A history of sexology: Social and historical aspects of sexuality

From Sappho to De Sade: Moments in the History of …, 1989

Clio

Centaurus, Vol. 65, No. 1, p. 197-200, 2023

Several dimensions of sexology, in particular its versatility and diverse professional, sociopolitical and (inter)national contexts, come to the fore in the edited volume Histories of Sexology. This collection, which consists of eighteen chapters by authors from varied disciplinary and national backgrounds and an introduction by one of the editors, the French sexologist Alain Giami, presents the fruits of an international symposium held in Paris in 2017. Whereas earlier work on the history of sexology has focused on German speaking Central Europe, France and the Anglo-Saxon world, this collection also includes contributions about Eastern Europe, Spain and Latin America.

Sexuality and Culture, 2011

Le colloque se propose d’examiner l’histoire des conceptions de la sexualité qui ont été mobilisées – explicitement ou implicitement – dans les différentes constructions sexologiques depuis le dix-neuvième siècle jusqu’aux temps présents. Le champ des connaissances, des théories et des pratiques – le dispositif – qui sont désignées sous le terme de « sexologie » renvoie à des conceptions spécifiques de la sexualité. La sexologie constitue une forme de réponse sociale – et surtout médicale, psychologique, psychiatrique et parfois légale – aux questions posées par les humains à propos de « leur sexualité ». Et à leur tour, les savoirs élaborés par la sexologie influencent la formulation des questions que se posent les personnes sur « leur sexualité ». Une histoire des orientations de la sexologie, dans ses grands traits, est marquée par le passage d’une « proto-sexologie » plus volontiers centrée sur les perversions et les déviances, à une consolidation du champ autour de l’observation, la mesure et le traitement de la « fonction de l’orgasme » et de ses difficultés d’accomplissement. Le décloisonnement de la sexologie du domaine de la pathologie s’observe également dans l’intérêt pour l’observation et la mesure des comportements sexuels en population (Béjin, 1982). Le champ de la sexologie se transforme actuellement avec l’émergence de la « médecine sexuelle », la « santé sexuelle » et les « droits sexuels », évolutions qui doivent être prises en compte car elles contribuent à la reformulation des théories de la sexualité. This two-day conference proposes to examine the history of conceptions of sexuality and of gender relations that have, explicitly or implicitly, been used in sexological “constructions” since the mid-19th century. The knowledge, theories and practices to which “sexology” refers imply specific conceptions of sexuality. Sexology is a social (and, above all, medical, psychological, psychiatric or even legal) response to the questions people ask about “their sexuality”. Its history has shifted from a “proto-sexology”, centered around perversions and deviancies, to a second phase with a focus on the “function of orgasm” and on sexual behaviors (Béjin 1982). Sexology is evolving with the emergence of “sexual medicine”, “sexual health” and “sexual rights”, trends that weigh on the reformulation of theories of sexuality. Papers will present material from medical, scientific or educational sources or from institutions involved in the medicalization of sexuality. The accepted papers will be grouped by subject, geographical area, historical period or historiographical approach as a function of the two-day program, and each group will be assigned a discussant who will Chair the session and open discussion of the papers presented. Abstracts and papers can be submitted and presented in English or French. There will not be official simultaneous translation during the conference. Participants are expected to understand both languages. Plans are in the works for editing the papers presented at the conference for a book to be published by a French publishing house specialized in multidisciplinary books.

2017

Sexual cultures in Europe: National histories, 1999

In his influential History of Sexuality (1976) Michel Foucault argues that the modern idea of sexuality was historically constituted in the nineteenth century when medical science delimited perversion. Whereas earlier historians saw the 'medicalization' of sexuality as a change only of attitudes and labels - for them, unchanging deviant sexual behaviors and feelings were no longer regarded as unnatural, sinful or criminal but simply became diseases, relabeled by physicians - Foucault and other social constructivist historians have challenged this interpretation. Not only are they critical of the view that the medical model was a scientific and humanitarian step forward, but also, they argue that the conception of nonprocreative sexuality as a sign of sickness was not merely a substitution for earlier denouncements of such activities as immoral. They emphasize that nineteenth-century physicians, by describing and categorizing nonprocreative sexualities, were very influential in effecting a fundamental transformation of the social and psychological reality of sexual deviance from a form of immoral behavior to a pathological way of being. By differentiating between the normal and the abnormal and by stigmatizing deviance as illness, thus the argument runs, physicians, as exponents of a 'biopower', were not only constructing the modern idea of sexuality but also controlling the pleasures of the body. Following Foucault, scholars have also argued that sexuality is a cultural and historical construct and thus makes no sense except as inscribed in language, discourses, meanings and 'representations'. Not only the attitude of people towards sexual behavior, but also the meaning and concept of sexuality itself are subject to cultural variation and historical change. Socially created out of disciplining powers and discourses of knowledge, sexuality was a nineteenth-century invention. Before medical theories emerged that lumped together behavior, physical characteristics, and the emotional make-up of individuals, there was no entity, according to Foucault, which could be delineated as sexuality. I would be the last to reject this account totally, but my basic assumption is that the picture which has been drawn of the medicalization of sexuality is rather one-sided. The disciplining effects of medical interference with sexuality have been overemphasized. Medical theories have played an important role in the making of sexual categories and identities. However, this does not necessarily mean that these were only scientific inventions, shaped systematically by the logic of medicine and imposed from above by the power of organized medical opinion. In order to explain how sexuality was shaped by nineteenth century medical science, which is the subject of this article, the wider social context has to be taken into account. Arguing that new ways of understanding sexuality emerged not only from medical thinking in itself, I will focus on the connections between the contents of medical theories and their institutional and social settings. This article relies on my current research of the work of the German-Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing as well as on work of other scholars.

This two-day conference proposes to examine the history of conceptions of sexuality and of gender relations that have, explicitly or implicitly, been used in sexological “constructions” since the mid-19th century. The knowledge, theories and practices to which “sexology” refers imply specific conceptions of sexuality. Sexology is a social (and, above all, medical, psychological, psychiatric or even legal) response to the questions people ask about “their sexuality”. Its history has shifted from a “proto-sexology”, centered around perversions and deviancies, to a second phase with a focus on the “function of orgasm” and on sexual behaviors (Béjin 1982). Sexology is evolving with the emergence of “sexual medicine”, “sexual health” and “sexual rights”, trends that weigh on the reformulation of theories of sexuality. Papers will present material from medical, scientific or educational sources or from institutions involved in the medicalization of sexuality. The accepted papers will be grouped by subject, geographical area, historical period or historiographical approach as a function of the two-day program, and each group will be assigned a discussant who will Chair the session and open discussion of the papers presented. Abstracts and papers can be submitted and presented in English or French. There will not be official simultaneous translation during the conference. Participants are expected to understand both languages. Plans are in the works for editing the papers presented at the conference for a book to be published by a French publishing house specialized in multidisciplinary books.

Feminizing the Fetish

The perpetually unstable nature of the fe tish in theoretical discourse has been mirrored by a continuing debate on the place of fetishism within the larger realm of perversion. In an article 1. Maurice Heine, "Notes sur un classement psycho-biologique des paresthesies sexuelles," Minotaure, no. 3-4 (Dec. 1933) : 36.

NWSA Journal, 2000