Memory and sexual dysfunction as an effect or a symptom of a trauma of sexual violence

This paper presents results from research undertaken as a study of a clinical case which is both descriptive and investigative. From the outset, we are based on the assumption that, in their everyday practice, gynecologists should be knowledgeable about physiology and sexual pathologies in order to identify somatic disorders which may affect women’s sexual response. We argue that a sexual anamnesis must be an essential component in a gynecologist’s practice, and psychoanalytic listening is also a crucial step which allows for a better understanding of these problems. In the article, we try to establish to what extent patients with sexual issues who were victims of sexual abuse have had their sexual functions affected. Our hypothesis is that women’s sexual complaints are associated to memory, in which sexual dysfunction derives from psychic confusion and conjunction. In order to give answers to the questions presented in our research, we will be based on concepts from psychoanalysis as well as from discourse analysis.