Psychology in the Bathroom

Excretion is a universal part of the human experience that is veiled in taboo. The toilet is a focus of intense emotions, unseemly interests, strange afflictions and earthy humour. Psychology in the Bathroom surveys a variety of embarrassing processes, shameful disorders and disgusting habits, taking the reader on a tour of the clinical and research literatures on elimination from the early psychoanalysts to the latest in neurogastroenterology. Chapters examine the psychological dimensions of constipation and diarrhoea, incontinence and urinary inhibition, and the surprisingly rich psychology of flatulence. Moving beyond the literal products of the irritable bowel and the nervous bladder, the book explores the symbolic aspects of excretion, including dirty language, fetishes, toilet graffiti and the vexed question of whether men should put the seat down. The book presents cutting-edge science in a playful manner that will be accessible to students in psychology and the general reader.