Archive for Sexology
II. Pioneers (1896 - 1936)
1896 |
The Italian psychiatrist Pasquale Penta edits the first scientific journal
devoted entirely to sexual questions: "Archivio delle Psicopatie Sessuali".
The English private scholar Havelock Ellis begins his "Studies in the
Psychology of Sex" (last volume 1928). Since they cannot be published
in England, they appear in the USA and (in translation) in Germany. The English reading public first comes to know Ellis mostly
through his "harmless" collection of essays On Life and Sex. Later, it also gained access to his major work "Studies in the Psychology of Sex".
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1897 |
The Berlin physician Magnus Hirschfeld
founds the
"Scientific Humanitarian Committee",
the world's first "Gay Rights" organization. Its goal is the
repeal of the German anti-homosexual law § 175 which punishes sexual
contact between men.
For the committee Hirschfeld edits the "Yearbook for
Intermediate Sexual Stages" (1899-1923). (The centennial of the committee - 1997 - is celebrated in Berlin
with a large exhibition "One Hundred Years of Gay Activism" |
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Hirschfeld's rival, the Berlin physician Albert Moll, publishes his
"Investigations Concerning the Libido Sexualis". |
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1902 |
At the initiative of Alfred Blaschko, Albert Neisser and others the "German
Society for the Fight Against Venereal Diseases" is founded in Berlin. |
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1903 |
The French writer Rémy de Gourmont publishes his "Physique de l'amour"
(The Natural Philosophy of Love), a popular book containing descriptions
and interpretations of animal sexual behavior. |
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1903
-04
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Magnus Hirschfeld begins his statistical surveys on homosexuality. As a result
of complaints, they are soon terminated by legal action. |
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1904
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The endocrinologist Eugen Steinach in Prague,
later in Vienna, studies the
effects of sex hormones on the development of the animal and human body.
By means of gonadal transplantation, he succeeds in feminizing male rats
and masculinizing female rats. |
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In Vienna, the ethnologist Friedrich Salomon Krauss begins publication of his
yearbook "Anthropophyteia". This work (10 main volumes plus a number of
complementary volumes) contains a wealth of folkloristic material about sex
which Krauss had personally collected in the Balkans. He thus had become a
pioneer of "ethno-sexology" whose work was greatly appreciated by Sigmund
Freud, Iwan Bloch, Magnus Hirschfeld, Franz Boas and many others.
However, by 1913, as a result of various obscenity trials, he is financially
ruined, and his further career, even as a private scholar, is seriously curtailed. |
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1905 |
Fritz Schaudinn discovers the spirochete Treponema pallidum, a bacterial organism which causes
syphilis. |
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The Swiss psychiatrist Auguste Forel publishes his book "The Sexual
Question" which raises demands that are revolutionary for its time (abolition
of most sex laws, marriage for same-sex couples etc.). Forel deliberately
combines medical and socio-political viewpoints. His well-intended proposal
to practice "eugenics" (i.e. the voluntary genetic improvement of the human
race by avoiding the transmission of hereditary diseases) unfortunately carries
some (then unrecognized) seeds of totalitarian "racial hygiene" policies such
as those later enacted by the Nazis. |
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Helene Stöcker and others found the Association for the Protection of Mothers
("Bund für Mutterschutz"), which fights for the protection of unmarried
mothers and for the legal equality of "illegitimate" children. Her supporter,
the dermatologist Max Marcuse, later becomes the editor of the "Zeitschrift
für Sexualwissenschaft" (Journal for Sexology). |
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The Viennese physician Sigmund Freud
publishes his "Three Essays on the
Theory of Sex". In this work he describes the "normal" development of
human
sexuality as well as the "perversions", i.e. behaviors which do not
correspond
to the norm. His theory is based on the doctrine of psychoanalysis
(i.e.
examination of the mind or soul). According to Freud, the "sex drive"
undergoes a process of "maturation" in which various "partial drives"
become
subordinated to the goal of mature "genitality". The three main phases
of
his process are: 1. Oral phase, 2. anal phase, 3. phallic phase. In
late
childhood there also is a "latency phase" in which the sex drive lies
dormant
until it reawakens during puberty. |
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1906 |
Paul Ehrlich and his Japanese collaborator Sahachiro Hata develop
the first effective medical treatment of syphilis (by means of a compound
called "Salvarsan").
