FOR EACH OTHER: Sharing Sexual Intimacy

This is the same old band-aid for women's sexual problems proffered again and again by Barbach herself (For Yourself, 1974; Shared Intimacies, 1980) and by others. Here she recommends a variety of procedures--mainly involving self-discovery and physical exercises--to help women overcome lack of orgasm, discomfort in intercourse, and plain lack of desire. She draws upon her sex therapy experience (U. of California Medical School, San Francisco) to demonstrate common problems: lack of communication between partners; the ""romantic"" role-scripting of women at an early age; fears of intimacy and failure; and so on. But chiefly she wants women to get out that hand mirror and probe to find out what feels nice; to record moments of sexual arousal as a means of discerning patterns; or to take turns being the ""giver"" and ""receiver"" of pleasure with a partner (allowing for at least five minutes of discussion afterwards). She's also moderately informative about problems like vaginismus (try relaxation exercises before you begin inserting objects of gradually increasing circumference). For a disparity in partners' sexual desire, we have a Sexual Readiness Scale to apply: ""I'm a 2 for intercourse, but I'm an 8 for cuddling and 9 for massage."" For those receptive to a highly programmed approach.