Speakers on 1st Dec

1st Dec

Dr. Madhu Sarin

Dr. Madhu Sarin is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Delhi. Formerly she taught philosophy at the graduate faculty, University of Delhi, New York University and was a visiting scholar at Columbia University. She also has a degree in clinical social work from New York University and is a member of the Indian Psychoanalytic Association and IPTAR, New York where she did her training. She has done clinical work with political refugees and torture victims from neighbouring countries. She conducts and co-ordinates trainings in mental health for the Health Department,Tibetan Government in Exile, Dharamsala. She has written in academic journals, newspapers, magazines - articles on psychoanalysis, philosophy, psychology, feminism, film and travel.

Dr. Rajat Mitra

Dr. Rajat Mitra is one of the founder members of Swanchetan. He did his M.A. in Psychology from Delhi University and PhD. in Clinical Psychology (Trauma and grief work) from Summit University of Louisiana, USA. During and after his PhD, he worked in Sanjeevani for more than 10 years and was in-charge of running a therapeutic program for schizophrenics. He also worked in prison rehabilitation program for sexual offenders, drug addicts and severely violent offenders and is carrying out research into their psyche. After Sanjeevani, he co-founded Swanchetan, a centre for therapy to victims of violence, abuse and heinous crime and research in victimology.
His area of interest and specialization are in working with people undergoing crisis and trauma in the community, especially those coming from poor, deprived and disadvantaged families and providing them psychological help. He is working with children from these backgrounds, raising their awareness and also directing efforts to working with the girl child to help them cope with abuse, violence and trauma in dangerous neighbourhoods. He has worked with different kinds of trauma such as crisis, conflict and ethnic violence
Dr. Mitra works with police and prisons as a consultant for complex cases requiring behavioural analysis.. He has lectured in several universities and institutions both in India and abroad and also trains the law enforcement, human right workers and professionals in mental health nationally and internationally. He lectures widely on topics of current relevance to society such as trauma, conflicts, parenting, managing transitions in life, difficult identity issues, etc.

Dr. Neena Singh

She is an eminent gynecologist working at Batra Hospital. She is the most sought after guest speaker in media. She is the ultimate authority on Female Sexual Health.

Speakers on 30th Nov

30th Nov

Dr. Kavita Arora
Consultant, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Sitaram Bhartia Institute, New Delhi.

Dr. Reena Nath

She is a family therapist. Received her training in London. She was a Board Member with International Family Therapy Association. She has worked on Alternate Sexuality.

Dr. Ashok Nagpal

Prof Ashok Nagpal, Director, Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, Delhi University. He has worked with stalwarts like Sudhir Kakkar.

Dr. Vibha Chaturvedi

She is a Ph.D. in Philosophy. She has specialized in Modern Western Phil. Phil. of Religion, Analytic Phil., Gender Studies.
Her Areas of interest include Modern Western Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Ethics and Gender Studies. Books published: The Problem of Personal Identity and Wittgenstein's Fideism: Belief, Reason and Practice. Current research interests are Doctrine of Karma in classical Indian Philosophy and Challenges of Religious Pluralism.
She is a firebrand activist with zeal to ensure safety of girls in the campus. She has led each and every campaign of the university dealing with sexual harassment.

Dr. Amit Sen

Dr. Amit Sen, Senior Consultant Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, CAMHS, Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science & Research. In addition, Dr Sen is a senior consultant in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Salaam Baalak Trust - NGO working with street children in Delhi & Action for Autism, Delhi - an NGO, working with children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder; Executive Committee member of Association of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (ACPP), North East Branch, UK ; Member Expert Committee – to prescribe guidelines for evaluation of Autism and Cerebral Palsy disabilities and procedure for certification, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India

Gender Identity & Gender Identity Disorder

Gender Identity

Gender identity (or core gender identity) is a person's own sense of identification as male or female. The term is intended to distinguish this psychological association, from physiological or sociological determinations of gender.Gender identity was originally a medical term used to explain sex reassignment procedures to the public.The term is also found in psychology, often as core gender identity. Sociology, gender studies and feminism are still inclined to refer to gender identity, gender role and erotic preference under the catch-all term gender.
Gender identity is affected by "genetic, prenatal hormonal, postnatal social, and postpubertal hormonal determinants."Biological factors include the influence of testosterone and gene regulation in brain cells. Social factors are primarily based on the family, as gender identity is thought to be formed by the third year of life
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (302.85) has five criteria that must be met before a diagnosis of gender identity disorder (GID) can be made. "In gender identity disorder, there is discordancy between the natal sex of one's external genitalia and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine or feminine."

