ABSTRACT
For more than a century there have been attempts to define sexuality, and each of the disciplines has formulated theories about the way in which sexuality develops and the interplay between the individual and society in this development. The suppression of female sexuality and the definition of women as passionless were ably supported by members of the medical and scientific professions. As the power of the church waned during the nineteenth century, its homilies on the nature of morality were replaced with the theories of 'science'. Both Robinson and Jackson see Havelock Ellis as a central figure in the emergence of sexology as a science. In his work on human sexuality, Gagnon charts the influence of the German Sexual Reform Movement and the Austrian Psychoanalytic Movement. Freud's theories were taken to America shortly after their development early in the twentieth century, and had considerable impact and lasting influence.
