencing inhibition in her sexuality.