Gender Identity Disorder

Gender identity disorder, as identified by psychologists and physicians, is a condition in which a person has been birthed one gender, usually on the basis of their sex at birth (compare intersex disorders), but identifies as belonging to another gender, and feels significant discomfort or the inability to deal with this condition. It is a psychiatric classification and describes the problems related to transsexuality, transgender identity and more rarely transvestism. It is the diagnostic classification most commonly applied to transsexuals.
The core symptom of gender identity disorders is gender dysphoria, literally being uncomfortable with one's assigned gender.This feeling is usually reported as "having always been there" since childhood, although in some cases, it appears in adolescence or adulthood, and has been reported by some as intensifying over time.Since many cultures strongly disapprove of cross-gender behaviour, it often results in significant problems for affected persons and those in close relationships with them. In many cases, discomfort is also reported as stemming from the feeling that one's body is "wrong" or meant to be different.

Child Sexual Abuse

Child Sexual Abuse

Child sexual abuse is an umbrella term describing criminal and civil offenses in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification. This term includes a variety of sexual offenses, including:

• sexual assault – a term defining offenses in which an adult touches a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification; for example, rape (including sodomy), and sexual penetration with an object. Most U.S. states include, in their definitions of sexual assault, any penetrative contact of a minor’s body, however slight, if the contact is performed for the purpose of sexual gratification.
• sexual molestation – a term defining offenses in which an adult engages in non-penetrative activity with a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification; for example, exposing a minor to pornography or to the sexual acts of others.
• sexual exploitation – a term defining offenses in which an adult victimizes a minor for advancement, sexual gratification, or profit; for example, prostituting a child, and creating or trafficking in child pornography
• sexual grooming - defines the social conduct of a potential child sex offender who seeks to make a minor more accepting of their advances, for example in an online chat room
  The legal term child sexual offender refers to a person who has been convicted for one or more child sexual abuse offenses.The term, therefore, describes a person who has committed child sexual abuse, without regard to the perpetrator's motivation.

The term "pedophile" is used colloquially to refer to child sexual offenders. However, pedophilia is generally defined as a sexual preference for prepubescent or preadolescent children, and is currently defined as a psychiatric disorder by the medical community. Neither definition requires the pedophile to have sexually offended, with the latter specifying additional requirements such as distress. Indeed, not all child sexual offenders meet the diagnostic criteria of pedophilia, and not all pedophiles act on their fantasies or urges to engage in sexual activity with children. Law enforcement and legal professionals have begun to use the term predatory pedophile, a phrase coined by children's attorney Andrew Vachss, to refer specifically to pedophiles who engage in sexual activity with minors. The term emphasizes that child sexual abuse consists of conduct chosen by the perpetrator.

Circles of Sexuality

Human female sexuality

Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of issues, behavior and processes, including female sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sex. Various aspects and dimensions of female sexuality, as a part of human sexuality, have also been addressed by principles of ethics, morality, and theology. In almost any historical era and culture, the arts, including literary and visual arts, as well as popular culture, present a substantial portion of a given society's views on human sexuality, which also include implicitly or explicitly female sexuality.

In most societies and legal jurisdictions, there are legal bounds on what sexual behavior is permitted. Sexuality varies across the cultures and regions of the world, and has continually changed throughout history, and this applies equally to female sexuality. Aspects of female sexuality include issues pertaining to biological sex, body image, self-esteem, personality, sexual orientation, values and attitudes, gender roles, relationships, and activity options, and communication.

