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Sex therapy pioneer hits at “quacks”
(5y
CHARLES FOLEY,
of the Observer Foreign News Service)
LOS ANGELES.
Sex therapy has become big business in the United States. Five years ago an American who decided he or she had a sexual problem could go to a doctor or a priest and be given the choice between saying 10 “Hail Marys” and taking a week-end at Miami Beach. It just was not a discussable subject.
Today all that has (changed: there are some 5000 sex “clinics” . and “treatment centres” across the United States offering an astonishing (array of pseudo-scienti-1 fie, pop-psychology remedies, and the ex-1 perts who started the boom are not happy! about it at all. I ‘‘The current field of sexual therapy is dominated by an astounding assortment of I incompetents, cultists, mysItics, well-meaning dabblers ■and outright charlatans,” ' Isays Dr William Masters ■who, with his wife, Virginia Johnson; pioneered the conjeept of the sex therapy clinic in the late 19605. I “The main stimulant to (this sexual quackery' isi (money. Whenever you have! (thousands of people who are i willing to spend money, who I are begging somebody to (take it, somebody will:, (always oblige — at a minimum of $25 an hour,” he says. Masters, an amiable, bal- j ding 58, says he saw the problem coming back in 1969, when he was writing his epic study of “Human Sexual Inadequacy.” Having discovered that 70 per cent of married couples suffered from some form of “sexual ' disfunction”, Masters and Johnson had nightmares ; about the day when “this new form of medicine”
would become a public! spectacle, discussed on television talk shows, bandied, about at cocktail parties,: (encouraging thousands of I prospective patients to rush (out in search of an instant: cure. The situation .today,! (they write in “Health,” ‘a! publication of the American; (Medical Association, is even worse than they expected. Few good ones Not 50 out of those 5000 clinics actually do any good, Masters believes. The rest offer a little superficial sex education at best, and “dangerous quackery” at worst. Five years ago, he says, 48 per cent of the people coming to him were dropouts from previous therapv, I psychoanalysis or wha’t-have-you; in the last two! (years that figure has risen; (to 85 per cent, which means! (that more people are (visiting more therapists and 'finding more of them to be (incompetent, if not downright criminal. Some “therapists” induce “patients” to have sex with I them on the ground that this is an essential part of the treatment. Others persuade couples to allow themselves to be filmed in the sex act — including homosexual behaviour. By permitting this the patient lays himself open to blackmail. The New York AttorneyGeneral’s office reports that the list of self-appointed t he rap ists in New York state
(included not only quacks,; but “criminals and mentally (ill persons.” An investigation turned up cases! (of bad therapy which had! (resulted in severe mental; distrubances and even sui-( Icide. Masters says that his; (staff have seen couples who; (claim that both partners' have been seduced by self- ; styled therapists. What especially irritates Masters and Johnson is that, many of these “street corner, clinics” claim to be employ-, ing either M-J techniques or, M-J trained therapists.
•“Usually, this means ( someone has read one of our textbooks,” complains Mas-; ters. “In fact we follow no! ; ‘formula, preach no dogma.! (We aren’t wedded to such, I fads as nude group-encoun-; (ters. We treat each couple las a unique relationship, and! -the emphasis is on that rela-i Itionship rather than the individual.” Began in 1959 It was in 1959 that Mas-' ters and Johnson began their first sex therapy' pro-; gramme. He was a gynaeco-l logist with a background in’ hormone research when,, with the backing of Wg.sh-j ington University’s medical; school in St Louis, where he; was an associate professor,! he made his first study of! human tsexual malfunction-; ing. When one of his women! subjects told him. in exas-| peration, that as a man he “couldn’t possibly understand”, Masters joined force.? I with psychologist Viginiai Johnson, a divorcee 10 years! younger than himself. Their work, which involved the observation under laboratory conditions of some 10,000 sexual encounter,? by 694 men and women, outraged some and titillated others; but there is no doubt today that their famous the-! rapeutic programme has. heflped thousands of couples to find sexual fulfilment, and sayed countless marriages. The course is hardly cheap; a two-week consultation costs $2500 with the patients paying their own travel expenses to St Louis, hotel bills, etc. But! some 2000 couples a vear., including some from England, Australia and elsewhere, make the trip. At one stage, Masters and Johnson employed women as paid sex partners in the treatment of male impotence; but I four year.? ago they discontinued that practice after being sued by the husband of an alleged “surrogate”. : Unlike many voyeuristic ‘ quacks, Masters does not I ask couples to perform under observation. Eight teams I To date, Masters and Johnson have trained eight (therapy teams in St Louis ; and authorised them to prac- ! tise the “M-J technique” in other parts of America. And there are other legitimate specialist.? in the field who while not “M-J trained” are skilled professionals with reputable backgrounds as physicians, psychologists and/or marriage counsellors. In California, heartland of the sexual revolution, there are numerous sex clinics and therapy teams with professional qualifications. “But there’s a desperate need for more,” says Dr Benjamin Graber, a Los Angeles phy- : sician who runs one such clinic with his wife, Georgia. The Grabers agree with Masters about street-corner sex clinics.
*‘lt’s time to make this the province of p.ofe&sionals instead of leaving it to people who exploit and cheapen sex! for gain,” they say.
How that is to be achieved is another question. Masters points out that legal action is practically impossible. No state has laws defining what a sex therapist should, or should not be; none requires that the self-styled therapist be licensed, or conform to any minimum standards of education, experience or professional ethics. Masters and Johnson want the media to publicise the question, and the public to demand to know the qualifications of those who are offering sex therapy. They urge prospective clients to checkout their “expert” wit sonal doctor, local medical society, local social worker and clergyman. They would also like to see the American Medical Association call a national .seminar of doc-! tors and other professionals to set clinical standards and work out some kind of; licensing law. “Otherwise,” 1 they say, “the whole concept may be discredited.”: O.F.N.S. Copyright.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33713, 10 December 1974, Page 12
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1,100Sex therapy pioneer hits at “quacks” Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33713, 10 December 1974, Page 12
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Sex therapy pioneer hits at “quacks” Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33713, 10 December 1974, Page 12
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.