I’ve tuned into “Masters of Sex” the past few weeks to see how the film captured the larger-than-life personality of Virginia Johnson and the chilly persona of Dr. William Masters. The organizational red tape Masters had to go through to get hospital approval of his research about sex and being reduced to conducting his research in a brothel fascinates me. How amazing that research into a basic human activity that nearly every adult engages could be reduced to taking such peculiar steps.
Are things much better today? Slightly. It is very difficult for academic researchers to get funding for studies related to sexual activity. Whatever research is conducted is usually with college students, and so does not reflect the general adult population. Pharmaceutical companies fund research, but only as it relates to development and use of its chemical agents.
When I wrote my ground-breaking book, Sex, Love, and Mental Illness: A Couple’s Guide to Staying Connected, I found precious little material on the effects of mental illness on sexuality, and vice versa. Yet in my clinical observation, the effects of depression, anxiety, AD/HD, eating disorders, substance abuse, and other problems on sexuality is a major problem that is often overlooked.
Some day, the US will progress enough that research on the topic of sex will be matter of fact. Meanwhile, doctoral dissertation students struggle to get their topics approved; professors struggle with minimal funding; and only topics such as vibrator use, funded by (you guessed it) manufacturers of vibrators get sufficient funding.
What do you think of “Masters of Sex”? Have you read the book? Aside from the fact that they gave Masters hair (he was bald as a cue ball), how do you think they compare? And what do you make of the fact that research about sex is so minimal?