A term describing the capacity for sexual feelings and behaviour, or an individual’s sexual orientation or preference. Heterosexuality is sexuality directed towards the anatomically opposite sex; homosexuality is attraction to the same sex; and bisexuality is attraction to both sexes. (See also gender identity.)
A system of ideas developed by Sigmund Freud that explains personality and behaviour in terms of unconscious wishes and conflicts. The main emphasis was on sexuality. Freud believed that a child passes through 3 stages in the first 18 months of life: oral, anal, and genital. After this, the child develops a sexual attraction to the parent of the opposite sex and wants to eliminate the other parent (Oedipus complex). Sexual feelings become latent around age 5 but reemerge at puberty. Psychological problems may develop if fixation occurs at a primitive stage. Modern psychoanalysis has progressed from these ideas and is generally based on the observation that most emotional problems are caused by childhood experiences. Psychoanalysis attempts to free the individual from the past, helping him or her to become a real person in the present. Psychoanalytic theory is decreasing in influence.... psychoanalytic theory
a psychiatric illness in which the patients starve themselves or use other techniques, such as vomiting or taking laxatives, to induce weight loss. To fulfil ICD-10 criteria for anorexia nervosa a patient must have a distorted body image (thinking they are overweight when they are not), a defined weight loss or *body mass index reduction, amenorrhoea, and vomiting or purging. The illness is most common in female adolescents, but about 10% of sufferers are male. There is a significant mortality associated with anorexia nervosa because of the medical consequences of weight loss. The causes of the illness are not clearly understood: problems within the family, rejection of adult sexuality, self-harming behaviour in the context of an *emotionally unstable personality disorder, and performance pressure are hypothesized as factors involved. Patients must be persuaded to eat enough to maintain a normal body weight and their emotional disturbance is usually treated with *psychotherapy supported by a dietician and possibly the *community mental health team. See also bulimia.... anorexia nervosa
n. (in psychiatry) the process of making the living conditions of people with learning disabilities as similar as possible to those of people who are not disabled. This includes moves to living outside institutions and encouragement to cope with work, pay, social life, sexuality, and civil rights.... normalization
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