Intimacy disorders and sexual panic states.

This paper explores the question: Is sexual avoidance a manifestation of intrapsychic barriers to emotional closeness? In some cases it clearly is, but in other cases it is the result of other determinants such as a partner's excessive demands for intimacy and communication and his or her intolerance for even normal emotional distance. Our finding that couples with this dynamic and with sexual aversions have an unusually high prevalence of panic disorder is considered in the light of its clinical implications.