A
sex-script is whatever "turns
you on".
Sometime before age 20 (perhaps
most importantly
during adolescence)
every human being is imprinted with a set
of sex-scripts,
internalized fantasy-stories that
cause sexual interest,
sexual arousal, & sexual
orgasm.
The origins and dynamics of these
internal scenarios
are only beginning to be
understood.
The following books are the first
struggles
to create a new model for human sexuality.
The sex-script hypothesis will
have to be tested
for several decades
before it becomes a
well-established scientific
theory.
But perhaps these books represent
the beginning
of
a paradigm-shift in human thinking about
sex.
They are arranged according to
quality, beginning
with the best:
1. John
Money
The
Lovemap Guidebook:
A
Definitive
Statement
(New York:
Continuum, 1999)
284 pages
(ISBN:
0-8264-1203-3; hardcover)
(Library
of Congress call
number: BF692.M57 1999)
Most readers
will not have any of these uncommon sex-scripts.
But unusual sexual responses
are the ones that draw scientific attention.
And understanding the origins
and dynamics of these paraphilias
should help everyone to understand
his or her own sexual responses.
Money draws
on Greek and Latin to create what he hopes will become
accepted scientific names
for the paraphilias he discusses.
Wisely, he has included a
glossary at the end of The Lovemap
Guidebook,
which briefly explains the
meaning of each term.
Only a few of these are found
in common usage:
bestiality, cunnilingus, exhibitionism,
fellatio, fisting, masochism,
necrophilia, nymphomania,
pedophilia, sadism, sodomy, & voyeurism.
John Money
presents facts about the unusual forms of human sexuality
that have been confirmed again
and again by scientific observers.
Only very rarely does he project
what might be the next scientific
discoveries in sexology.
Because
Money has spent his professional career
working with unusual
sex-scripts,
this book is not very useful
for exploring common lovemaps.
Readers will have to extrapolate
from this book
in order to gain a deeper
understanding
of the more common imprinted sexual fantasies.
However,
as we gain more understanding of the origins of paraphilias,
we might understand better how
ordinary sex-scripts arise.
An analogy might be the imprinting
of one's native language:
Even the study of unusual
languages can help us understand
how each person acquires his or her first
language.
This wise
and compassionate book will stand the test of time.
2. John Money
Gay,
Straight, and In-Between:
The
Sexology
of Sexual Orientation
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1988) 267 pages
This
book brings a truly scientific
approach to an area of belief
frequently dominated by partisan and dogmatic theories
held by people who are certain of the 'truth' before
the research begins.
Dr. Money concludes that the research is still incomplete,
so the question of the origin of homosexuality,
heterosexuality, & bisexuality must remain open.
His research concentrates mostly on people with
sexual ambiguity
and/or sexual problems,
but understanding these
unusual sexual responses
might cast some light on the more common forms of
adult sexuality.
This
book also deals with the
puzzling phenomenon of transsexuals,
people who believe they are the other sex.
Cross-dressing (as a costume for a sexual fantasy
and for other reasons) is also discussed.
No hormonal differences have been discovered
to account for different sex-scripts or lovemaps.
More research is needed to uncover
the possible
relationships among
sex-hormones, male/female self-designation
("I am a boy or girl."),
gender-personality (one's pattern of 'masculinity'
or 'femininity'),
& sex-scripts (one's imprinted sexual fantasies).
3. John
Money
Lovemaps:
Clinical Concepts of Sexual/Erotic
Health
and
Pathology, Paraphilia, and Gender Transposition
in
Childhood,
Adolescence, and Maturity
(New York: Irvington, 1986) 331 pages
This
is a scientific work on unusual
sex-scripts—paraphilias.
Exploring the origins and dynamics of these sometimes
bizarre
sexual fantasies and rituals might illuminate the
sex-scripts
of people who never seek psychiatric help because
of their 'sex-drives'
and who never commit sex-crimes.
No sex-scripts or imprinted sexual fantasies are 'natural'.
At critical periods early in our lives, various items
('fetish' objects, traumatic experiences, chance
associations, etc.)
were slipped into that part of our minds we might
call our "sex-files".
And usually this 'sexual imprinting' remains for
the rest of our lives.
