In the Garden of Desire

Maltz, an Oregon sex therapist and author of The Sexual Healing Journey, does not simply catalogue the sexual turn-ons she has collected but analyzes what they mean and how some of them may be used to achieve a more satisfying sex life. Not that all fantasies are useful or pleasurable, she stresses. Some can be so disturbing and harmful--especially if they are based on childhood trauma--that they should be forgotten, and Maltz, writing with Boss, an Oregon freelance journalist, suggests ways of doing that. Basing her conclusions on the testimony of some 100 patients, she divides female fantasies into two groups, scripted fantasies (in which the fantasist takes on one of six sexual roles: Pretty Maiden, Victim, Wild Woman, Dominatrix, Beloved or Voyeur) and unscripted ones (in which the fantasies are not little dramas but created sensory moods based on specific sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches or movements). For individual sexual fantasies to be truly understood, according to Maltz, they must be analyzed in their context, much as Freudians (which Maltz is not) analyze dreams. And although fantasies by their very nature are private, Maltz discusses the advantages of a woman sharing them with the right partner. This is a book addressed directly to women, and its tone is that of a soothing therapist talking to a patient, a therapist with a number of sexy tales to tell. (May)