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History of the development of the science of sexuality (brief sketch)
Last reviewed: 04.07.2025
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Psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists have long been exploring the importance of sexuality for individual well-being. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a number of sexologists made significant contributions to the understanding of sexuality.
Richard Krafft-Ebing explained sexual deviations as a disorder of the nervous system. This German neurologist published his manual on sexual disorders, "Psychopathy Sexualis", in 1886.
Henry Ellis, exploring the general spectrum of sexual behavior, touched on such topics as female sexuality, masturbation, and homosexuality. The first volume of his book, entitled "A Study in the Psychology of Sex," was banned for being "obscene" when it was published in England in 1897.
Viennese physician and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud considered sexuality as the foundation of his teaching. He believed that neuroses arose as a result of sexual conflicts in childhood. Freud was the first researcher to consider sexual drives as an internal dynamic force that shapes personality and controls human behavior.
Prominent sexuality researchers of the mid- to late 20th century include Alfred Kinsey, William Masters, and Virginia E. Johnson. Biologist Kinsey studied the sexual practices of men and women from 1948 to 1953. Gynecologist Masters and psychologist Johnson conducted laboratory studies of male and female sexual responses. Their pioneering work, which began to be published in the 1960s, laid the foundation for further research and is still used in sex therapy today.
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