False Intimacy

With frank honesty, False Intimacy offers realistic direction to those whose lives or ministries have been impacted by sexual addiction while examining the roots behind these behaviors. This compelling book examines different aspects of sexual addiction, including shame, purity, and forgiveness, while exploring one’s true identity and God-given sexuality.

For decades, doctors have identified an inability to foster intimacy - both physical and emotional - as a key factor in everything from unsuccessful marriages to difficult personal relationships. But for those struggling with this hidden problem, therapy and dense texts have been the only answers. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Intimacyprovides a beacon for those looking for clear, understandable answers. Dr. Paul Coleman, a practicing psychologist, specializes in helping both couples and individuals work through the issues that keep them from having lasting relationships, intimate friendships, and happy families. Dr. Coleman gives readers step-by-step answers and a clear path to making changes by helping them to identify intimacy problems, understand key differences between men and women, change perceptions, overcome arguments, and effectively communicate. He also covers sexual intimacy and affection issues including intimacy during stressful times, transitions, and as relationships progress.

From Genesis to Revelation, Choosing Intimacy goes on an in-depth exploration to discover the biblical foundation for mutual intimacy. People are lonely. Too many suffer from fractured relationships and simultaneously long for deep connection with friends, family members, and co-workers. But the unrelenting persistence of addictions, abuse of authority, and struggle with depression, anxiety, and anger leave people feeling empty and powerless. Increasing numbers of Christians entering counseling offices wonder why a love for the Lord, obedience to God’s Word, and commitment to clearly defined roles do not result in satisfying intimate relationships. Where did it all go wrong? Choosing Intimacy offers a refreshing biblical perspective, over 40 years of professional counseling experience, personal insights, and practical skills for overcoming the power struggles that strangle intimacy.

Intimacy: Clinical, Cultural, Digital and Developmental Perspectives applies a contemporary, psychoanalytic lens to the many facets of intimacy between people, from romantic and sexual relationships, to friendliness, as well as the ways intimacy is mediated by new digital technologies. Identifying commonalities and differences between a range of approaches, including Classical Freudian, attachment theory, and interpersonal theory, the book includes case studies that highlight how intimacy is framed in a variety of relationships. It examines the line between privacy and intimacy, as well as how intimacy changes at different stages of one’s lifespan. From the friends we have to the pets we own, or the faith we follow, a cross-cultural perspective ensures that intimacy is conceived of as a broad, essential element underlying all human relationships. The intimacy between analyst and analysand is also examined. This far-reaching book will interest both practicing and training psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, as well as those in related disciplines.

This handbook brings together the latest thinking on the scientific study of closeness and intimacy from some of the most active and widely recognized relationship scholars in social and clinical psychology, communication studies, and related disciplines. Each contributing author defines their understanding of the meaning of closeness and intimacy; summarizes existing research and provides an overview of a theoretical framework; presents new ideas, applications, and previously unstated theoretical connections; and provides cross-references to other chapters to further integrate the material. The Handbook of Closeness and Intimacy will be of interest to researchers, practitioners, and students from social, clinical, and developmental psychology; family studies; counseling; and communication.

Pornography is powerful. Our contemporary culture as been pornified, and it shapes our assumptions about identity, sexuality, the value of women and the nature of relationships. Countless Christian men struggle with the addictive power of porn. But common spiritual approaches of more prayer and accountability groups are often of limited help. In this book neuroscientist and researcher William Struthers explains how pornography affects the male brain and what we can do about it. Because we are embodied beings, viewing pornography changes how the brain works, how we form memories and make attachments. By better understanding the biological realities of our sexual development, we can cultivate healthier sexual perspectives and interpersonal relationships. Struthers exposes false assumptions and casts a vision for a redeemed masculinity, showing how our sexual longings can actually propel us toward sanctification and holiness in our bodies. With insights for both married and single men alike, this book offers hope for freedom from pornography.

How do migrant women living in illegality build intimate relationships? How do they experience, resist or take advantage of the tight link between intimacy and migration status created by the German migration legislation? Drawing on rich biographical accounts and ethnographic methods, the book offers an insightful and sensitive look at a mostly unknown aspect of life in illegality. Adopting a critical feminist perspective, Flaminia Bartolini shows how intimacy should be understood in its intrinsic power dimension and looks critically at the German migration regime and on its effects on migrants' lives.

In their personal lives, people consider it essential to separate economics and intimacy. We have, for example, a long-standing taboo against workplace romance, while we see marital love as different from prostitution because it is not a fundamentally financial exchange. In The Purchase of Intimacy, Viviana Zelizer mounts a provocative challenge to this view. Getting to the heart of one of life's greatest taboos, she shows how we all use economic activity to create, maintain, and renegotiate important ties--especially intimate ties--to other people. In everyday life, we invest intense effort and worry to strike the right balance. For example, when a wife's income equals or surpasses her husband's, how much more time should the man devote to household chores or child care? Sometimes legal disputes arise. Should the surviving partner in a same-sex relationship have received compensation for a partner's death as a result of 9/11? Through a host of compelling examples, Zelizer shows us why price is central to three key areas of intimacy: sexually tinged relations; health care by family members, friends, and professionals; and household economics. She draws both on research and materials ranging from reports on compensation to survivors of 9/11 victims to financial management Web sites and advice books for same-sex couples. From the bedroom to the courtroom, The Purchase of Intimacy opens a fascinating new window on the inner workings of the economic processes that pervade our private lives.