Critical Introduction - Old Silent Assumptions

1. The Myth of a "Natural" Human Sexuality

From Hippocrates to Masters and Johnson, therapists of various kinds have treated not only sexual dysfunctions but also sexual deviance.

That is to say: They have tried not only to restore, increase, or reduce sexual vigor but also to channel it into socially acceptable outlets, and they have done so on the assumption that they were "handmaidens of nature," i.e. that they simply helped people to achieve what should have "come naturally" in the first place. Thus, the first and greatest silent assumption of all sexual therapy has been the belief in a "naturally" given, healthy sexuality which becomes dysfunctional or deviant only as a result of interference. Conversely, once this interference has been stopped, and its ill effects have been eliminated, the human "natural sexuality" is automatically restored.

However, the actual practice of sex therapy through the ages has shown that this assumption cannot be true.