Samantha Jones Like Will Rogers,

Samantha Jones

Like Will Rogers, Samantha Jones never met a man she didn't like! Samantha is a successful Public Relations executive in Manhattan, who also happens to be a sexy vamp. She exudes confidence through every pore. She seldom fails in getting what she wants, and when she does fail, she tosses it off as someone else's loss, not hers.

Samantha's main characteristic is that she is sexually uninhibited. She enjoys sex and has no feelings of associated guilt with the act. As she states, "I'm a trisexual. I'll try anything once" (Quotes).

Actually, of all the characters on the HBO show, Sex and the City, Samantha's character is the most honest, self-assured, and non-judgmental. Her attitude is best summed up in the line "Who cares what you are just enjoy it" (Quote). Unlike most women, she has no delusions or illusions of marriage or the white picket fence daydream. She enjoys a myriad of lovers, from "wrestling coaches to power bachelors to a studly farmer" (Samantha). She knows exactly how to get what she wants, whether a table in the newest hot spot in town or the hottest man in the room.

Conventional society would say that Samantha had a sexual addiction. This is a condition generally associated with men, however, Samantha's sexual desires are very much like a man's. She thrives on one night stands, and the variety of men available. Unlike her counterparts on the show, she seldom allows her romantic emotions to interfere with the hunt for new prey. As she states, "Practically all the relationships I know are based on a foundation of lies and mutually accepted delusion" (Quotes). Samantha is empowered by her sexual conquests. She does not allow herself to feel inferior to anyone, and claims that "I will wear whatever and blow whomever I want as long as I can breathe and kneel" (Quotes).

Samantha would most likely be diagnosed with Compulsive Sexual Behavior, as one who is obsessed with sexual thoughts and actions. There are many types of compulsive sexual behavior that are generally divided into two main types, paraphilic and non-paraphilic CSB (Compulsive). Psychologist and sexual scientists have used various terms to describe this phenomenon: "hypersexuality, erotomania, nymphomania, satyriasis, and most recently sexual addiction and compulsive sexual behavior" (Compulsive). However, the terminology has often implied different values, attitudes, and theoretical orientations (Compulsive).

Nonparaphilic Compulsive Sexual Behavior involves conventional sexual behaviors that, "when taken to an extreme, are recurrent, distressing and interfere in daily functioning" (Compulsive). One example is given in the DSM-IV under the category of Sexual Disorders Not Otherwise Specified, in which the authors describe an example of "distress about a pattern of repeated sexual relationships involving a succession of lovers who are experienced by the individual only as things to be used" (Compulsive). Other forms of nonparaphilic Compulsive Sexual Behavior include: "compulsive searching for multiple partners, compulsive fixation on an unattainable partner, compulsive masturbation, compulsive love relationships, and compulsive sexuality in a relationship" (Compulsive).

It is cautioned that the possibility of over-pathologizing this disorder is the primary criticism by those who do not believe in the idea of compulsive sexual behavior as a disorder (Compulsive). "The pathologizing of sexual behavior may be driven by anti-sexual attitudes and a failure to recognize the wide-range of normal human sexual expression," thus this is important when assessing whether a person is engaging in compulsive sexual behavior (Compulsive). A therapist needs to be knowledgeable and comfortable with a wide range of people's normal sexual behavior, the types of behaviors and as well as the frequency (Compulsive). Often individuals will diagnose themselves with this disorder, thus creating their own distress (Compulsive). Therefore, one must distinguish between those who have a values conflict with their sexual behavior verses individuals who truly engage in obsessive and compulsive sexual behaviors (Compulsive).

In the August 2004 issue of The Journal of Sex Research, Zoran Vukadinovic states that there has been increasing attention paid to the concept of sexual behavior that is, in some way, out of control (Vukadinovic).

Most of the recent literature has used two currently fashionable concepts:

compulsive sexual behavior and sexual addiction, however at present, both concepts are of uncertain scientific value (Vukadinovic). In 1987, a group of researchers argued for the use of impulse control disorder as a description, "which in contrast with the compulsivity and addiction labels is consistent with DSM criteria but which has little explanatory value beyond inferring a problem of self-control" (Vukadinovic). In the past, other labels have been used, such as nymphomania, satyriasis, and hyper-sexuality (Vukadinovic). Vukadinovic notes that an important issue that has received little attention is the extent to which "out of control sexual behavior" can be understood as a pattern of behavior at the extreme of the normal range, or a pattern of behavior that is qualitatively different from the norm in ways that are problematic (Vukadinovic).

According to Vukadinovic, literature on sexual compulsivity and sexual addiction has been preoccupied with issues of definition, especially as it pertains to DSM-IV (Vukadinovic). Moreover, there has been little attention given to the possible causal explanations for why, in some cases, sexual behavior become problematic (Vukadinovic). Most researchers make statements about likely mechanisms, such as anxiety reduction or mood regulation, however there are usually based on clinical impression rather than on reported data (Vukadinovic).

Researchers are now giving more attention to the fact that out of control sexual behavior can be reduced with mood elevating drugs such as the SSRIs, but as yet, no one knows the extent to which such pharmacological benefits, when they occur, result from improvement in mood or specific inhibition of sexual repsonse or both (Vukadinovic).

Freud, and many others, viewed masturbation and other putative forms of sexual excess as pathological (Stein). DSM-III-R only mentioned the term "nonparaphilic sexual addiction" as an example of a sexual disorder not otherwise specified, and DSM-IV no longer even refers to this kind of nomenclature (Stein). Daniel J. Stein writes that in keeping with the 1960's focus on the celebration of sexuality, "the emphasis is on problems of hyposexuality rather than on hypersexuality" (Stein). Growing awareness of sexually transmitted disorders, such as AIDS, makes it easier to "characterize unfettered sexual behavior as something that may meet the DSM-IV catch-all criterion of leading to 'impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning'" (Stein).

Stein notes that there have only been a few books that attempted to focus attention of clinicians and researchers on such behavior, characterizing it as "sexual addiction" or "compulsive sexual behavior" (Stein). Aviel Goodman's work is within the tradition of those who believe excessive sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviors as an addiction, and adapts DSM-IV criteria for substance dependence to describe a broad range of "addictive" sexual behaviors, claiming that they too can be characterized by "tolerance" and "withdrawal" (Stein). Stein cautions that such a model is not very likely to appeal to the clinicians who reserve terms such as "addiction," "tolerance," and "withdrawal" for the substance use disorders, and who are "concerned that their expansion to a wide range of other excessive behaviors is unwarranted by theoretical considerations or empirical data" (Stein).