ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the common factors that interferes with treatment, including sexual ignorance, faulty cognitions, and sexual guilt and shame. Sexual ignorance is a major contributor to many sexual disorders. The greatest source of sexual misinformation and ignorance is the mythology associated with sex. Mythological beliefs perpetuate sexual fear, shame, embarrassment and unrealistic expectations regarding sexual intimacy and contributes to sexual dysfunction. Acceptance of sexual mythology can interfere with the cognitive understanding of normal sexuality, sexual enjoyment and prevention of sexually transmitted illnesses. Furthermore, sexual misinformation causes increased sexual anxiety and sexual guilt and directly contributes to faulty automatic cognitions. Religiously based negativism regarding sex can interfere with sexual fantasy and significantly contribute to sexual guilt and shame. The intimacy is a root cause of marital/sexual pathology is one that is almost never found in the marriage and family therapy literature. Underlying fears of intimacy are fear of rejection/ abandonment, dependency, anger, feelings and fear of losing control.
