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Is It Ever Just Sex?

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

A delightfully thought-provoking study of why we have sex, from award-winning psychoanalyst Darian Leader


‘It was just sex…’
It’s a familiar claim. But it’s also an impossibility, as Darian Leader shows in this delightfully thought-provoking study.
Our bodies aren’t just sticks that make fire when you rub them together, and our minds don’t simply stand by – as we can see from the pain, heartache and regret that so often accompany the highs of sexual excitement.
As acclaimed psychoanalyst Darian Leader argues, with his trademark clarity, energy and wit, sex is always about so much more than itself – it’s about phantasy, anxiety, guilt, revenge, violence, love. Drawing on his long analytic experience, historical research and case studies to explore their importance to every aspect of our sexual lives, Leader brilliantly reveals what we are really thinking about when we think about sex – and what we are really doing when we do it.


‘Insanely readable! I loved it’ Slavoj Žižek

'A thoroughly engaging and ever-illuminating read' iNews

'One of our most important contemporary thinkers' Guardian

'Leader is as much a philosopher as a psychoanalyst and his ideas are engrossing and enlightening' Metro

©2023 Darian Leader (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

Sensitively written and full of insight . . . Leader’s examples are highly accessible . . . undoubtedly compelling
Sunday Times
The revered psychoanalyst has penned a thoughtful book about our everyday sexual lives – and why there is no such thing as “just sex”. With a convincing argument as to why it is so much more than that, this is a thoroughly engaging and ever-illuminating read
iNews
Leader writes beautifully, with majestic clarity and an easy flow between argument and case-study
Daily Telegraph
Author Darian Leader
Narrator Dakota Blue Richards
Duration 5 hours and 2 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405960533
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Popular psychology, Psychoanalytical and Freudian psychology, Psychology: sexual behaviour, Relationships and families: advice and issues, Sex and sexuality, social aspects, Sociology: family and relationships
Availability AU, GB, IE

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