The telephone rape: crisis intervention for an obscene phone call.

Few women have remained unaffected by the menace of the telephone age‐the obscene phone call. This is a report of an obscene phone call received by a woman who, with her husband, had sought sex therapy for her inhibited sexual desire. The obscene phone caller, claiming to be a psychiatrist whom her husband had consulted, exhorted her to perform sexual acts to prevent her spouse's alleged suicide. Questions about magical solution, the mystique of the male medical authority figure, and the progress of sex therapy after the incident are discussed. The need for crisis intervention for telephone rape is explored.