ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I will discuss three dimensions of medicalized sexuality. The first concerns medical and pharmaceutical interventions, their safety, effectiveness, and measurable costs. The second, socio-cultural, dimension regards the conditions under which sex therapy truly facilitates pleasure, intimacy, autonomy, and equality. This requires investigation of the current social and relational contexts of seeking professional help: the motives, hopes, and pressures that guide the individual quest for “normality” and the wider social consequences of pursuing it. The third dimension concerns the concept of “ideal sex” promoted in sexology and the shortcomings that arise from viewing the obstacles to “ideal sex” as disorders.