4. John
Money
Venuses
Penuses:
Sexology,
Sexosophy, and Exigency Theory
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1986) 659 pages
The
world's leading sexologist
of the 20th century
presents a wide-ranging book, exploring many subjects
related to the sex-script hypothesis:
1) seven criteria for differentiating the sexes;
2) the power of early sex-assignment;
3) sexual imprinting at critical periods in psycho-sexual
development;
4) sexual repression gives rise to unusual sex-scripts
(paraphilias);
5) male/female self-designation (which sex am I?);
6) developing gender-personalities ('masculinity'
or 'femininity');
7) sexual arousal ('normal' or 'abnormal');
8) heterosexuality, homosexuality, & bisexuality;
9) sexual fantasies, pornography, & paraphilias;
10) compulsive sexual behavior and its treatment;
11) cross-dressing;
12) transsexualism;
13) intersex individuals (problems and treatments); &
14) sex-change operations.
Because this is a collection of
scientific papers and articles
from several years, it varies in
quality. But many
hours
of stimulating reading await the
careful and selective
reader.
This book presents the raw
material for the sex-script
hypothesis.
5. John
Money
Vandalized
Lovemaps:
Paraphilic
Outcomes of Seven Cases in Pediatric Sexology
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1989) 224 pages
<> Summarizing his theory of lovemaps,6.
Ronald W. Keyes & John Money
The
Armed
Robbery Orgasm:
A
Lovemap
Autobiography of Masochism
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993) 164 pages
This
book is a good inside
account of a set of unusual sex-scripts
—perhaps the first book-length
exploration of paraphilias
written by the person who has that imprinting.
Keyes traces his masochistic sex-scripts
(which call for spanking and domination by a woman)
to childhood abuse.
His money-tinged attachment to his dominatrix
led him on a spree of armed robberies,
which put him in prison for 10 years,
where he researched sexology with the help of John
Money
and produced this autobiography.
He also did informal research into the sex-scripts
of his fellow prisoners.
If this book is widely read, it
could profoundly
change
our understanding and treatment
of behavior stimulated by
imprinted paraphilias.
7. John
Money, Gordon Wainwright,
& David Hinsburger
The
Breathless
Orgasm: A Lovemap Biography of Asphyxiophilia
(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991) 178 pages
Nelson Cooper is the actual author
of this book.
Comments by the credited authors
appear at the beginning and the end.
This is the second-best book on
sex-scripts
from the point of view of the
person who has the imprinted sexual
fantasies.
(The best book is the one above—Keyes.)
Nelson Cooper tells of the imprinting of his sex-script
that calls for him to choke himself while fantasizing
about
a girl drowning.
He struggled for years against this terrible sexual
compulsion.
And his relief finally came when he received hormone
treatments
that reduced his sex-drive to a manageable level.
If your imprinted sexual fantasies
include choking yourself, read
this book.
It also casts light on all
sex-scripts.
8. Daniel Bergner
The Other Side of Desire:
Four Journeys into the Far Realms
of Lust and Longing
(New
York: ECCO/HarperCollins, 2009) 208
pages
(ISBN: 978-0-05-088556-4; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ71.B356 2008)
Exploration of four kinds of paraphilias:
foot fetishism, sadism, pedophilia, & amputees.
The author is a journalist,
who created this book by talking with the
people profiled
and with their various psychological consultants.
The book will offer comfort to all who have unusual sexual fantasies.
They will know that they are not alone.
But it does not offer any deeper
understanding of why some people
do in fact have these
out-of-the-main stream sexual interests.
The hypothesis of sexual
imprinting is compatable
with everything reported in this
book.
(New
York: Broadway Books, 1997) 284
pages
(ISBN: 0-553-06770-2; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number:
HQ29.M36 1997)
This book is based on workshops on
women's sexual fantasies
conducted by psychotherapist Wendy Maltz.
She listens to women's sexual fantasies
without any preconceived theories about what they mean
and what might be done about them.
She does not seem to
have read the books by John Money.
And she shows no inclination
toward the sex-script hypothesis.
In fact, she does seem to assume
that all sexual fantasies are learned.
Hence, when some women discover sexual fantasies they do not like,
Wendy Maltz helps them to modify or replace them
with sexual fantasies they find more pleasing
and which are more in tune with the persons they want to be
and the relationships they wish to have.
Women can create
pleasant fantasies
from their reading of romance novels, movies,
or any other material that seems appropriate.
