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, statistics, epidemiology, sociology and sometimes criminology to bear on its subject. It studies human sexual development and the development of sexual relationships as well as the mechanics of sexual intercourse and sexual malfunction. It also documents the sexuality of special groups, such as handicapped, children, and elderly, and studies sexual pathologies such as sex addiction and 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 manuals exist, 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 century sexology movement was Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, whose book Psychopathia Sexualis, published in 1886, recorded a number of unusual sexual abnormalities.

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

Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexology) in Berlin in 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 Kinsey founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University at Bloomington, now called the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

What is sexology?

Sexology in its modern form 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 anatomy of the sex organs
• the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of sexual behavior
• neuroscience can be used to study many basic sexual reflexes, and is increasingly relevant to more complex aspects of sexual behavior
• psychiatry studies some of the more extreme disorders of sexual behavior
• many aspects of sexual behavior are or have been regulated by law in various jurisdictions, and various classes of sexual offences are studied by criminology
• biology studies the sexual behavior of other animals, which can be compared with human sexual behavior
• the techniques of evolutionary biology can be brought to bear on the causes of sexual behavior
• the epidemiology of sexually transmitted diseases

Sexology also touches on public issues such as the debates over abortion, public health, birth control, sexual abuse and 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)
• Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956)
• Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)
• 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)
• Rolf Gindorf (born 1939)
• Simon LeVay (born 1943)
• Anne Fausto-Sterling (born 1944)
• John Gagnon [1] (http://ws.cc.stonybrook.edu/sociology/faculty/Gagnon/gagnon.html)
• Gilbert Herdt (born 1949)

See also

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

External links

• Kinsey Institute (http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/originalsite/sexology.html)
• Sexology (Spiritual aspects) (http://swami-center.org/en/text/Sbook.html)
• Humboldt University of Berlin Sexology Department (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology) - includes one of the world's largest Sexuality Encyclopedias (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/BEGIN.HTM)
  • Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/index.htm)
  • Critical Dictionary of Sexology (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/FIRST.HTM)
  • Sexology World-wide (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SECOND.HTM)
  • Sexological Training for Health Professionals (http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/PAPER1.HTM)
• Society for Human Sexuality (http://www.sexuality.org/)
  • History of Sexology (http://www.sexuality.org/l/sex/sexohist.html)