Masters of Sex –
Thomas Maier
The middle 20th century saw great advances in
psychotherapy and sex therapy. Scholars such as Alfred Kinsey and Albert Ellis
built on the pioneering work of Havelock Ellis. This book is a popular
biography about the pioneering sexologists William Masters and Virginia
Johnson.
In the late 1950s, Masters and Johnson were the first to
conduct observational research designed to understand human sexual response and
disorders. Using medical devices – some standard, some of their own creation –
they directly observed and measured the anatomical and physiological sexual
responses of human subjects.
They began their research at the Department of Obstetrics
and Gynecology at Washington University in St. Louis. The university allowed
Masters to divert his fees from patients to fund the research. However, they were
ousted by other doctors who were shocked that such research was going on. They
then founded their own facility, the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation
(later called the Masters and Johnson Institute), where they worked from
1978 to1994. They worked hard to attract
funding in order to perform research and organize training for researchers,
educators, and therapists. One generous funder, for example, was Hugh Hefner,
the publisher of Playboy magazine.
Dr. Masters was aloof and all-business. He relied on the
attractive, personable Johnson to interact with volunteers. She had the knack
for assuring subjects that their dignity would not be hurt. Maier reveals,
however, that their relationship was – what’s the word here? – ignoble? Maier
quotes Johnson and their colleagues that Masters hired Johnson, the divorced
mother of two under the unspoken understanding that she would become his sexual
partner. For the sake of the research, for the pursuit of scientific knowledge,
Masters claimed.
Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?
"Sex for Virginia Johnson would become part of her
job," Maier writes bluntly. Johnson herself tells Maier in an interview,
“No, I was not comfortable with it, particularly. I didn't want him at all, and
had no interest in him.” Johnson had sex with Masters because as a
single-mother: "I had a job and I wanted it."
Sigh. What can one say? Maybe
to take the sting out of this, Masters did go extremely far in the field
considering that she had no degree at all. This is a miracle considering that
the world of research places much value on credentials. Furthermore, Johnson is
in fact given credit for developing the innovative therapy technique,
"dual therapy," that Masters and Johnson used to counsel married
couples dealing with sexual dysfunctions such as premature ejaculation. Maier
says in passing that Johnson was influenced by one of my heroes, Albert Ellis,
but does not go into any detail as to how rational emotive therapy, later
cognitive behavior therapy, was used at the Masters and Johnson
Institute. There’s relatively little about the larger context either – the
pill, feminism, sex as product, calls for more frankness in talking about sex, etc.
This review is getting too long already so I can’t get
into the last quarter of the book which is fascinating in its sadness. Masters
and Johnson were on top of their profession. And then it came apart. The 1979
book on homosexuality argued that conversion therapy could turn gays into
heterosexuals. Maier points out that there is evidence scientific misconduct
may have been afoot in the production of this book. The book was skewered by
experts and sunk with little trace.
Their 20-year marriage came apart too when Masters fell
in love again with a high-school sweetheart. He ended the marriage with Johnson
almost casually after she had, literally, given him everything. Masters died of
complications due to Parkinsons in 2001. Johnson lived in obscurity until her
death in 2013.
I recommend this book to people interested in the sexual
revolution of the 1960s as well as those interested in the ramifications of
sexual relationships in the workplace. Maier’s prose is smooth enough and the
book has few misprints of the “reign in” for “rein in” type. I should also
mention that this is the source biography for the Showtime adaption of Masters of Sex, with Lizzy Caplan and Michael
Sheen.
