Sexology

Sexology is the systematic study of human sexuality. It encompasses all aspects of sexuality, including attempting to characterise "normal sexuality" and its variants, including paraphilias.

Modern sexology is a multidisciplinary field which uses the techniques of fields including biology, medicine, psychology, statistics, epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, and sometimes criminologyto bear on its subject. It studies human sexual developmentand the development of sexual relationshipsas well as the mechanics of sexual intercourseand sexual malfunction. It also documents the sexuality of special groups, such as handicapped, children, and elderly, and studies sexual pathologies such as sex addictionand sexual abuse.

Note that sexology is descriptive, not prescriptive: it attempts to document reality, not to prescribe what behavior is suitable, ethical, or moral. For this reason, sexology has often been the subject of controversy between supporters of sexology and those who believe that sexology pries into matters which they consider too private, too sacred, or too disgusting for scientific investigation.

History of the study of sex

A number of ancient sex manualsexist, 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 centurysexology movement was Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, whose book Psychopathia Sexualis, published in 1886, recorded a dizzying array of sexual anomalies.

In the late 19thand early 20th centuries, Sigmund Freuddeveloped a theory of sexuality based on his studies of his clients. Wilhelm Reichand Otto Gross, two scholars of Freud, conducted revolutionary studies around human sexuality.

Magnus Hirschfeldfounded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in Berlinin 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 Kinseyfounded the Institute for Sex Researchat Indiana Universityat Bloomington, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

Scope of sexology

Sexology, as we currently define it, 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 anatomyof the sex organs
• the psychology, sociology, and anthropologyof sexual behavior
• neurosciencecan be used to study many basic sexual reflexes, and is increasingly relevant to more complex aspects of sexual behavior
• psychiatrystudies some of the more extreme disorders of sexual behavior
• many aspects of sexual behavior are or have been regulated by lawin various jurisdictions, and various classes of sexual offences are studied by criminology
• biologystudies the sexual behavior of other animals, which can be compared with human sexual behavior
• the techniques of evolutionary biologycan be brought to bear on the causes of sexual behavior
• the epidemiologyof sexually transmitted diseases

Sexology also touches on public issues such as the debates over abortion, public health, birth control, sexual abuseand 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)
• Wilhelm Fliess(1858-1928)
• 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)
• Otto Gross (1877-1920)
• Ernst Gräfenberg (1881-1957)
• Harry Benjamin (1885-1986)
• Theodor Reik (1888-1969)
• Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
• Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)
• Wardell Pomeroy(1913-2001)
• Albert Ellis(born 1913)
• 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)
• Erwin J. Haeberle(born 1936)
• Rolf Gindorf(born 1939)
• Simon LeVay(born 1943)
• Anne Fausto-Sterling(born 1944)
• John Gagnon[1]
• Gilbert Herdt(born 1949)
• Edward O. Laumann

See also

• List of sexology topics
• Gender and sexuality studies
• Philosophy of sex
• Sex education

External links

• Kinsey Institute
• Institute of Family and Sexuality Studies (KULeuven)Belgium
• Sexology (Spiritual aspects)
• Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexologyat the Humboldt University of Berlinwith free access to:
  • Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia
  • Critical Dictionary of Sexology
  • Sexology World-wide, listing of world-wide sexology institutions
  • Five online courses in Sexual Health
  • History of Sexology
• edu.humsex.orgAcademic Programs in Human Sexology (world wide)
• Society for Human Sexuality
  • History of Sexology
• German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research (DGSS)
• Flemish Society of SexologyBelgium
• World Sex Records(Section on Sexology)ca:sexologia

da:sexologi de:Sexualmedizin es:sexología fr:Sexologie ja:性科学 nl:seksuologie pl:Seksuologia pt:sexologia zh:性學

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexology Wikipedia article Sexology.