The Science of Orgasm

by Beverly Whipple, Carlos Beyer-Flores, Barry R. Komisaruk

Book Overview

Winner, 2007 Bonnie and Vern L. Bullough Book Award, Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality

This fascinating and comprehensive book is the first to explore the complex biological process leading to orgasm. Here, sexuality researcher and nurse Beverly Whipple, coauthor of the international best-selling book The G Spot and Other Discoveries about Human Sexuality, joins neuroscientist Barry R. Komisaruk and endocrinologist Carlos...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080188490X
• ISBN13: 9780801884900
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 376 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Love this book!

For all of you sex science nerds out there, you will love this book. Warning: it is VERY SCIENCE-Y. It is not for the lay reader. But if you like the science stuff of blood vessels, nerves and neurotransmitters, this book is for you - I work as a sex educator and I learned an awful lot from reading this book. I also knew a lot going into it and found that their writing reflecting the knowledge I already had (in other words, it fit in as accurate, so I trust it). My colleagues respect this book too. Great book.

Real science

A well-researched book based on data that comes from peer-reviewed journals. (I have a psychologist friend who wants to borrow the book when I've finished reading it.) This is not a "Cosmo" guide to sexual satisfaction. It does talk about what nerves enervate what muscles and organs, for those women who have partial success at stimulation of some body parts and no success at others. I am using this in conjunction with my physical therapist to help relax muscles and nerves tightened by emotional stress to that I can become more responsive. So far it's working! If you are having sexual responsiveness issues, this book might be part of a discussion with your physician and a physical therapist who is well educated (D.Sci) and familiar and experienced in working with with women's health issues. There is stuff for guys, but I didn't pay much attention to that.

Fascinating read on a universally relevant, though often unaddressed, topic.

This book is a well written review of the existing scientific literature concerning the orgasm. It provides a thorough and respectable - yet readable - introduction to the neurobiological and neuropsychological underpinnings of the orgasm. The book also discusses a variety of disorders which inhibit or enhance the orgasmic experience. While it won't furnish the reader with miracle recipes for solving orgasmic disorders or achieving a tantric multiple orgasm, this book will provide helpful insights into the mystery of sexual pleasure. For those enduring sexual dysfunction as a result of antidepressant therapy, this book will explain how and why depression and its treatment can impair sexual function. This book will also satisfy the simply curious mind with sections on sexual function and paralysis, gender reassignment, drug abuse, aging, males vs. females, and much more.

The Science of Sex Hasn't Yet... Peaked

So many people and organizations over-emphasize sex for their own agendas, while for others sex is a source of unhappiness and guilt. But the fact is that for most people a balanced sex life is an essential part of healthy living. Yet despite the deluge of information about sex, it is amazing how much ignorance still exists. Most people working in psychology will have seen people who were convinced that they had an illness because he or she had failed to have an orgasm or had sometimes been less interested in sex. This is the kind of book that will probably get thumbed through a lot at the local lending library, but it is not in any way a "how to" book. It is instead a scholarly work on what is known about orgasm. It is a book of facts and figures, a few diagrams and a lot of scientific references. I have some minor gripes: the proofing could have been better: bromocriptine is one of a number of words that is misspelled. There is only a short discussion about why female orgasm exists at all. The male orgasm seems to have a straightforward evolutionary function, making males want to have sex more often, which in turn makes them more likely to have offspring. But how to account for female orgasm, when nearly three-quarters of women don't always reach orgasm during sexual intercourse? If the female orgasm had developed because of the same evolutionary pressures, females should have adapted to be as consistently orgasmic as males. (There is an excellent discussion of this issue in the recent book by Elisabeth Lloyd from Indiana University, which is referenced in this book). At some points in this book there is not enough of a distinction made between orgasm and arousal. For instance some women report that arousal rather than orgasm is what drives them to enjoy sex. There is also an over-emphasis on biochemical theories of orgasm, and an under-emphasis on the psychological, subtle and spiritual aspects. Even the topic of consciousness and orgasm gets only a brief chapter. If you are interested in a more comprehensive view of orgasm, you may want to supplement this book with the works of David Deida, Jenny Wade, Mabel Iam and Mantak Chia. But all that being said, this is the best single book on the physiology, biochemistry and pathology of orgasm. It also highlights that there is still a great deal that is known. The book also gives quite a good summary of some of the approaches that may help people who feel that they have a problem with achieving orgasm. It is essential reading for anyone working with relationship problems. And if the only thing that comes from this book is a greater understanding that orgasm is not the only consideration in intimate relationships, that would be worthwhile in itself. This book is almost unique, and apart from the points that I have raised, I recommend it to anyone who needs a reliable account of the physical aspects of orgasm, and suggestions for helping with problems.

Fernando Camacho MD.

A must have for everyone who is interested in sexuality and its scisnce.