An Insider's View of Sexual Science since Kinsey

by Ira L. Reiss

In a personal, nontechnical, and informal style, eminent researcher Ira L. Reiss discusses the many situations he has encountered during the past fifty years while researching sexuality and developing useful and innovative explanations of its different aspects. Most of the problems that were present during those years are still confronting those who work on human sexuality. Reiss discusses his experiences in sexual science in areas such as premarital sex, the sexual revolution, Masters and Johnson's therapy, feminism and sexuality, crises in sexual organizations, responses to HIV/AIDS, child and adolescent sexuality, radical social constructionism, biology versus sexual science, international trends, and the movement toward a Ph.D. in sexual science. The insights and solutions Reiss proposes are of great importance to all those who are interested in the sexual issues that affect people today.

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Dominika · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this does go over some concepts in sexual science, it's mostly about Mr. Reiss' experiences over time with things like committees, teaching family relationships in universities, observing Masters and Johnson's therapy practice (which is problematic as hell), etc. It's neat to me as a person who is involved in research, but not the most practical for the layman.

[Annalisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Reiss has been in the field of sexual science since the 1950s, but this book is more of an ego stroking than a real "insider's view." He takes an entire chapter, for example, to talk about the infighting of one sexologist organization (that he, of course, bravely faced down to fix the failing organization). There's no attempt to present the history in an unbiased way; the best I can say for this book is that he at least doesn't pretend to be offering anything other than his personal views.

[Lynn Vannucci]

"In Sweden, it was much more obvious that young people were not all on a clear path to marriage, so their sexual behavior was not necessarily 'premarital.'" How does society shape our sexual potency? Absorbing reading by a sex research pioneer.

[Lynn Vannucci]

"In Sweden, it was much more obvious that young people were not all on a clear path to marriage, so their sexual behavior was not necessarily 'premarital.'" How does society shape our sexual potency? Absorbing reading by a sex research pioneer.