Sexology

Sexology is the systematic study of human sexuality. It encompasses all aspects of sexuality, including:

• "Normal sexuality"
• Sexuality of special groups, such as handicapped, children, elderly
• Paraphilias
• Sexual development
• Sexual intercourse
• Sexual malfunction
• Sex addiction
• Sexual violence and sexual abuse

Table of contents

1 History of the study of sex 2 What is sexology? 3 Notable sexologists 4 External links

History of the study of sex

One of the earliest sex researchers prior to the 20th century sexology movement was Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, whose book Psychopathia Sexualis recorded a number of unusual sexual abnormalities.

Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexology in Berlin in 1919.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Sigmund Freud developed a theory of sexuality based on his studies of his clients.

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 and reproductive technology.

Notable sexologists

• Havelock Ellis
• Theodor Hendrik van de Velde
• Ernest Bornemann
• Milton Diamond
• Anne Fausto-Sterling
• Kurt Freund
• Alfred Kinsey
• Oswalt Kolle
• William Masters and Virginia Johnson
• John Money

See also: Gender and sexuality studies, List of sexology topics

External links

• http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/originalsite/sexology.html