This course is an intensive introduction to psychological perspectives on sexual development, expression, and experience with a focus on influences of both socio-cultural milieu as well as family of origin in the development of sexual subjectivity. Beginning with the question of how sexuality has both intrigued and confounded theorists beginning with Freud, we chart a course along theoretical, empirical, and clinical material to approach multiple dimensions and expressions of sex and sexuality. This course will be divided between theory and clinical application: We will read literature from varying and converging approaches to the study of sex, including but not limited to the DSM-5 section on sexual disorders, psychoanalytic theory, sociology of sex, literature on sex addiction and compulsive sexual behaviors, attachment theory, and evolutionary biology as a means to explore various approaches to understanding sex and sexuality as they present clinically. Clinical vignettes will demonstrate the mutual implication of sexual development and character structure/defensive style from object relations and attachment perspectives. Students will learn to pay attention to the role of professional psychology in producing ‘acceptable’ versus ‘deviant’ sexualities; they will do experiential exercises to track their biases and process counter-transference reactions to sexual content. Students will leave this intensive course with a substantial introduction to psychodynamic conceptualization and treatment approaches to varieties of sexual difficulties, as well as a sensitivity to the important, though often marginalized, role of sex and sexuality in clinical practice. This course is open to NSSR Psychology MA and Ph.D. students.