The aim of this lecture is to explain the role of science in the decline of subjectivity in the clinical assessment and approach of sexual disorders. It is well known that in the last 10 years publications and congresses dedicated to sexology and sexual medicine, the accent is put first on the biological and paraclinic explorations. The psychological etiology is only conceivable when these are negative. Another example of that way of thinking is how easily the notion of E.D. as a sign of cardiovascular disease is so widely diffused. Even though this is of some value in ageing patients or in specific pathological populations, it is not true before the age of 50, and all the more in young subjects, for whom E.D. is mostly a sign of couple psycho-relational disorder.
Yet, recent works have demonstrated how psychological approach improves the efficacy of pharmacological treatments. We can also mention the significative relationship between premature ejaculation and social phobia. How did it happen ? How can we explain the current negation of subjective factors that evidence based medecine implies ? How have we joined to that situation, to this incomprehensible lack of sense ? What is the responsability of science in considering man as a simple neuro-bio-genic machine ? These are the questions the author will try to answer. References: 1. Ray O.: Itinéraire de l’égarement (Le Seuil, Paris), 2. Duval S., Jouvent R.: De la fatigue neuronale à la récidive dépressive (Editions Pil, Paris), 3. Tignol J. et al.: Social phobia and premature ejaculation : a case control study (Depress Anxiety, 2006 (23) 1:5)
Conflict of Interest: None disclosed
Financial Support/Funding: None disclosed
Sydney, Australia, April 2007
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