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

This is an extremely interesting book about Masters & Johnson, but if you are expecting it to be a verbatim copy of the Showtime series, think again. It certainly follows the general narrative of their personal relationship (to the extent that the series has delved into it at this point), but it more explicitly traces their study of sex and the changes made as their research evolved including the opinions and responses from women that had been usually ignored before their studies began. In effect, not only did the team look into sexual response which was a sensitive issue but they also put a feminist slant on their studies which differentiated them from the work of Kinsey which was centered on male sexual habits.Stodgy and restrained Masters seemingly was the complete opposite of the free wheeling Virginia Johnson. Despite the lack of a college degree, Virginia had an innate intelligence and a practical nature that complemented Masters dry personality and his inability to communicate with their subjects effectively. While they were married for a portion of their time together, this book reveals a long term sexual relationship that was strange given the couple's personalities and interests.The nature of their "work" made many people wonder about the exact nature of their personal relationship, but eventually it became far too obvious and even blatant despite their personalities. Even when they eventually married, the coupling seemed odd save for their mutual work interest which seemingly was all consuming. However, their personal lives in a literal sense took second stage to their research. Given the secretive element that was essential at the time the study began, Masters & Johnson were ahead of their time and predated the sexual revolution of the '70's. It made me wonder if their work was an impetus for the more open sexuality that was to come because they did get people talking about sex. Additionally, the book covers their work with homosexuality which they referred to as aversion therapy. Skewed stats and vague success rates resulted in diminishing their reputations.Their work gave rise to heterosexual sex therapy and stood in contrast to Masters original work with infertility which was revolutionary as well. Unfortunately, their relationship came to a very sad and contentious end. Virginia was the one who seemingly lost more in terms of their work and its copyrights that much of their cumulative work entailed.As much as I really liked this book there were too many elements that were left hanging including Johnson's relationship with her children and other members of her family. Based on what little was said about multiple babysitters and Virginia's parents stepping up and relocating to St. Louis to help raise her kids, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of issues these children might have had. I also noticed a slight tendency where some information was placed out of chronological order and seemed confusing out of context.Overall this was an excellent book that doesn't disappoint because it was heavily researched and paints a fairly complete picture of the pair.

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 on 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 TragedyFootnotes: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 that produced the piercing characteristic. According to the author, he had it surgically altered - but never was able to achieve an empathic expression.2) Maier addressed the famous article in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. After I read this article, I immediately wrote Clive Davis the editor of THE JOURNAL OF SEX RESEARCH and insisted that he ask Masters and Johnson to write a rebuttal. In the next issue of JSR, Kolodny provided the scientific rebuttal. For the past 30 years, I have been using this material as an example of external validity.

Bought it used and it was in excellent condition. Nothing was creased, including the spine. No first, tears, highlights, etc in the pages. I'm glad I bought it.I'm reading it so far and its such a superb book. I love how the author incorporates a lot of the historical stuff about medicine and society and how these things contributed to Masters and Johnson and the people surrounding them.I loved the series, but not even 100 pages in, and I'm more in love with the book.

I was first introduced to the work of Masters and Johnson whilst studying for my degree a long time ago. I watched the mini-series and wanted to know more about the real life Masters and Johnson. This book provides a good insight into their lives, and details the complex relationship between the two main characters and also how they had to deal with societies' standards. They did massively contribute to the "sexual revolution" in the 60s and 70s.

Due to a glitch on my kindle I clicked on 'more information' but the option of 'Buy' was carried out instead, and I was delivered the book. I normally send for a sample first. However, upon deciding to just keep the book I enjoyed an interesting and excellent read. If you are watching the TV series, wait until it has finished before you the read the book as you will already know the ending.

A competent biography by a journalist who was hamstrung by the lack of autobiographical information from the long dead Dr Masters and the privacy of Virginia Johnson. They were a remarkable couple, that's for sure, who did really groundbreaking work. Despite the cover photo taken from the TV series, there's a lot in the series that's not in the book, making me wonder where it came from....

Having watched the TV series I was eager to read all about the true story of this amazing couple who changed the sex lives of American couples forever. It is more factual than the films but still very interesting.