Commentary on Cheuvront's “High-Risk Sexual Behavior in the Treatment of HIV-Negative Patients”

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses Cheuvront's High-Risk Sexual Behavior in the Treatment of HIV-Negative Patients. Unprotected sexual behavior between gay men evokes powerful feelings as the AIDS epidemic continues to expand. Simple notions of unprotected sex as self-destructive belie the complex and varied meanings of sexual behavior in men who grow up in a homophobic and alienating society. The very concept of risk-taking as pathological, rather than a manifestation of self-care, must be examined in a cultural and social context. Therapists have an obligation to look beyond formulaic interpretations of behavior to help gay men understand whether engaging in unprotected sex is a reasonable calculated risk in the interest of psychological and spiritual self care, or a consequence of some internal struggle or unmet needs which are indeed destructive of the self.

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS
• barebacking
• gay male bonding
• HIV
• internalized homophobia
• gay male sexuality
• high-risk sexual behavior
• homosexuality
• risk-taking behavior
• self-destructive sex
• semen ingestion
• seroconversion
• unsafe-sex