Desire on the Couch
Rare materials from the Kinsey Institute archives reveal how psychoanalysts, artists, and activists reshaped our understanding of sexuality and more.
Exhibition image: Courtesy of the Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections, George Platt Lynes, Buddy McCarthy and John Leapheart, Eastman Kodak Safety Film, 1952
Presented by CIIS' Department of Research Psychology in collaboration with The Kinsey Institute
A Landmark Exhibition Comes to San Francisco
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.
Your Experience Awaits
Choose how you'd like to experience Desire on the Couch—from guided tours during our opening week to self-directed gallery visits and an intimate author conversation.
Opening Week Viewing & Tours
Join guided tours led by exhibition curators and engage with scholars exploring the intersections of psychoanalysis and sexuality studies during the American Psychoanalytic Association Conference.
Exhibition Viewing
Immerse yourself in archival materials that document a century of evolving conversations about desire, identity, and the erotic.
On the Intimate Animal
Join Dr. Justin Garcia, Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute, and Dr. Christopher Walling, CIIS Chair of Research Psychology, for a conversation on The Intimate Animal. Explore the science of love, intimacy, and a fundamental paradox: we evolved for social monogamy but not sexual monogamy.
The Letters That Changed Everything
In 1935, a mother wrote to Sigmund Freud, seeking guidance about her gay son. His response—compassionate and revolutionary for its time—signaled a profound shift in psychoanalytic thinking. "Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage," Freud wrote, "but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness."
This rare letter anchors our exhibition. Alongside it, you'll discover how Dr. Alfred Kinsey reimagined knowledge production itself—trusting voices from outside sexology to shape his research. His collaborations with photographer George Platt Lynes, artist Andrey Avinoff, and transgender pioneer Louise Lawrence didn't just inform his groundbreaking surveys; they transformed how the Kinsey Institute would understand whose voices mattered in the study of human sexuality.
These are not simply historical curiosities. They document lives changed, and sometimes saved, by shifting understandings of desire.
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.
About the Exhibition Team
Co-curated by Rebecca Fasman and Christopher Walling with the support of the CIIS Judie Wexler Faculty Innovation Award.
Rebecca Fasman is the Curator for the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Bloomington. She holds an MA in Museum Studies from New York University and a BA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the past 20 years, Rebecca has worked at leading cultural institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery of Art, Deutsche Bank, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Her curatorial practice views art, creativity, and sexuality as lenses through which we can understand the nature of humanity—with the ultimate goal of supporting everyone to live their happiest, healthiest, and most connected lives.
Dr. Christopher G. Walling is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Research Psychology at CIIS, Faculty Chair of Adult Psychoanalytic Training at the New Center for Psychoanalysis, and a licensed clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst. His scholarship bridges relational psychoanalysis, trauma science, and human sexuality, anchoring courses on embodied development, intersubjectivity, and affect regulation. Dr. Walling serves as a Clinical Research Fellow and International Advisory Council member at the Kinsey Institute and sits on the American Psychoanalytic Association's Committee on Gender & Sexuality. He maintains a private practice in Brentwood, California.
Contact Us
For any questions about the exhibition, please reach out to events@ciis.edu.
Partnerships
