2013/03/14 by Jacinthe Flore · 1 citation
Psychology · Medicine · #LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy #Reproductive Health and Technologies #Sexual function and dysfunction studies #Asexuality #Psychology #Hypoactive sexual desire disorder #Human sexuality #Gender studies #Sociology #Sexual desire
paper · doi:10.1080/19419899.2013.774163
openalex publication_date 2013/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The relation between the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals (DSMs) and asexuality is likely to constitute a prolific direction in research, especially because of the diagnostic category ‘hypoactive sexual desire disorder’ (HSDD). This article investigates the concept of sexual desire as outlined by psychiatry and explores the ways in which asexuality disrupts that knowledge. By extension, I consider the model of sexuality that the DSM vehiculates. The manuals themselves provide no measures, no scales, and no defined norms, yet, simultaneously, assume a normative sexuality against which all others can be measured and classified. This article discusses the conceptualisation of ‘sexual dysfunctions’ in the DSM, of which HSDD is a part, and questions how it operates in clinical research into asexuality. I also pay attention to the clause of ‘personal distress’ in HSDD, since it appears to be one of the main differences between HSDD and asexuality. HSDD, asexuality, and the role played by the DSM poses questions such as what discourses, forms of knowledge, and institutions, have shaped, silenced, and eventually erased, asexuality.