Online Encyclopedia
Sexology
Sexology is the systematic study of human sexuality. It encompasses all aspects of sexuality, including:
- "Normal sexuality"
- Sexuality of special groups, such as handicapped, children, elderly
- Paraphilias
- Sexual development
- Sexual intercourse
- Sexual malfunction
- Sex addiction
- Sexual abuse
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History of the study of sex
A number of ancient sex manuals exist, including Ovid's Ars Amatoria , the Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, the Ananga Ranga and The Perfumed Garden for the Soul's Recreation. However, none of these treated sex as the subject of a formal field of scientific or medical research.
One of the earliest sex researchers prior to the 20th century sexology movement was Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, whose book Psychopathia Sexualis recorded a number of unusual sexual abnormalities.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sigmund Freud developed a theory of sexuality based on his studies of his clients.
Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexology in Berlin in 1919. When the Nazis took power, one of their first actions, on May 6, 1933, was to destroy the Institute and burn the library.
In 1947, Alfred Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University at Bloomington, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.
What is sexology?
Sexology in its modern form is largely a 20th century phenomenon.
Sexology relates to a number of other fields of study:
- several fields of medicine, including andrology, gynaecology, and the anatomy of the sex organs
- the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of sexual behavior
- neuroscience can be used to study many basic sexual reflexes, and is increasingly relevant to more complex aspects of sexual behavior
- psychiatry studies some of the more extreme disorders of sexual behavior
- many aspects of sexual behavior are or have been regulated by law in various jurisdictions, and various classes of sexual offences are studied by criminology
- biology studies the sexual behavior of other animals, which can be compared with human sexual behavior
- the techniques of evolutionary biology can be brought to bear on the causes of sexual behavior
- the epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases
Sexology also touches on public issues such as the debates over abortion, public health, birth control, sexual abuse and reproductive technology.
Notable sexologists
This is a list of notable sexologists, sorted by the year of their birth:
- Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902)
- Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
- Albert Moll (1862-1939)
- Edward Westermarck (1862-1939)
- Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935)
- Iwan Bloch (1872-1922)
- Theodor Hendrik van de Velde (1873-1937)
- Ernst Gräfenberg (1881-1957)
- Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
- Kurt Freund (1914-1996)
- Ernest Borneman (1915-1995)
- William Masters (1915-2001) and Virginia Johnson (born 1925)
- John Money (born 1921)
- Preben Hertoft (born 1928)
- Oswalt Kolle (born 1928)
- Milton Diamond (born 1934)
- Anne Fausto-Sterling (born 1944)
See also
External links
- Kinsey Institute
- Sexology (Spiritual aspects)
- Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology
- Critical Dictionary of Sexology
- Sexology World-wide
- Society for Human Sexuality