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What’s love got do with it?
Reflections on psychotherapeutic work
with the buyers and sellers of sex
Two strangers meet, a man and a woman. He chooses her and she chooses
him. She sets a price, and he pays. They do things with each other’s bodies,
sexual things, things we normally see as expressions of closeness and
intimacy, even love. Then they turn their backs on each other and walk away,
never to see each other again. Later they meet new strangers and repeat the
process, over and over again.
Introduction
This report describes psychotherapeutic work with a particular
group of clients, namely men who buy and women
who sell sex. It has been going on for a total of six years at
the RFSU-clinic in Stockholm, and includes thirty men
and twenty-five women. Besides offering appropriate psychotherapeutic
treatment, the project has aimed at trying
to understand more about the underlying psychological
driving forces behind prostitution.
There are a plethora of aspects and perspectives relevant
to understanding such a complex phenomenon as
prostitution. Much has been written about prostitution
from a social economic viewpoint, yet significantly less
from a purely psychological perspective. What goes on
within these men and women who meet and trade money
for sex? What do they do with each other psychologically?
This has been our primary focus. Although we have limited
our work to focusing on the driving psychological
forces behind prostitution, it does not mean that we consider
social, economic, cultural or gender perspectives to
be unimportant. On the contrary such perspectives are
also essential for understanding the circumstances surrounding
prostitution. However, it is our conviction that
better knowledge of psychological factors is essential for
better understanding of prostitution in general, as well as
its deeper meaning for the individual.
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