Masters and Johnson

The Masters and Johnson research team, composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1990s.[1][2]

The work of Masters and Johnson began in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis and was continued at the independent not-for-profit research institution they founded in St. Louis in 1964, originally called the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation and renamed the Masters and Johnson Institute in 1978.

In the initial phase of Masters and Johnson's studies, from 1957 until 1965, they recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response based on direct observation of 382 women and 312 men in what they conservatively estimated to be "10,000 complete cycles of sexual response". Their findings, particularly on the nature of female sexual arousal (for example, describing the mechanisms of vaginal lubrication and debunking the earlier widely held notion that vaginal lubrication originated from the cervix) and orgasm (showing that the physiology of orgasmic response was identical whether stimulation was clitoral or vaginal, and, separately, proving that some women were capable of being multiorgasmic), dispelled many long-standing misconceptions.[2][3]

They jointly wrote two classic texts in the field, Human Sexual Response and Human Sexual Inadequacy, published in 1966 and 1970 respectively. Both of these books were best-sellers and were translated into more than thirty languages. The team has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[4] Additionally, they are the focus of a television series called Masters of Sex[5] for Showtime based on the 2009 biography by author Thomas Maier.[5]

  1. ^ "Masters and Johnson". The Discovery Channel. Archived from the original on 18 May 2006. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
  2. ^ a b Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers (FFWHC) (1991). A New View of a Woman's Body. Feminist Heath Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-9629945-0-0.
  3. ^ John Archer, Barbara Lloyd (2002). Sex and Gender. Cambridge University Press. pp. 85–88. ISBN 978-0521635332. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
  4. ^ St. Louis Walk of Fame. "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees". stlouiswalkoffame.org. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  5. ^ a b Maier, Thomas (2009). Masters of sex : the life and times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the couple who taught America how to love. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 9780465003075.