The American anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman, an early advocate of
women's rights and birth control, founds her magazine "Mother Earth" which offers political and philosophical essays
as well as literary contributions by modern writers of fiction.
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1907
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The Berlin physician Iwan Bloch publishes his study "The Sexual Life of Our
Time". In it he demands the establishment of sexology ("Sexualwissenschaft")
as a scientific enterprise in its own right, combining the methods and insights
of both the natural and the cultural sciences. What Mantegazza had still called
"love" (amore), from now on permanently turns into "sexuality" in the
scientific literature. |
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1908
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Magnus Hirschfeld edits the first Journal of Sexology ("Zeitschrift für
Sexualwissenschaft"). As a monthly publication, it survives for only one year
(12 issues). It contains not only medical contributions, but articles written by
a wide spectrum of scientists and scholars, from anthropologists and
criminologists to philologists and historians. |
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1909 |
Albert Moll publishes his study "The Sexual Life of the Child", disregarding
Freud's psychoanalytic theory, which he considers to be unscientific. In this
book, Moll for the first time proposes a 4-stage description of the human
sexual response: 1. the onset of voluptuousness, 2. the equable voluptuous
sensation, 3. the voluptuous acme, 4. the sudden decline. |
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The Japanese military physician and writer Ogai Mori publishes his
autobiographical "Vita Sexualis", in which he describes his own adolescent
sexual experiences in a detached and sober, even clinical style. (He also
records the homosexual affairs of his classmates without passing any moral
judgment.) The book is banned shortly after publication. |
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1910
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Magnus Hirschfeld introduces the term "transvestites", distinguishing them for
the first time from homosexuals. |
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1911
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Albert Moll publishes his "Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften" (Handbook
of Sexual Sciences), which contains articles written not only by himself, but
also by other sexologists, such as Havelock Ellis. |
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1912
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Iwan Bloch begins the publication of his "Handbuch der gesamten
Sexualwissenschaft in Einzeldarstellungen" (Handbook of Sexology in its
Entirety Presented in Separate Studies). The first volume "Prostitution, vol. I"
is written by himself, the second "Homosexuality in Men and Women"
(1914) by Hirschfeld, a third volume by Bloch ("Prostitution, vol. II")
appears posthumously. Bloch's untimely death in 1922 ends the entire
ambitious project. |
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1913
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In Berlin, Magnus Hirschfeld, Iwan Bloch, Albert Eulenburg and others
found the first Medical Society for Sexology and Eugenics ("Ärztliche
Gesellschaft für Sexualwissenschaft und Eugenik").
Albert Moll founds the International Society for Sex Research ("Internationale
Gesellschaft für Sexualforschung"), also in Berlin.
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1914
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Magnus Hirschfeld publishes his monumental study (1067 pages)
"Homosexuality in Men and Women ("Die Homosexualität des Mannes und
des Weibes").
Iwan Bloch and Albert Eulenburg once again found the Journal for Sexology
("Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenchaft").
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In the USA, the Rockefeller family takes an interest in sex research and begins to look for ways to support it.
Over the next forty years, it makes substantial amounts of money available, first through the Bureau of Social Hygiene
and later through the National Research Council (Division of Medical Sciences - Committee for Research in Problems of Sex).
