ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines how specific psychological needs were satisfied through the relationship between the men and the women and how the transaction was an attempt to resolve complex emotional dilemmas around power, dependency, devaluation, and shame. It describes reader understanding of the men and the women and their relationships with regard to dependence–independence. The chapter outlines how the different dimensions of the complex relationship between buyers and sellers of sex can usefully be summarized in relation to shame versus shamelessness and power versus powerlessness. Unlike the men, women who were living with a partner, tended not to experience the division between "normal" life and a "secret" life. These women talked about how prostitution did come between their partner and themselves, both as a protection and as a hindrance. Perhaps for them prostitution represented a form of closeness, while at the same time this activity made it very difficult for them to achieve intimacy with a partner.
