Juliane Maxwald, "Psychoanalytic Sex Therapy: Exploring the Unconscious Life of Sexuality" (Taylor & Francis, 2025)
About this episode
Juliane Maxwald discusses her book on the intersection of psychoanalysis and sex therapy, exploring how sexual symptoms reflect deeper unconscious conflicts.
Today I spoke with Juliane Maxwald abut her new book Psychoanalytic Sex Therapy: Exploring the Unconscious Life of Sexuality ( Taylor & Francis, 2025). Maxwald bridges psychoanalytic theory with contemporary sex therapy to demonstrate that sexual symptoms are rarely just about sex—they're embodied expressions of unconscious conflict, early attachment wounds, relational trauma, and unmet developmental needs. Through eleven richly detailed clinical cases—including Jon's shame-bound spanking fantasies, Connie's trauma-releasing masturbation, Maurice's porn use masking performance anxiety, Joelle's compulsive sexual behavior, Brian's BDSM healing, and Anna and Darren's painful desire discrepancy—Maxwald shows how integrating psychodynamic insight with behavioral interventions, somatic awareness, and trauma-informed care creates transformative healing. The book argues that sexuality is a "portal to the unconscious," where repetition compulsion, dissociation, shame, and erotic transference play out in the body, and that therapeutic work requires not just fixing dysfunction but decoding symbolic meanings, tolerating ambiguity, attending to countertransference, and creating relational…
People in this episode
Host: Marshall Poe
Guest: Juliane Maxwald
Topics covered
- psychoanalysis
- sex therapy
- unconscious
- clinical cases
- trauma
- embodied agency
Keywords
- psychoanalysis
- sex therapy
- unconscious
- clinical cases
- trauma
- embodied agency
- sexuality
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Taylor & Francis
Books & works: Psychoanalytic Sex Therapy: Exploring the Unconscious Life of Sexuality
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