Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love

by Thomas Maier

Book Overview

Now a New Showtime Original Series

Showtime's dramatic series Masters of Sex, starring Michael Sheen and Lizzy Caplan, is based on this real-life story of sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Before Sex and the City and ViagraTM, America relied on Masters and Johnson to teach us everything we needed to know about what goes on in the bedroom. Convincing hundreds of men and women to shed their clothes and copulate,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465079997
• ISBN13: 9780465079995
• Release Date: July 2013
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

It's about sex, not love

Clearly, as Thomas Maier shows, that was the case in the marriage of William Masters and Virginia Johnson. It's not just that a quasi-forcible sexual relationship devolved into a quasi-loveless marriage. It's that Gini Johnson, for all her sexuality, never thought of looking outside the marriage, apparently. It's that Bill Masters apparently, until his end-of-life marriage to a college flame, couldn't be with a woman unless he could dominate her. In a sense, they both, despite their groundbreaking research on sexuality, come off as old-fashioned, not on morals, but on personal psychology. With Masters, I think that "informed" some of his unscientific work on homosexuality. With Johnson, I think it was behind her refusal to get involved with feminism. Anyway, if you don't want to accept just my judgment for this, Maier presents a full dual biography of both sex researchers, back to their childhoods, and what from that may have made them tick the way they did as adults. I do have a bone to pick, though, with either him or his publisher, per the title of my review and the subtitle of the book. Masters and Johnson, while encouraging Americans to be more comfortable about their sexuality, only taught Americans indirectly how to love. They may have taught them how to "make love," but that's different. And, you can see that in Maier's book, too.

A Shakespearean Tragedy

While a graduate student at Ohio State, I was pursuing the path of becoming a sex therapist. As part of that, I attended a workshop sponsored by Masters and Johnson in Chicago. Prior to the workshop in Chicago, I met them at Ohio State. I was profoundly impressed with their insight and therapeutic skills. Within the literature, there have been so many false conjectures regarding their work; it is difficult to sort out reality from false rumor. Because of a series of letters I have in my files, I have concluded that the major events described in this biography are accurate. The biography is packed with two profound paradoxes that should have a major impact the development, testing and construction of social science theory - but probably won't - we tend to make the same mistakes in our history rather than learning from our errors. First, in my academic background I found theory construction be to paradoxical. In theory construction, we learned that devotion to a theory produces a blinder that can prohibit the researcher from identifying more meaningful explanations. In quantitative research, we are taught to begin with a hypothesis that emerges from a theory to avoid "type I errors." Masters was trained in traditional quantitative science and his world view was contaminated by theory (particularly Freudian theory). Because of her lack of formal education, Johnson (probably with greater innate intelligence than Masters) had NO academic world view. Her vision of sexology has no theoretical limitations. She was able to envision sexuality in a manner that was theoretically unparalleled. She, with the assistance of Masters's knowledge of science, was able to institute a major paradigm shift in sexology. Johnson's lack of academic training enabled her to guide Masters to employ his academic creditability to reshape our thinking. It is ironic that the chauvinism from the 1940's (which denied Johnson educational opportunities) was the catalyst for our current world view of sexuality. Second, the relationship that created the emotional/intellectual bond between Masters and Johnson built AND destroyed our sexuality knowledge base. Both Masters and Johnson were victims of unrequited love. As a consequence, their bond was a marriage of convenience. At age 76, Masters divorced Johnson to marry his childhood sweetheart, while Johnson's desires were smashed by the death of her young love. Masters emotional betrayal of Johnson became the catalyst for the major intellectual tragedy of the 20th century - Johnson destroyed decades of unpublished cutting edge research. The sexology community was devastated. The entire book is reminiscent of the Shakespearean Tragedy Footnotes: 1) I never liked talking to Masters. Although he had a kind and gentle voice, his eyes were sterile and piercing. I never understood how he could be a GREAT therapist. Here again Johnson saved him. Unknown to most people, he had an eye disorder

Great book

This book arrived quickly and was just as described. It was a very thorough biography of famed sex-researchers Masters and Johnson. It didn't sugarcoat the bad parts, like the failure of two of their books or the sex surrogates they employed and it didn't dwell on them either. The author did a great job at reporting the facts and not editorializing, which is difficult, given the controversial subject matter. It was an accurately told story. They really did feel like real people, with a real story. I guess this review is more a review of this book, than it is of Masters and Johnson. I'd recommend this book. I ordered the audiobook version and the narrator's voice was very pleasant. Sometimes the book is great, but the narrator on the audiobook isn't. This wasn't the case. She did an excellent job and I'd highly recommend this book or audiobook to anyone who's interested in learning more about Masters and Johnson, sex research or sex therapy.

Who are William Masters and Virginia Johnson?

The work of William Masters and Virginia Johnson examined and explained many of the physiological mysteries of sex in the 20th century. Masters and Johnson were in many ways, an unlikely pair to document the human sexual response: the reserved doctor and the vivacious research assistant didn't, on the face of it, have much in common. By using a blend of scientific method and intuition, Masters and Johnson were able to explore the challenging, and often taboo areas of human sexuality. Fifty years later, their work still occupies centre stage. But who were Bill Masters and Virginia Johnson? Who were the people behind the headlines? What equipped them to explore this territory, and why did they want to do so? How did they tackle the problems posed by sexual dysfunction, and what was the success of their treatments? In this book, Mr Maier sheds light on both the public team of Masters and Johnson and their personal lives. Mr Maier's book is a sensitively written exploration of their lives, times and work. Each brought different life experiences, skills and strengths to their work. Masters may have had the formal qualifications and professional contacts and standing, but Johnson's intuition and people skills made the research possible. In some ways and at a personal level, the lives of Masters and Johnson seemed incomplete. Their partnerships both with each other and with others did not endure. I read this book to try to understand the individuals behind the work. In the process, I learned more about their work than I had previously known, and have an appreciation of the barriers they faced at the time. Mr Maier sheds light on the life and work of Virginia Johnson and Bill Masters while also acknowledging that their partnership was not perfect. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This history of their works shows how they began their sexuality studies in a small Midwest laborato

Masters and Johnson's experiments wrote the book on human sexuality, serving as foundation for many. This history of their works shows how they began their sexuality studies in a small Midwest laboratory, working with prostitutes and volunteers who performed more than 10,000 sexual acts for science. The nature of their experiments, their marital conflicts that evolved as their studies received acclaim, and actual interviews with two notoriously private researchers makes for an outstanding presentation highly recommended for any health or general lending library.