DR. JUDY KURIANSKY STILL TALKS SEX

Famous sex therapist Dr Judy Kuriansky seen talking to Vagina Monologues’ Eve Ensler in the lobby of her new two-character drama “The Treatment” running through this Sunday at the Culture Project on East 3rd Street. “Do you like yours?” The sex doc asked the famous sex author, pointing to something very pink in Ensler’s hands. “I love it,” replied Ensler. No, the two sex stars were not comparing vaginas. Dr Judy is in the market for a new cell phone and Ensler was clutching, and raving about, her bright pink Razar.
The famous sex doc chatted with actor Dylan McDermott after the standing ovation for him and fellow actor Portia. Perfectly fitting that a clinical psychologist as Dr Judy should ask McDermott - after the play about a traumatized soldier (and former military interrogator) and his army psychiatrist – what he drew on for his powerful performance. McDermott said, “I’ve never been a soldier and I never had experiences like the character, but I went to other emotional times I’ve had and I felt empathy for him.” Noting McDermott was still visibly shaken from the intensity of his role, Dr Judy asked, “How do you come down from the intensity?” “It’s tough,” McDermott admitted.
Women in the lobby after the play were still in awe over McDermott’s hunky body and bare rear that he exposes in a powerful scene – something you would expect a sex therapist like Kuriansky to be focusing on. In contrast, the sex doc was in serious conversation with audience members, explaining how the play’s theme about interrogation techniques used by army personnel (presumably in Iraq) and a psychiatrist’s interrogation of her PTSD patient, reflects the American Psychological Association’s present intense focus on what role shrinks should play in extracting “intelligence” from prisoners.
But Dr Judy did note the gender message in the play, where the female shrink uses sex to get what she wants from her male victim, in comparison to the loud noise, darkness and anal rape the male soldier describes used on captives.
Be sure to see the play before the end of its limited run this Sunday as part of the New York city-wide arts festival, the Impact Festival (ticket master or Cultue Project box office, 45 Bleeker Street). And don’t miss another gem: the exhibit in the back hall, “Detained,” appropriate to the play’s theme. New York photographer Chris Bartlett traveled to Amman Jordan in 2006 at the invitation of a law firm representing torture victims in a lawsuit. The photos include one of the “hooded men.” of the infamous Abu Ghraib photos made public.