Re-Building of Sexual Intimacy in the Spouse of a Man Who has Become Motor Disabled

Changes in sexuality and sexual intimacy in the couple of a man who has become motorically disabled can present a major challenge for his able-bodied partner, who does not remain passive in the face of her man’s motor and sexual difficulties. This study analyzes the sexual experience of a woman whose partner became paraplegic following a road accident. Using the single-case method, the study attempts to understand how this spouse subjectively and objectively works to reconstruct the couple’s sexual intimacy after such an event. Semi-directive interviews, structured around the life story, were conducted with this single participant. Transcribed and then analyzed using thematic data analysis, they show that the couple’s sexual intimacy was gradually rebuilt around two main drivers: coitus made possible by a gradually manifested virility, and a benevolent attitude on the part of the partner with sentimental and erotic overtones of complicity, kindness, flirtation, seduction, and respect for the now disabled partner, but imagined as strong, robust, and able-bodied. Attitudes that are an integral part of human relationships, but which tend to disappear when trauma strikes. So much so that his work takes up all the psychic space. This highlights the need to set up support programs for the spouses of disabled people.