Disorders of Desire is the only book to tell the story of the development and impact of sexology—the scientific study of sex—in the United States. In this era of sex scandals, culture wars, "Sex in the City," and new sexual enhancement technologies (like erectile dysfunction drugs), its critique of sexology is even more relevant than it was when the book was first published in 1990.

This revised and expanded edition features new chapters addressing:

• The diagnosis of "sex addiction"in the 1970s and its social and political implications.

• New developments within the field of sexology, including the "Viagra Revolution" that began in the 1990s.

• The pharmaceutical industry's role in the development of sexual enhancements and the search for the female equivalent of Viagra.

Janice M. Irvine is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the author of Talk About Sex: The Battles over Sex Education in the United States and the editor of Sexual Cultures and the Construction of Adolescent Sexualities (Temple). In 2005, she received the Simon and Gagnon Award from the Sexualities Section of the American Sociological Association.