The statements that therapists and patients have between
them, bear many hidden values. According to Florence Kluckhohn, cultural
as well as individual values can line up into particular values orientations.
Her model can be profitably apply to sexual therapy and could increase
its efficacy. It identifies five fundamental problems or world views able
to give meaning to one's life and serve as tools to answer day-to-day questions.
When restated to take account of sexuality, the five fundamental problems
deal with : 1) the quality of the sexual human nature ; 2) the relations
between the individual and the sexual forces ; 3) the time frame patronised
to evaluate sex life ; 4) the main purposes or emphasis of the sexual actions
and 5) the interpersonal interactions between people involved in the sexual
field. Using these value orientations, one can clarify the hidden discourse
and eliminate stumbling blocks between the therapists'and the patients'value
orientations. For the therapy could misfire when therapists and patients
unknowingly adopt adverse perspectives on these fundamental questions.
Yet it is possible, indeed quite easy for the therapists to change their
speech in order to adjust to the patients'value orientations. And hence
run less risks to see the therapy fail.
