[Sexology]

Whatever type of practice he may have, the physician is confronted daily with an increasingly important demand for help concerning sexual problems, be they "masked" in terms of functional symptomatology, or be they openly "verbalised" as sexual difficulties. Possessing no real sexological background, [corrected] and having merely heard of "methods", without knowing either their bases or their qualities, the physician is not capable of responding in more than a minimally effective manner. Confronted with this need, american researchers have perfected, with Masters and Johnson, new techniques which have been borne out by their statistical results. The originality of these techniques lies in their being carried out by a couple, centered around the relation of the solliciting couple, and aiming at a psychosensorial reeducation. If the application of such methods, as well as sexology research and training, is still timid in Western Europe, their importance is no way lessened. They represent, in fact, for the psychiatrist, a new way of approaching sexuality, by means of: --medical team work; --"manipulation" of body language; --and perhaps, also... reality.