ABSTRACT
C opies of Human Sexual Inadequacy, a 467-page sober-looking tome in dark green, unillustrated dustjackets, by sex researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson, went on sale April 27, 1970. The event was marked by stories on the front page of dozens of newspapers, including the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. The authors were lauded by journalists, fellow scientists, doctors, educators, religious leaders, and other professionals. Three hundred thousand copies were bought within two months. 1 In dense, difficult prose, Human Sexual Inadequacy examined a range of distressing sexual problems, from impotence to inorgasmia. More important, the book offered simple solutions for long-term ills. In fact, Masters and Johnson claimed that by using their techniques developed in the laboratory they could cure 60 percent of all chronic impotence cases and 74 percent of all cases involving occasional impotence. Even more striking, they reported 98 percent success in treating men who suffered from premature ejaculation. As for female “frigidity,” the sex therapists reported 83 percent treatment success in cases of chronic inorgasmia and 77 percent success in cases of “situational orgasmic dysfunction.” 2 Four years earlier, their groundbreaking Human Sexual Response had disproved Freud’s theory of the vaginal orgasm and been an international bestseller.
