ABSTRACT
There are three things on my mind as I come to the end of this book. These three things are not especially connected but neither are they completely separate. The first thing that has worried me for some time is the pathologising of male sexuality. This is the tendency to see the a particular attribute of male sexuality as a disorder or, indeed, something worthy of disapproving investigation. The second is that, by writing about the treatment of sexual addiction, this will be taken to mean that I am joining forces with those who would attempt to define acceptable and unacceptable sexual patterns. That would be completely wrong. I regularly say to patients ‘it is only a problem if it is a problem’. Finally, we are in the middle of a paradigm shift. There is a change in thinking about the nature of addiction. This has shifted from substances only and now includes the concept of addiction to behaviours. This is largely driven by the new work in the neuroscience of addiction.
