Sexual Health Conversations: Crossing Boundaries to Liberate Us from Sexual Addiction

Despite more than 30 years of exponential growth in research on sexual addiction, there remain fundamental gaps within the popular notion that problematic sexual urges, thoughts, and behavior can be linked with an addictive process. Over the same span of decades, definitions of sexual health expanded from mere absence of a problem to balancing sexual safety and pleasure within a framework of sexual rights. I believe that the inherent flaw surrounding the increasingly insular sex addiction industry and its never-ending focus on ameliorating pathological sexual acts is the absence of a relationship with sexual health discourse. Inspired by Georges DidiHuberman’s reflections of his relationship with French philosopher Michael Foucault, I propose that an individual’s personal crisis of facing their out-of-control sexual behavior needs to be reframed as an opportunity for envisioning their sexual health. Perhaps, the rigid protection of the sovereign sexual addiction identity restricts us all from developing reliable knowledge?Much can be learned when we move our collective gaze upon out-of-control sexual behavior research and clinical practice towards the honorable principles within sexual health.

尽管对性成瘾的研究在30多年间呈指数级增长，但在流行观点中，即认为有问题的性冲动、性想法和性行为可能与成瘾过程相关这一点上，仍然存在根本性的差距。在同样的几十年间，性健康的定义从仅仅没有问题扩展到在性权利框架内平衡性安全和性愉悦。我认为，围绕日益孤立的性成瘾行业及其对改善病理性性行为的无休止关注，其内在缺陷在于与性健康话语缺乏关联。受乔治·迪迪 - 于贝尔曼对他与法国哲学家米歇尔·福柯关系的反思的启发，我提出，一个人面对自己失控的性行为的个人危机需要被重新定义为一个构想自身性健康的机会。也许，对性成瘾这一绝对身份的严格保护限制了我们所有人发展可靠知识的能力？当我们将对失控性行为研究和临床实践的集体目光转向性健康中的高尚原则时，我们可以学到很多东西。