Masters and Johnson

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The gynecologist William Howell Masters (born December 27, 1915 in Cleveland , Ohio , † February 16, 2001 in Tucson , Arizona ) and the scientist Virginia Johnson , b. Eshelman (born February 11, 1925 in Springfield , Missouri ; † July 24, 2013 ) pioneered studies of human sexual behavior in the 1950s and 1960s . They recorded the first laboratory data on human sexual reactions and refuted many misconceptions about sexuality with their work.

Together they published numerous books and essays on the subject of “human sexuality”. The best known is the book The Sexual Reaction , which has been reprinted several times since its first publication in 1966. With their divorce in 1993, Masters and Johnson also ended their research together.

Origin and education

Virginia Eshelman Johnson was married to the band leader George Johnson for the third time, performed with him as a singer under the name "Gini" and had two children from this marriage. She studied psychology at the University of Missouri . A degree is not proven.

Masters was the son of wealthy parents, graduated from Rochester University with a medical degree , then specialized in gynecology . He was married three times, his second marriage from 1971 to 1992 to Virginia Johnson.

Research work

Masters and Johnson met in 1957 when William Masters hired Virginia Johnson as a research assistant to conduct a comprehensive study of human sexuality.

Alfred Kinsey had previously published two works (the Kinsey Reports ) on the sexual behavior of men and women. They were both revolutionary and controversial in their time. Kinsey had attempted to survey the frequency of certain sexual practices in the population. In contrast, Masters and Johnson wanted to study the structure, psychology, and physiology of sexual behavior by observing and taking measurements in the laboratory of masturbation and intercourse and the cycles of sexual response .

Masters and Johnson recorded the first physiological data of the human body and genital organs during sexual arousal. They also expressed their findings and conclusions that sex is a healthy and natural activity and can be enjoyed as a source of joy and familiarity.

Four-step model of sexual response

One of the most consistent and important results of their research is the four-step model of sexual response, which they called the "human reaction cycle" (see Sexual Reaction Cycle ), which they divided into four steps:

Sexual dysfunction

In their attempt to understand the structure, psychology and mechanisms of sexuality, Masters and Johnson simultaneously laid the foundation for a theoretical approach to the treatment of sexual dysfunction and behavior. They opened a clinic in St. Louis to treat sexual problems such as: B. Impotence , premature ejaculation and the inability to have an orgasm . Her treatment methods were based on the findings of her laboratory tests: surrogate partners were recommended for the treatment of premature ejaculation.

Conversion therapy

Masters and Johnson were among the newer advocates of conversion therapy to treat homosexuality, as they viewed homosexuality and heterosexuality as equals. Due to the social circumstances and the denunciation of homosexuality as a disease, many individuals expressed a desire to change their sexual orientation. Masters and Johnson take the suffering of these people into account by providing the appropriate range of therapies.

criticism

Some sex researchers - Shere Hite in particular - have focused on understanding how individuals rate sexual experiences and what it means to them. Hite criticized Masters' and Johnson's work for uncritically incorporating cultural attitudes toward sexual behavior into their research.

For example, Hite's work showed that 70% of women who do not have orgasm during intercourse can easily achieve it through masturbation. She criticized Masters and Johnson's view that the thrusts of intercourse stimulated the clitoris enough to achieve orgasm, and inferring that failure to do so was a sign of "sexual dysfunction" in the woman. While she doesn't deny that both Kinsey and Masters and Johnson were taking extremely important steps in sex research, she believes that one must understand the cultural and personal makeup of sexual experience in order to obtain research that is valid outside of the laboratory are.

The German sex researcher Gunter Schmidt has criticized Masters and Johnson's homophobia and their allegedly false dramatization of the threat from AIDS in the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung (see secondary literature).

filming

The work of Masters and Johnson was produced as a television series by the US broadcaster Showtime . The series started on US television in the summer of 2013 under the title Masters of Sex . It ended in 2016 after the fourth season. In Germany it was broadcast on Sky Atlantic HD between December 2013 and December 2016 and was shown on ZDFneo from August 5, 2014 .