Historical conceptions of female sexuality

Representations of female sexuality date back to prehistoric times; there is clear evidence of the depiction of female fecundity in ancient Venus figurines. Fertility goddesses are common in many ancient cultures, and in many cultures are also the gods of sex, marriage, and love.
In the ancient civilizations of India, Japan, and China, the subject of female sexuality found expression in several writings and commentaries. For example, much of the Kama Sutra, an ancient treatise on sex and sexuality, deals with female sexuality.
Historically, female sexuality has been seen in many male-dominated cultures as subordinate to male sexuality, and as something to be controlled by society by restrictions on female behaviour.
Traditional cultural practices such as enforced modesty and chastity have historically tended to place restrictions principally on women, without imposing similar restrictions on men. Some controversial traditional cultural practices such as female genital cutting have been described as attempts at nullifying women's sexuality altogether. Other cultural practices such as honor killings threaten uncontrolled female sexual behaviour with death, often by the hands of the woman's own relatives.
Even in the twentieth century, many people did not believe that respectable women should enjoy sex; rather, it was said that they should "lie back and think of England".
Nevertheless, many studies have shown that women's actual sexual behaviour throughout history appears, like that of men, not to have been controlled to anywhere near the degree desired by society.

Modern studies of female sexuality

In the modern age, psychologists and physiologists engaged in the task of exploring female sexuality. Sigmund Freud propounded the theory of two kinds of female orgasms, "the vaginal kind, and its kid sister, the clitoral orgasm." Though, studies (1960s) by Masters and Johnson reject this distinction [1]. Further studies have revealed the existence of uterine orgasms, so there remains some debate.
Other medical ideas from the nineteenth century have also fallen into disrepute; the concepts of disorders of female sexuality such as female hysteria and nymphomania have disappeared from modern medical thought, to be replaced by a variety of clinical conditions that are no longer gender-specific. Some feminists and relationship counselors argue that women and teenage girls have a much greater capacity than men and teenage boys for prolonged sexual activity, multiple sexual partners and anatomically are better equipped for group sex. Females are also more likely than males to be bisexual.

Feminist concepts

The feminist movement, and the increasing social status of women in modern society, have led to women's sexuality as being reassessed as a subject in its own right.
During the 1970s and 1980s, in the wake of the sexual revolution, numerous feminist writers started to address the question of female sexuality from their own female perspective, rather than allowing female sexuality to be defined in terms of largely male studies. The first such popular non-fiction book was Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden, and other writers such as Germaine Greer, Simone de Beauvoir and Camille Paglia were particularly influential in this, although their views were far from being uniform.
Lesbianism and female bisexuality also emerged as topics that could be talked about in public. A short-lived movement towards political lesbianism within the feminist movement led to temporary schisms within the feminist movement between heterosexual and (real or self-avowed) lesbian women, then rapidly floundered in the face of the acceptance that most women's sexuality was not defined by politics, but by their own sexual preferences. Most modern feminist movements now accept all forms of female sexuality as equally valid.
Feminist attitudes to female sexuality have taken two, superficially opposing, directions. The first is that female sexuality should be accepted and women should be free to have sex when they like, with whomever they like. The other is that women should be empowered to refuse to have sex when they want to, or to have their sexuality respected in society. A minority view within radical feminism states that even if it appears that women consent, heterosexual sex is inherently nonconsensual and women cannot ever be said to truly consent to it, because their decision is forged by the expectations and influences of growing up in a predominantly male-oriented society
This has led, for example, to different groups of feminists simultaneously embracing and opposing pornography as sexually liberating and sexually oppressive respectively, both in the name of women's empowerment over their own sexuality.

Human Male Sexuality

Human Male Sexuality

Human male sexuality encompasses a broad range of issues, behavior and processes, including male sexual identity and sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious aspects of sex. Various aspects and dimensions of male sexuality, as a part of human sexuality, have also been addressed by principles of ethics, morality, and theology. In almost any historical era and culture, the arts, including literary and visual arts, as well as popular culture, present a substantial portion of a given society's views on human sexuality, which also include implicitly or explicitly male sexuality. In most societies and legal jurisdictions, there are legal bounds on what sexual behavior is permitted. Sexuality varies across the cultures and regions of the world, and has continually changed throughout history, and this applies equally to male sexuality. Aspects of male sexuality include issues pertaining to biological sex, body image, self-esteem, personality, sexual orientation, values and attitudes, gender roles, relationships, and activity options, and communication.
Although female and male sexuality show many common features as aspects of a common human sexuality, there are clear differences between the two.

