Personal Perspectives on Hypersexual Disorder

By Rory C Reid. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, 2013

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Considerable empirical knowledge has been gathered about hypersexual behavior during the past decade. Like so many emerging phenomena, more questions have been raised than answered. Having been trained in the scientist-practitioner model, I have attempted to balance my clinical experience with data derived from the research in order to cultivate a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. In my early work, I would frequently listen to patients share their stories, offer empathy for their suffering, and provide some feedback about strategies I believed might attenuate the symptoms and consequences they encountered. As patients increasingly sought help, I began looking for common threads that tied their narratives together. The scientist in me began conducting research to see what insights might emerge from the data to facilitate case conceptualization and treatment planning. Some results converged with what prominent individuals in the field proclaimed about this phenomenon while other findings contradicted widely held beliefs and assumptions. Complicating matters, controversies in the social science literature introduced a number of legitimate challenges to the construct of hypersexuality. At times, I have been both curious and critical, both collaborative and confrontational, and both concerned and complacent. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot from research, colleagues, and most of all, my patients. As the guest editor of a special issue of Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity dedicated to perspectives on hypersexual disorder, I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of my own viewpoints in an effort to bring attention to issues I believe are important as the field continues to grow. Despite APA’s decision to exclude hypersexual disorder (HD) from the forthcoming DSM-5, the proposed criteria for HD (Kafka, 2010) represent a milestone in the field. Kafka, along with others, invested a tremendous amount of effort in drafting the proposed criteria. I’m grateful for his efforts

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

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