The Science of Sexology

Sexology, as a science, incorporates into its research and treatment of sexual concerns and dysfunctions the findings of psychology, sociology, philosophy, biology, zoology, anthropology, history, physiology, religion and medicine. Clinical sexology is not the same as "sex therapy", which bases its approach on the psychological model of talk therapy.

Masters and Johnson, in their treatment of sexually dysfunctional couples, decided to by-pass conventional psychotherapy in favour of techniques sharply focused on the here and now. Their patients, they discovered, lacked basic knowledge of their own bodies and of what pleased them sexually.

Through a successful technique they developed called sensate focus, patients were taught massage, self-masturbation, penile squeeze, and a variety of other exercises designed to treat a variety of sexual dysfunctions including inability to achieve orgasm, premature ejaculation, lack of sexual desire, fear of intimacy and/or touch, painful intercourse and guilt about sexuality.

The course of treatment lasted two weeks. The success rate, after a five-year follow-up with the patients, was startling. Out of 790 patients treated, there was a total relapse rate of just 18%. That means that a patient had an 82% chance of success at the conclusion of treatment.

Masters' and Johnson's approach abandoned the psychological model of talk therapy for addressing sexual inadequacy. Instead, they used the sexological approach to treatment, as this was more direct, with faster and more successful outcomes.