Desire on the Couch: A Landmark Exhibition

Presented by CIIS' Department of Research Psychology in collaboration with The Kinsey Institute

Desire on the Couch transforms CIIS’ Desai | Matta Gallery into a living archive, featuring rarely seen materials from the Kinsey Institute's world-renowned collections. Explore original letters from Sigmund Freud to concerned parents, Kinsey's controversial scientific reports on American sexual behavior, photographs that challenged censorship, and the voices of pioneers who risked everything to expand our understanding of sexuality.

This exhibition invites us to reflect critically on a century of dialogue between psychoanalysis and sexuality studies—and to ask how these frameworks both constrained and liberated our understanding of erotic life, gender, and identity. As marginalized communities face renewed threats today, these historical materials remind us that the struggle for recognition and dignity is ongoing.

In celebration of the opening week of the exhibition, co-curators Rebecca Fasman and Christopher Walling will be providing guided tours throughout the day, on a first-come first-served basis.

What You'll Experience

Examine annotated Kinsey Reports where you can see clinicians wrestling with data that challenged their assumptions. Browse correspondence between pioneers who confronted orthodoxy at great personal cost. Encounter visual materials—photographs, pamphlets, educational films—that shaped public discourse and catalyzed movements for sexual rights.

The exhibition is organized thematically, guiding you through:

• Early psychoanalytic theories of sexuality and their profound impact on LGBTQ+ communities
• The de-pathologization movement: archival evidence from the DSM-III debates
• Visual media and public education materials that transformed cultural understanding
• Contemporary psychoanalytic re-readings of pleasure, gender, and queer embodiment

Whether you're a clinician, student, scholar, or simply someone curious about how we came to understand desire, these materials offer both historical insight and contemporary relevance.

Image credit
Courtesy of the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections
George Platt Lynes
Buddy McCarthy and John Leapheart
Eastman Kodak Safety Film
1952