Tag Archives: sex

Sexology Before Havelock Ellis

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Havelock EllisHavelock Ellis is often regarded as the virtual founder of the scholarly study of sex. The problem with “giants” of this sort, however, is that the tend to block out whatever is standing behind them. The matter of what stood behind Ellis is addressed in an article by Ivan Crozier (U. Edinburgh) titled, “Nineteenth-Century British Psychiatric Writing about Homosexuality before Havelock Ellis: The Missing Story,” published in the latest issue of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (2008, 63(1), 65-102). According to the abstract: Continue reading →

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Tracing the History of Syphilis

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15syph1901.jpgIs Columbus responsible for bringing Syphilis to Europe?

According to an article that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times (“Genetic Study Bolsters Genetic Link to Syphilis“), a researcher team at Emory University believes they have found “the strongest evidence yet linking the first European explorers of the New World to the origin of sexually transmitted syphilis.”

The study was published in the online journal: Neglected Tropical Diseases (published by the Public Library of Science) this past Monday. In a summary of their methodology and principal findings, the authors write that:

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The “Other Woman” of British Psychology

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Elizabeth ValentineThe most recent issue of the The Psychologist, the flagship journal of the British Psychological Society, marked the launch of a new historical column, “Looking Back,” edited by Julie Perks of Staffordshire University.

The first of the new columns, by Elizabeth Valentine of Royal Holloway, University of London, focuses on the life and career of Nellie Carey, a student of Charles Spearman’s at University College London during the 1910s. In a series of articles in the British Journal of Psychology between 1914 and 1916 Carey explored aspects of color perception, mental imagery, school subjects, and intelligence. She abruptly withdrew from UCL in 1920 and disappeared from the membership roles of the BPS in 1925. Valentine’s article explores what became of so promising a student. Continue reading →

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Kinsey Reports did little more than reset expectations

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Time magazine: Aug. 24, 1953 The key message of the Kinsey Reports (1948, 1953) — that there is a wide range of “normal” sexual behaviours — has been lost on contemporary society, according to a BBC documentary aired as part of the new Medical Matters podcast.  Instead, the teenage “average” of 1950 has become the “minimum expectation” of today… for everyone.  The result?  Performance anxiety: no one can measure up.

If there is a stronger populist argument for a having firm grip on our history, I haven’t seen it.

Get the MP3 here.  (Resources and related coverage below.)

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Podcast: Psychiatry and Homosexuality

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This week, All in the Mind rebroadcast a documentary from This American Life on the deletion of homosexuality from the DSM in 1973.  (Read the transcript or get the MP3.)

It’s a fascinating examination of a topic rarely discussed.

Homosexuality was once labeled a mental disease by psychiatry.  But in 1973 the challenge came from within.  The American Psychiatric Association had a change of heart.  And with the tweak of the 81-word definition of sexual deviance in its own diagnostic manual, lives were reclaimed, and values confronted.  Reporter and narrator Alix Spiegel tells the gripping story from the inside, revealing the activities of a closeted group of gay psychiatrists who sowed the seeds of change, amongst them her own grandfather, president-elect of the APA at the time.

AHP has previously presented a bibliography of the histories homosexuality in psychology, but a more precise version (specific to the APA decision in 1973) is appended below.

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