Some commonly held, possibly stereotypical, views of differences between male and female sexuality include:

sexuality tends to be more associated with aggression and dominance in men than in women
although men typically desire both love and sex, they are traditionally held to be more likely to desire sex even in the absence of a loving relationship
paraphilias are more common in men than in women
men are relatively more easily aroused by visual stimuli than women, and are generally greater consumers of pornography than women
men are more likely than women to pay for sex

Sexual activity and lifestyles

Sexual activity and lifestyles

• Heterosexuality
  Heterosexuality involves two individuals of different sexes.
  Different-sex sexual practices are limited by laws in many places. United States marriage laws may serve the purpose of encouraging people to only have sex (and children) within marriage. Sodomy laws were seen as discouraging same-sex sexual practices. Laws also ban adults from committing sexual abuse, committing sexual acts with anyone under an age of consent, performing sexual activities in public, and engaging in sexual activities for money (prostitution). Though these laws all cover same-sex sexual activities, they may differ with regards to punishment, and may be more frequently (or exclusively) enforced on those who engage in same-sex sexual activities. Laws also control the making and viewing of pornography, including pornography which portrays different-sex sexual activities.
  Courtship, or dating, is the process through which some people choose potential sexual and/or marital partners. Among straight (presumably middle class) teenagers and adolescents in the mid-20th century in America, dating was something one could do with multiple people before choosing to "go steady" with only one, the eventual goal being either sex, marriage, or both. More recently dating has become what going steady was and the latter term has fallen into disuse.
  Different-sex sexual practices may be monogamous, serially monogamous, or polyamorous, and, depending on the definition of sexual practice, abstinent or autoerotic (including masturbation).
  Different moral and political movements have waged for changes in different-sex sexual practices including courting and marriage, though in all countries, changes are usually made only at a slow rate. Especially in the USA, campaigns have often sparked and been fueled by moral panic. There, movements to discourage same-sex sexual practices often claim to be strengthening different-sex sexual practices within marriage, such as Defense of Marriage Act and the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment.

• Homosexuality
  Same-sex sexuality involves two individuals of the same sex. It is possible for a person whose sexual identity is heterosexual to get involved in sexual acts with people of the same sex, for example, mutual masturbation in the context of what may be considered "normal" heterosexual teen development. Homosexual people who pretend to lead a life of heterosexuality are often referred to as living "closeted" lives, that is, they hide their sexuality in "the closet". The term "closet case" is a derogatory term used to refer to another homosexual that hides his or her homosexuality or bisexuality, and "coming out" or "outing" refer to making that orientation (semi-) public voluntarily, or as an action by others, respectively.
  The definition of homosexuality is a sexual attraction to members of one's own sex, though people who engage exclusively in same-sex sexual practices may not identify themselves as gay or lesbian. However, the degree of attraction complies with the varying levels of frequency, willingness, and/or interest. In sex-segregated environments, individuals may seek sex with others of their own sex (known as situational homosexuality). In other cases, some people may experiment or explore their sexuality with same (and/or different) sex sexual activity before defining their sexual identity. Health campaigns and officials often seek to target self-identified "straight" or bisexual men who have sex with men (MSM) as opposed to self-identified "gay" or homosexual men.
  Despite stereotypes and common misconceptions, there are no forms of sexual activity exclusive to same-sex sexual behavior that can not also be found in opposite-sex sexual behavior, save those involving contact of the same sex genitalia such as tribadism and frot.
  Among some communities (called "men on the DL" or "down-low"), same-sex sexual behavior is sometimes viewed as solely for physical pleasure. Men on the "down-low" may engage in regular (though often covert) sex acts with other men while continuing sexual and romantic relationships with women.

