The history of the development of the science of sexuality (short essay)
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists for a long time find out the significance of sexuality for individual well-being. In the late XIX and early XX century, a number of sexologists made a great contribution to the understanding of sexuality.
Richard Kraft-Ebing explained sexual deviations by a disorder of the nervous system. This German neurologist published his manual on sexual disorders "Sexual Psychopathy" in 1886.
Henry Ellis, exploring the general spectrum of sexual behavior, touched on topics such as female sexuality, masturbation and homosexuality. The first volume of his book, entitled "The Study of the Psychology of Sex" after its publication in England in 1897, was banned because of its "obscenity."
The Viennese physician and founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, considered sexuality as the foundation of his teaching. He believed that neuroses arise from sexual conflicts in childhood. Freud was the first researcher who viewed sexual drives as an internal dynamic force that shapes the personality and controls human behavior.
The outstanding researchers of sexuality of the middle and the end of the 20th century include Alfred Kinsey, William Master and Virginia E. Johnson. The biologist Kinsey studied the sexual practice of men and women in the period 1948-1953. Gynecologist Master and psychologist Johnson conducted laboratory studies of sexual reactions of men and women. Their pioneering work, which began to be published in the 1960s, laid the foundation for further research and is currently used in sexual therapy.
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