Terry - E-book - ePub

In 2009 the author, A. K. Anders, purchased a large property in Pimlico, South-west London, with the intention of converting the 4 storey Victorian property into flats. The building had previously been used as business premises, with an architects practice on the upper floors and a psycho-therapist in the basement. While clearing rubbish from the basement, Anders discovered an old box of audio tapes in a locked filing cabinet.
Later he discovered the tapes were recordings of sexual therapy consultations. Many of these revealed intriguing case scenarios. Some patients even seemed to be well known personalities of the 70's and 80's. Anders made enquiries and found that the eminent therapist/doctor of his time had retired and since died. Publishing the transcripts was a difficult decision, Anders says, but one he felt might help others plagued by sexual problems or those with an interest in human sexual behaviour.
The result is fascinating, and compulsive reading. 'Terry, ' a concert pianist, is one patient. Brought up by a puritanical and domineering opera singer mother, Terry is sexually confused. For some time as a younger man he considered himself homosexual. As a reaction to his mother's attitudes, he became very promiscuous. Later, seeking an ever deeper sense of adventure, he explored his bisexual tendencies.
Now in middle-age, his mother has died. There is almost no form of sexual adventure in which he has not indulged and he is bored. His libido has fallen away to almost nothing and he visits the sex therapist who his mother sent him to as a teenage boy (endeavouring to curb his interests). Gradually the therapist discovers areas of subtle sensuality which previously Terry would not even have thought of as sexual.
He is, for example, excited when he catches a glimpse of a rather plain woman shaving her legs in her small back yard, and by the sight of his cleaner in her white overall, stretching to polish his grand piano. We see how the therapist skilfully focusses Terry upon similar subtleties and helps him to rediscover a level of innocent intrigue that he has not known since he was a boy. It is a revelation to him.