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This lab at the National Institute of Mental Health conducts a range of research on the sexual behavior of men and women (both healthy and sexually challenged), from simple online questionnaires and assessment experiments to laboratory testing and anamnestic interviews at the Institute. A chapter inspired by the story of Katerina Klapilova, head of SexLab, is also included in the book Bohemian Taboo Stories.
The primary focus of the research group is basic research on sub-systems of partner/sexual behavior and experience within the normal population (establishing standards of sexual normality), which will be contrasted with functioning in sexual paraphiliacs. This includes the development of test stimuli and testing of responses to them (psychophysiological, brain activation) with potential for use in clinical practice. In addition, research is focused on disorders of subsystems of partner and sexual functioning associated with mental disorders significantly prevalent in the population (schizophrenia, depressive disorder).
The underlying paradigm of the group is evolutionary psychiatry and psychology, which is applied to the evolutionary theory view of mental disorders. The disorders are viewed as either functional independent adaptations or adaptive behavioral strategies that are activated by interaction with the environment, or as maladaptations or adaptations to a different (Pleistocene) environment that are no longer functional today, but still influence human behavior and experience.
Emphasis is placed on the systemic interconnection of all phases of the sexual-motivational system and their ontogenetic development (activation and deactivation in critical periods, identification of critical periods, influence of different forms of learning, influence of attachment). A crucial step is the description of the proximate mechanisms underlying these adaptations - research into the neurobiology of the sub-systems of partner/sexual functioning and the identification of the mechanistic regulation of these adaptive responses (physiological responses, neural correlates).
If you have a desire to engage in research and expand scientific knowledge, please apply and you will be offered research that is suitable for you.
Order the book Bohemian Taboo Stories, which includes a chapter inspired by the story of Katerina Klapilova, head of the Evolutionary Sexology and Psychopathology Research Laboratory, in our e-shop.
Bohemian Taboo is a platform designed to support education, personal development, contemporary art, queer and other alternative communities, biohacking, research, aesthetic medicine, counseling, provocative events, assistance to disadvantaged groups and all other possible, so far little known, unsupported, tabooed or unjustly censored activities that overlap into the field of personal intimacy, sexuality and eroticism - erotic art and sexual wellbeing, i.e. what we call the development of erotic intelligence.
