And tonight - a special episode of O&E-
Notable Moments and Errata in Sexual Research
(late 19th to mid 20th century+)
Freud - He is not first, but he is the most well known so we will start with him. He gave us both penis envy(girls) and fear of castration(boys) as children went through a stage of being in love with their opposite sex parent. Freud also believed that behavior problems were associated with things that people "repressed" and if they could be brought to the open (psychoanalysis) the behavior would change. He noted that infants, and people in general, were capable of pleasuring themselves - auto eroticism. In each stage of psychosocial development the pleasure is manifested differently. For example, the first stage (oral) is about thumb sucking. In the last stage (genital) the pleasure comes from sex. Freud is less well known for this erroneous declaration - the supremacy of the vaginal orgasm. He determined that the clitoral orgasm (achieved through masturbation or non penetration stimulation) was inferior both psychologically and physically to intercourse orgasm. He did NOT say the same thing about male orgasm.
Krafft-Ebing - This researcher actually precedes Freud. He declared that masturbation was the "prime sexual sin." He also reported on these concepts; fetishism, sadism and masochism. In fact, he invented the terms - sadomasochism and transvestite. He blamed these behaviors (being aroused from clothing to murdering someone for sexual gratification) on masturbation. He is credited with starting a dialogue about sex.
Ellis - He is a breath of fresh air in all of this. He declared an absence of "normal" sex behavior and supported masturbation as a positive (stress reduction) endeavor. He acknowledged that women had legitimate and strong sexual desires of their own. (they were not just in it for the babies) This was BEFORE 1940.
Kinsey - He is very well known - a movie was made of him with Liam Neesam I believe. Kinsey was discredited for his assertions at the time, but is now respected for them. His work is also situated in the first half of the 20th century. He gathered a lot of information on what people actually do - not just what society scripts for them. He also added to the masturbation dialogue by stating that for women, it was a more reliable source of orgasm. He also created a sexual orientation scale. In his research, some 60 years ago, he found that 50%of men had had same sex relations while less than 30% of women had. I find that VERY interesting and think the numbers would be quite different in 2011. His scale goes from 1 to 6. Someone who is exclusively opposite sex (sex) is a 1 and an exclusively same sex (sex) person is a 6. He refused to declare any behaviors as normal or not.
Masters and Johnson - Even these founders of modern sex therapy, did most of their work before the 21st century. Their research included observation and actual measurement of sexual response. They used devices to measure things like circumference and rigidity of a penis when the owner of said penis was watching film or otherwise stimulated/aroused. There is also a vaginal plethysmograph. Masters and Johnson are known for giving homework to couples which included sexual exploration (of each other I suppose). They determined dysfunction to be related to lack of communication, marital conflict or lack of information. YUP - that last one is my favorite.
Sexual research continues into our time. We now study ethnic differences, sexual identity, same sex phenomena, aging and sex and sex or sexuality in disease. There is still no normal or abnormal -no natural distinction - but activities that cause physical or psychological harm through pain and or coercion are considered WRONG.
Information for tonight's O&E will be presented in my class this week and can be found in the text:
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