Vaginisme - en sexuel forstyrrelse hos kvinder

Abstract

The main purposes of this paper are to describe a sexual disturbance in women, which is somewhat disregarded in psychological litterature, namely vaginismus, and to discuss some general questions concerning sexuality with vaginismus as a starting point. The relation between the somatic and physical aspects of sexuality is discussed, and vaginismus is defined as a symptom of unconscious conflicts and anxious fantasies concerning female sexual functions like intercourse, pregnancy and delivery. Such fantasies exist in both sexes and find many other expressions than vaginismus. Ideas of female sexual function as pain, suffering and absence of pleasure are shared by many vaginists, feminists, psychoanalysts and physicians, and such ideas imbue the traditional treatment of vaginismus, which aims at creating good conditions for male sexual pleasure and for functions of conceptions, but does not consider female pleasure. A psychoanalytically inspired model for treatment of vaginismus is outlined and vaginismus is discussed
in relation to newer and older psychoanalytic theories of female sexuality.