Portnoy's Complaint
Bildungsromans Classics Fiction Humorous Humorous Stories Jewish Jewish Men Literary Mothers and sons Psychological Psychological Fiction Sex addiction Sex addicts Young men
Publisher: Random House
Published: Mar 5, 2002
Bildungsromans Classics Fiction Humorous Humorous Stories Jewish Jewish Men Literary Mothers and sons Psychological Psychological Fiction Sex addiction Sex addicts Young men
Publisher: Random House
Published: Mar 5, 2002
Description:
SUMMARY:
Portnoy's Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933-)] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spievogel says: "Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration." (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.