Abstract
The sexual dysfunction clinics set up on the model of Masters and Johnson have adapted to the NHS, and to the increase in organic treatments for erectile failure. In many senses the future of sexual counselling services led by the psychological sciences is in peril, as other disciplines move into this field. Doctors, in particular, need to establish their role by being able to unite the organic and psychological approaches. Above all we must avoid the sterile controversies which have bedeviled psychosomatic illness, and treat sexual dysfunction in the context of the whole person, involving psychology, pharmacology and physiology.