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The alcoholic Satyr

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Abstract

Satyriasis is uncontrolled sexual hyperactivity in men who have little or no capacity for deep emotional involvement.1 The term derives from the Satyr, the half-man, half-goat Sylvan diety of Green mythology who reveled in the sexual orgies that highlighted in Dionysian grape festivals.1 Because of the marked infrequency of this sexual dysfunction among the general population,1 the authors were struck by the fact that they encountered three satyrs in a population of 1,200 alcoholics admitted consecutively to two alcoholic treatment centers4,5 over a two-year span. The senior author discovered the fourth case at an outpatient mental health clinic geared for the evaluation and treatment of the full spectrum of psychiatric disorders. This paper represents an attempt to provide the reader with some biological as well as some psychodynamic insights into the nature of this rare psychiatric entity, through an examination of the four case reports.

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Acknowledgement is expressed to Chicago's Alcoholic Treatment Center and to the DuPage Mental Health Center for the case population.

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deVito, R.A., Marozas, R.J. The alcoholic Satyr. Sex Disabil 4, 234–245 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01103308

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