Breaking the Silence
Why Opening up about Your Sex Life Is the Best Medicine for Your Health, Relationships, and Overall Happiness
Breaking the Silence is a compelling and fresh text that gets real about the benefits of open discussions of sex.
Moshe Kedan’s sexuality guide Breaking the Silence relates sexual well-being to happy home lives, urging people to replace socially constricted sexual ideas with inclusive communication.
Kedan, a physician of over forty-five years, argues that people in his profession have been reduced to technicians because of the weight of America’s health care system, which neglects to recognize the effects of emotions and thoughts on physical symptoms. He reveals that when he discusses sex with his patients, they tend to be relieved that someone is asking about sexuality in the overall picture of their health. These discussions have revealed patterns that are both simple and profound.
The stigma around sex, Kedan says, leaves most people believing that obstacles are end points; erectile dysfunction and low libido have become gatekeepers to intercourse, while a combination of paltry sex education and poor communication skills has led many Americans to believe that sexual dysfunctions are permanent afflictions, and they often lead to negative health effects, including high blood pressure and depression. In reality, the book declares, most cases are psychological and curable. With the belief that sex has therapeutic benefits, the book treats it as a gift.
The book is directed to heterosexual couples in their middle lives, and is designed to help them to work together: “let us strive to have both partners be equal in their love, patience, self-awareness, honesty, compassion, and self-respect.” This is based in the notion that communication solves most sexual problems and related ailments—including with doctors, in the course of their annual checkups. The text encourages holistic healing, prescribing daily exercise, a healthy diet, and general good habits alongside and before medication. The result is a veritable sex education course that fills in the spaces left blank during school.
The book takes time and care to explain its difficult subject well. Its delivery and references are clear, and case studies, with complementary data, add additional credibility. The book admits that some of its advice can sound sexist, specifically its encouragements to women to have sex when they don’t want to, but asserts that it is in each partner’s power to decide. Ultimately, the text aims to honor women as generous and wise for understanding the necessity of habitual sex.
Breaking the Silence is a compelling and fresh text that gets real about the benefits of open discussions of sex.
Reviewed by
Samantha Ann Ehle
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
