WILLIAM MASTERS AND VIRGINIA JOHNSON

Sexuality

We’re at a pivotal moment in the history of sexuality. For a decade or so, two American researchers, William Masters and Virginia Johnson, have been investigating the nature of human desire and are now offering a therapeutic service to couples in difficulties in their Missouri offices.

Up to this point, there was almost nowhere to turn. Sexuality wasn’t supposed to be discussed: it was hemmed in by taboos, myths and restricted notions about what might count as normal. But Masters and Johnson insisted that simply by having frank, non-judgemental and factually well-informed conversations informed by psychotherapy, a great deal of progress could be made. And they were right.

We might guess at what could have brought this respectably dressed couple into therapy. Maybe he’s been having trouble maintaining an erection; perhaps she’s been masturbating on her own; there are things they’d like to try but can’t bring themselves to suggest to each other. The broader culture only alludes to such matters via demeaning myths and cruel interpretations: he can’t be a real man, she’s perverse and selfish; they can’t love one another. There have been so many miserable nights, angry silences, wounded outbursts – and each has been carrying a corrosive, guilty sense that there is something terribly wrong with them.

Now at last, the problems can be articulated to people who can help. Masters and Johnson can put things in perspective: what seems bizarre or disturbing to the isolated couple is revealed as very normal. They’re not shocked or surprised by anything the couple might say: they’ve witnessed the same issues so many times already. They’re gently understanding – even, at times, enthusiastic: human sexuality is fascinating, something to be curious about rather than ashamed of. There are exercises and structured conversations that can help.

What Masters and Johnson were offering may still be a novelty for us: we may still be living through our own, private version of unenlightened times when myth and fear predominate over understanding and skill. Yet the expertise and help we need exists – only an appointment and a burst of courage away.

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