This book represents a broad-based approach to a narrow but complex issue. The issue causes distress for many and has been instrumental in family disruption and divorce. Womens sexual desirewhether it is too little or too muchhas become an issue of growing concern and vague promises for solution. In the meantime, the women are looking for answers, consulting professionals in the field of human sexuality, physicians or therapists, media advice and self-help books. The material discussed in this book is not part of any structured research. The women encountered in the pages of this book have not been selected on a random basis. Some have been clients, some are volunteers from the general population and another group is made up of undergraduate college students. The college s- dents came from a varied ethnic and cultural background while the clients mainly were of white and African American background. The volunteers were predo- nantly from a white middle-class population. There is no claim that the women are representative of all women in the general population.

Vera Sonja Maass is a psychologist in private practice as well as a consulting psychologist to the Grey Clinic, Indianapolis, Indiana. She received her Ph.D. in Counseling at University of Missouri-Kansas City and is certified in marriage and family therapy and mental health counseling.

Background and Explanations.- Influences on Women's Sexual Experiences.- Desire-Phase Problems and the Search for Explanations.- Bio-Ethological and Social-Psychological Explanations.- The Women in Context.- Searching for Sexual Identity.- Symptom Manifestation Within Relationships.- Women's Relationships to Power.- Intra-Personal Considerations Relevant to Sex Therapy.- Toward Resolution.- Developments in Sexology and Sex Therapy.- Cognitive Behavioral Factors Relevant to Treatment.- A Practical Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Approach.- Learning From the PastThoughts for the Future.