Content

• Chapter 1: The Challenge of Explaining Sexual Behaviour

On 'maleness' and 'femaleness'
On what is and isn't 'sexual'
The relational goals of connection and belonging
On belonging: further considerations

• Chapter 2: Drives and Sexual Behaviour

Drive theory: what prompts me to do something?
A dual drive-source, multiple-drive model
Features of the biological and subjective drive profiles

• Chapter 3: Biological Drive Profile (BDP) Factors

Genetics and sexual predispositions
Neurochemicals and the sexual response
The hormonal profile: priming for sexual desire
Sexual conditioning: the impulse that repeats the past

• Chapter 4: Subjective Drive Profile (SDP) Themes of Pleasure and Desire

The compulsion of eroticism
The desire for recreation
The drive to curiosity and discovery
The attraction to beauty
The attraction to gender traits

• Chapter 5: SDP Themes Relating to Broader Social Needs

The need prove oneself
The need for social acceptance
The consumer drive
The desire to rebel
The power motive
The drive to procreation

• Chapter 6: Relationship-need Themes of the SDP

The need for intimacy and to belong
The need for love
Attraction to the familiar
Parent-related motives
The demand of practical concerns

• Chapter7: SDP Inhibition Themes

Social inadequacy
Fear of entrapment
The instinct to withdrawal
The need for self-protection
Disgust towards the person
Disgust about sex

• Chapter 8: Sociocultural Sexual Scripts: Origins

Shared expectations, meanings and rules
Traditional scripts
Traditional Judeo-Christian script

• Chapter 9: Sociocultural Sexual Scripts: Changing Perspectives

Secular Western script
Sexual experimentation subscript
Individual freedoms subscript
Virtual sex subscript
Competing scripts and moral notions

• Chapter 10: Sexual Narratives: Early Years

Childhood belonging and attachment
Childhood boundaries
Childhood sexual awareness
Early gender identity and sexual orientation

• Chapter 11: Sexual Narratives: Transitions

The integration of the sexual and relational self
Attachment and the sexual self
First experiences
Tim and Lucy's story
On falling in love

• Chapter 12: Psychological Practice and Sexual Relationships

Sexual behaviour and mental health
Some intervention principles
On therapeutic goals
On the maintenance and dissolution of a sexual relationship

• Chapter 13: Some Stories to Finish With

The contamination of association
A story about gender dysphoria
A story about porn
Stories about ghosts of the past
A final story about sex and not belonging

• Chapter Endnotes
• References