Publications by William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson

  • Human sexual response . Boston: Little, Brown 1966 (German: The sexual reaction . Akademische Verlagsges., Frankfurt am Main 1967)
  • Human sexual inadequacy . Boston: Little, Brown 1970 (German: impotence and anorgasmia. For the therapy of functional sexual disorders . Goverts Krüger Stahlberg, Frankfurt am Main 1973)
  • with Robert C. Kolodny: Human sexuality. Little & Brown, Boston 1979; further editions from 1982.
  • (Ed. With Robert C. Kolodny): Ethical issues in sex therapy and research. Reproductive Biology Research Foundation conference . Boston: Little, Brown 1977-1980
  • Homosexuality in perspective . Boston: Little, Brown 1979 (German: Homosexuality . Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main / Vienna 1980)
  • (with Robert C. Kolodny): Crisis. Heterosexual behavior in the age of AIDS . New York: Grove Press 1988 (German: The repressed risk. Sexual behavior in the age of AIDS. The current report of the leading sex researchers on AIDS and heterosexuality . Düsseldorf et al: Econ 1988)
  • (with Robert C. Kolodny): Biological foundations of human sexuality . New York: Harper Collins 1993
  • (with Robert C. Kolodny): Heterosexuality . New York: Harper Collins 1994 (German: heterosexuality. The love between man and woman . Vienna: Ueberreuter 1996)

Secondary literature

  • Ruth Brecher and Edward Brecher (eds.): An analysis of human sexual response . New York, NY: The New American Library 1966 (German: Sexuality: Advice and Research . Akademische Verlagsges., Frankfurt am Main 1969)
  • Robert C. Kolodny: In memory of William H. Masters . In: J. Sex Res. 38 (3), 2001, pp. 274-276
  • Thomas Maier: Masters of Sex , Basic Books, New York City, NY 2009 ISBN 978-0-465003075
  • Charles Moritz (Ed.): Masters, William H (owell) . In: Current biography yearbook 1968 . HW Wilson, New York 1969, pp. 247-249
  • Karin Schoof-Tams: Therapy of functional sexual disorders according to Masters and Johnson . In: Volkmar Sigusch (ed.): Therapy of sexual disorders . Thieme, Stuttgart and New York 1975, pp. 86-99
  • Gunter Schmidt : Review of “The repressed risk. Sexual Behavior in the Aids Age ”by William H. Masters et al. Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung 1, pp. 177-179, 1988
  • Volkmar Sigusch : Sex Physiology: The multiplication table of lust . Foreword to: William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson: The Sexual Response . (rororo sexologie, vol. 8032/33). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1970, pp. 7-15
  • Volkmar Sigusch: Excitation and orgasm in women. Sexual response physiology . Enke, Stuttgart 1970
  • Volkmar Sigusch: Masters and Johnson . In: Volkmar Sigusch and Günter Grau (eds.): Personenlexikon der Sexualforschung , Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / York 2009, ISBN 3-593-39049-3 , pp. 468–477
  • Leonore Tiefer: Historical, scientific, clinical and feminist criticisms of "The human sexual response cycle" model . In: Annual Review of Sex Research 2, 1991, 1-23.
  • Volkmar Sigusch: Virginia E. Johnson (1925-2013) [obituary]. Z. Sex research. 26, pp. 276–281, 2013

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Sex researcher Virginia Johnson died at the age of 88, SPON , July 25, 2013
  2. ↑ DER SPIEGEL issue 37/2010
  3. ↑ a b Melanie Caroline Steffens & Erin Marie Thompson: Wicked - Perverse - Sick - Invisible: The Historical View - Documentation of the VLSP Congress 2003, PDF (November 3, 2005). ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Website of the series at Showtime