Sexual Difference is a critical exploration of psychoanalytic theories of sexual difference. In particular it explores the way in which masculinity is expressed in theory and practice. Developing from the unsettling impact of these issues on the author's own professional practice, Stephen Frosh examines how the very language and structure of psychoanalysis are loaded with assumptions about gender. Employing both Kleinian and Lacanian theoretical perspectives this book critically examines these approacheds to sexial difference. In addition, it discusses the application of these issues in the practice of treating sexual violence and in cases of child secual abuse. Sexual Difference will be of value to all trainees and professionals in psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychology and social work, as well as all those with an interest in masculinity', femininity' and their effects.
Stephen Frosh has worked at Birkbeck from 1979, first in the School of Psychology and since 2008 in the Department of Psychosocial Studies, of which he was a founding member and first Head of Department. From 1982 until 2000 he worked part time at Birkbeck and part time as a clinical psychologist in the NHS. Throughout the 1990s he was Consultant Clinical Psychologist and (from 1996) Vice Dean in the Child and Family Department of the Tavistock Clinic, London. His academic interests are in the applications of psychoanalysis to social issues; gender, culture and ‘race’; and psychosocial studies. He was Pro-Vice-Master of Birkbeck from 2003 to 2017, first with responsibility for Learning and Teaching, then for Research and then for Internationalisation