However, the scientists in charge are uncomfortable with the subject matter, refuse to investigate it, and instead use
the funds for "uncontroversial" basic biological research. They also fail to set up a sexological library and collection
or to publish a sexological journal or even a bibliography. Moreover, they refuse to invite Havelock
Ellis or to support or even meet the exiled Magnus Hirschfeld and his fellow sexologists Wilhelm Reich, Ernst Gräfenberg,
Bernhard Schapiro, and Hans Lehfeldt when they come to the US. Eventually, the Rockefeller Foundation provides at least some funds for the work
of Alfred C. Kinsey. However, this support is all too soon withdrawn under pressure from conservative political and religious
forces.
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1916
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Margaret Sanger and her sister open
a birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New
York. It is almost immediately closed by the authorities as a
"public nuisance".
The Sanger sisters are sentenced to 30 days in the workhouse for having
violated state obscenity laws. In spite of these and similar difficulties,
Margaret Sanger remains active for many decades in the family planning
movement, becoming its most influential organizer not only in the US,
but also internationally. For excerpts from her autobiography, click here. |
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1919
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Magnus Hirschfeld opens the first "Institute for Sexology" in Berlin.
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1921 |
In Prague, the university creates a chair of sexual pathology for the
dermatologist Prof. Pecirka as a first step towards establishing a sexological
institute. Pecirka had trained with Hirschfeld in Berlin, and, after his
unexpected death, the university in 1929 - 1930 sends another young
dermatologist, Josef Hynie, to Hirschfeld's institute for training. Hynie
succeeds in completing the task left unfinished by his predecessor. He retires
as the director of the university's Sexological Institute in 1974.
In Moscow, the educator Vera Schmidt founds a children's home. Following
psychonanalytical principles, she practices an anti-authoritarian, positive sex
education. This also means no interference with masturbation and mutual
sexual exploration.
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1923 |
Max Marcuse publishes his "Handwörterbuch der Sexualwissenschaft" (Hand
Dictionary of Sexology) which contains original contributions of many
prominent writers, including Freud. |
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1926
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In Berlin, Albert Moll organizes the I. International Congress for Sex
Research. The opening session is held at the Reichstag (German national
parliament). A second congress follows 1930 in London.
The Dutch gynecologist Theodor Hendrik van de Velde publishes his book "Ideal
Marriage", a very popular work of adult sex education which tries to
encourage men and women to shed their inhibitions within their sexual
relationships and to develop their sensuality.
Magnus Hirschfeld begins the publication of his 5-volume "Sexual
Knowledge" (Geschlechtskunde) whose last volume appears in 1930.
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1928
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Magnus Hirschfeld, supported by the Danish physician J. H. Leunbach,
organizes a congress in Copenhagen and, on that occasion, founds the
World League for Sexual Reform
("Weltliga für Sexualreform"). Presidents
are Hirschfeld, Havelock Ellis and Auguste Forel. (Additional Congresses
of the League: London 1929, Vienna 1930 and Brno 1932.) Among other
things, the League demands the legal and social equality of the sexes, the
right to contraception and sex education, reform of sex legislation
(decriminalization of 'victimless' sex crimes).
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1929 |
The ethnologist Bronislaw Malinowski publishes his work "The
Sexual Life of Savages in North-West Melanesia". The less repressive sexuality described
here - and in later books by Margaret Mead
and others - offers an interesting and influential contrast to "Western" attitudes.
Katherine B. Davies publishes her massive study "Factors in the Sex Lives of
Twenty-Two Hundred Women". The book documents, in the majority
of cases, satisfying regular sexual intercourse, masturbation before and after
marriage as well as the use of contraceptives.
The Spanish physician and endocrinologist
Gregorio Marañon
publishes his
"Los estados intersexuales". Amended and expanded, it becomes the basis
for his most important work "La evolucion de la sexualidad humana y los
estados intersexuales" 1930 (The Evolution of Human Sexuality and the
Intersexual Stages).
