cover image The Pornographer's Grief: And Other Tales of Human Sexuality

The Pornographer's Grief: And Other Tales of Human Sexuality

Joseph Glenmullen. HarperCollins Publishers, $20 (248pp) ISBN 978-0-06-016637-3

These tales from psychotherapy gracefully demonstrate Glenmullen's thesis ``that sexual issues and symptoms are metaphors for the larger psychological stresses and strains in an individual's life.'' Describing cases taken from his private practice, the Harvard Medical School professor unravels the often complex symptoms that bring troubled patients to him for help. In the title piece, a young man disturbed over his compulsion to buy pornographic magazines gradually connects that behavior to his longings for the father who abandoned him. In another tale, a woman who has been traumatized by witnessing a violent fight between two men is able, after unrelenting effort, to remember an event from childhood that has proven central to her life. Glenmullen's accounts also touch on sexual problems that have physical origins--such as the side effects of medication--and those related to conflicts caused by infertility. These absorbing narratives chronicle the ultimate effectiveness of unhurried, steady psychotherapeutic excavation in relieving the pain of sexual dysfunction. (Apr.)