A family myth: sex therapy gone awry

The treatment of sexual disorders has achieved considerable popularity and respectability within the mental health profession and the lay community. As a consequence, it has become increasingly difficult to elude requests for this type of treatment and even more difficult to balance sexual concerns with the numerous other modes of relating that exist within a dyadic relationship. This paper will report two versions of a case study in which sexual dysfunction served as a myth that was carefully constructed to veil certain more fundamental problems.