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In Bangkok, the French judge René Guyon,
who, earlier in the century, had
been called to Thailand by the Thai government, begins his radical "Studies in
Sexual Ethics". He demands the right to sexual fulfillment for all women and
men as long as they do not violate the rights of others. Of the 9 volumes
written until 1944, only 6 are published in French (2 also in English). In the
1940's, Guyon also attacks the repressive sexual policies of the League of
Nations, and he repeats his criticism in 1951, when he accuses the United
Nations of betraying the idea of sexual rights in their Universal Declaration
of Human Rights. |
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The Japanese sexological pioneer Senji Yamamoto is assassinated by a right-wing extremist.
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The English philosopher Bertrand Russell publishes his book "Marriage and
Morals", which argues for more and better sex education, the right to
premarital and extramarital intercourse and divorce on demand for childless
couples. With his wife, Dora Russell, he also runs a coeducational school in
which the young students are given considerable freedom. All of this is later
used against him in the USA where he is denied a professorship on the
grounds that it would amount to establishing a "chair of indecency". |
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1930
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The English physician Helena Wright publishes her book "The Sex Factor
in Marriage". Active in the movement for family planning, she remains a
leading figure in British sexual medicine until long after World War II. |
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1930
-32
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Magnus Hirschfeld, whose public appearances are subject to increasing Nazi
harassment, is no longer safe in Germany. He therefore begins a
trip around the world,
introducing his new science in hundreds of lectures (USA, Japan,
China, Indonesia, India, Egypt, Palestine, Greece). He does not return to
Germany. |
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1931
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The gynecologist Robert Latou Dickinson, in collaboration with Laura Beam,
publishes his study "A Thousand Marriages". This study, based on questionnaires, analyzes
the sex lives of one thousand married women, finding that half of them do not find sexual satisfaction
in their marriages. Dickinson, an ardent supporter of contraception, also uses his considerable influence
in helping other sexologists. |
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1933
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On May 6, a Nazi goon squad plunders Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexology,
which is then promptly closed by the authorities. The library is publicly
burned four days later together with the books of other "Un-German" authors
like Freud, Brecht, Feuchtwanger, Werfel and Stefan Zweig. Most sexologists
lose their opportunities to work, because they are Jewish. They flee into exile.
Hirschfeld dies 1935 in France, Max Marcuse, Ernst Klimowsky, and
Felix Theilhaber escape to Palestine, Bernhard Schapiro via Switzerland to
the USA and finally to Israel, Sigmund Freud and Charlotte Wolff
to England, Max Hodann to Sweden, Wilhelm Reich first to Scandinavia, then to the USA, Ludwig
Levy-Lenz to Egypt, Hans Lehfeldt and Ernst Gräfenberg to the USA, Arthur
Kronfeld to the USSR, Eugen Steinach and
Herbert Lewandowski to
Switzerland. Friedrich Salomon Krauss dies in Vienna in 1938 before the
"Anschluss".
Albert Moll remains in Berlin.
He is spared the transportation to one of the death
camps, because he dies of natural causes in 1939.
In New York, the American science fiction writer and publisher Hugo Gernsback
(an immigrant from Luxemburg) founds the popular magazine "Sexology"
which tries to educate its readers about the complexities of human
sexuality (reproduction, hormones, transvestism, fetishism,
homosexuality, STDs, etc.). The magazine is widely dismissed as
pornographic by the American intellectual establishment. |
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1936
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Wilhelm Reich publishes his expanded work "Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf"
(first version 1930; later rewritten in the USA as "The Sexual Revolution").
Reich combines psychoanalysis and the philosophy of Marx.
However,
gradually biological interests move to forefront. Typical for this
later phase of
his work is the book "The Function of the Orgasm" 1942, in which he
claims
the discovery of an "orgone energy". Indeed, he founds a special orgone
energy research institute. Reich also again proposes a 4- stage
model of the human sexual response: 1. mechanical tension, 2.
bio-electric
charge, 3. bio-electric discharge, 4. mechanical relaxation. |
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