• Auto-erotic sexuality
  Autoeroticism is sexual activity that does not involve another person as partner. It can involve masturbation, though several paraphilias do not require a partner.
  Though many autoerotic practices are relatively physically safe, some can be dangerous. These include autoerotic asphyxiation and self-bondage. The potential for injury or even death that exists while engaging in the partnered versions of these fetishes (choking and bondage, respectively) becomes drastically increased due to the isolation and lack of assistance in the event of a problem.

• Alternative sexuality
  A number of "alternative sexualities" exist. These are usually based upon individual choice. They range from the broadly accepted or tolerated, through to the highly controversial and illegal.
  Examples of these less common or alternative sexualities include BDSM activities where dominance and submission activities are central features of sexual activity, through to zoosexuality where there is human-animal sexual activity.

• Coercive and abusive sexuality
  Sexual activity can also encompass sexual abuse - that is, coercive or abusive use of sexuality. Examples include: rape, lust murder, child sexual abuse, and zoosadism (animal abuse which may be sexual in nature), as well as (in many countries) certain non-consensual paraphilias such as frotteurism, telephone scatophilia (indecent phonecalls), and non-consensual exhibitionism and voyeurism (known as "indecent exposure" and "peeping tom" respectively).

Human Sexuality

Human sexuality

Generally speaking, human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings.The study of human sexuality is comprised of a broad range of behaviors, processes, and societal topics. Biologically, sexuality can encompass sexual intercourse and sexual contact in all its forms, as well as medical concerns about the physiological or even psychological aspects of sexual behaviour. Sociologically, it can cover the cultural, political, and legal aspects; and philosophically, it can span the moral, ethical, theological, spiritual or religious aspects.

As Michel Foucault wrote in The History of Sexuality, the concept of what activities and sensations are "sexual" is historically (as well as regionally and culturally) determined, and it is therefore part of a changing "discourse".The sexual meanings (meanings of the erotic dimension of human sexual experience), are social and cultural constructs, they are made subjective only after cultural and social mediation. Being the main force conditioning human relationship, sex is essentially political. In any social context, the construction of a "sexual universe" is fundamentally linked to the structures of power. The construction of sexual meanings, is an instrument by which social institutions (religion, marketing, the educational system, psychiatry, etc.) control and shape human relationships.

According to Foucault, sexuality began to be regarded as a concept part of human nature since the 19th century; so sexuality began to be used as a mean to define normality and its boundaries, and to conceive everything outside those boundaries in the realm of psychopathology. In the 20th century, with the theories of Sigmund Freud and of sexology, the "not-normal" was seen more as a "discontent of civilization" In a well known passage of his work, Foucault noted that the development of the notion of sexuality organized sex as a "fictitious unity" of "disparate parts, functions, behaviours, and feelings with no natural or necessary relation among them"; therefore the conception of what is "natural" is a social construct. To escape this cultural "sexuality" Foucault suggest to focus on "bodies and pleasures".

In many historical eras, recovered art and artifacts help to portray human sexuality of the time period.

Healthy Sexuality

MANOVRITI 2007

MANOVRITI 2007

30th November
9.30 ---- Dr. Kavita Arora
Development of Sexuality & Gender Identity Disorder
10.10 ---- Dr. Reena Nath
Growing up Queer in Indian Families
10.50 ---- Dr. Ashok Nagpal
Sexuality and Perversions
11.30 ---- Dr. Vibha Chaturvedi
Issues of Sexual Harassment
12.10 ---- Dr. Amit Sen
Child Sexual Abuse

Break at 1.30 PM

Informal Events from 2.30 PM
y JAM (Just - A - Minute)
y Painting Competition – Child Sexual Abuse

1st December

9.30 ---- Dr. Madhu Sarin
Sexuality in India
10.10 ---- Dr. Rajat Mitra
Mental Illness & Sexuality
10.50 ---- Dr. Neena Singh
Female Sexual Health
11.30 ---- Beyond Borders
Gender Stereotype
12.30 ---- Inauguration of Video Library by Akhil, Nigah Queer Club
followed by Screening of Movies –
“Indian Postcard”;
“Lost & Found”
Discussion related to Movies.

Break at 1.30 PM

Informal Events from 2.30 PM
y Potpourri