And sometimes they find pleasant memories
of sexual encounters from the past
to be useful in new sexual encounters.
However, this can be troublesome
if they are remembering wonderful sex
with someone other
than their present sex-partner.
The troublesome and
unwanted sexual fantasies some women report
would be the closest to the
hypothesis of this reviewer
of imprinted
sexual fantasies.
(See the last book in this biblography.)
Some women had such terrible unwanted sexual
fantasies
that their only way to cope was to shut down sexually.
If they had no sexual arousal and no sexual behavior,
then their sexual fantasies did not crowd into their minds.
Wendy Maltz does report
some success in helping modify and replace
these unwanted fantasies that were creating problems
in the lives of the women who had unfortunate fantasies.
Basically this book
recommends creating good fantasies
that enhance the sex-lives of the fantasizers.
10.
Martha Roth
Arousal: Bodies and Pleasures
(Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed
Editions, 1998) 161 pages
(ISBN: 1-57131-220-X; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: BF692.R66 1998)
A
work of literature rather than sexology,
the author discloses glimpses of her own sexual imprinting,
altho she implicitly believes
that sexual arousal is learned from life-experiences.
Martha Roth is a feminist writer.
And many of her sources are other feminists.
She seeks to express female sexuality
without the male bias it usually gets
(as responding to male sexuality).
For
sexology, this is more a personal memoir
than a scientific study.
But it provides more raw data for
future analysis.
11.
Karen Shanor
The
Fantasy Files:
A
Study of
the Sexual Fantasies of Contemporary Women
(New York: Dial Press,
1977)
255 pages
(ISBN: 0-8038-2479-9; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: BF692.S44)
Original research exploring
the sexual fantasies
of American women in the 1970s.
Based on 304 completed questionnaires, about half
of this book
consists of quotations from these anonymous responses.
Most of the subjects were married or had been married.
Some fantasies are much more elaborate than others.
But no unusual or bizarre fantasies appear.
Almost all of the subjects report heterosexual fantasies.
Only a few have lesbian fantasies and lesbian relationships.
Shanor found 34 different kinds of fantasies in
her female subjects.
Some fantasized sex with other men than their husbands.
Some had rape or seduction fantasies.
There is no discussion of how
sexual fantasies arise.
But this is a solid historical
document,
completely compatible with the
sex-script hypothesis.
12.
Seymour Fisher
Sexual
Images of the Self:
The
Psychology
of Erotic Sensation and Illusion
(Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1989) 345 pages
This
is a book of academic research
into the human sexual response,
based largely on Freudian
hypotheses
(for instance, exploring a man's
early relationship
with his mother).
Because the conceptual framework
was so limiting,
few meaningful results emerge,
but at least this reflects the
beginnings of sexological
research
into sexual orientation and sexual
response.
Such research had to begin
somewhere.
And Freud was first with his
speculations.
The sex-scripts hypothesis would
have been a better
framework.
13.
Robert J. Stoller, M.D.
Observing the Erotic Imagination
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985) 228 pages
This
collection of papers by a
wise and mature psychoanalyst
presents more raw material for a comprehensive theory
of human sexuality.
Childhood experiences create sex-scripts that
persist into adulthood.
Humiliation is a common theme of the sex-scripts
explored in this book.
The child's mind attempts to create stories
that compensate for and correct something that went
wrong in childhood
—to transform trauma into triumph.
Some sex-scripts delight in feeling perverse
—doing something forbidden,
getting away with something
naughty.
The most important chapters deal with the following
themes:
perversion and the desire to harm; erotics/esthetics;
a professional sex-worker; obscenity; homosexuality;
Sambia sex (see next book);
transvestism in women; & erotic
vomiting.
14.
Gilbert Herdt & Robert Stoller
Intimate
Communications: Erotics and the Study of Culture
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1990) 467 pages
This
book should have been called
Sambia
Sex:
An
Investigation
of Male Sexual Phases in New Guinea.
An anthropologist and a psychoanalyst
do extensive and intensive interviews of Sambia
men (and one woman)
to understand the male pattern of passing thru
various phases of sexual behavior—first
(as boys) with young men,
then (as young bachelors) with younger boys, &
finally with wives.
How do they manage to change their
sex-scripts?
15.
Robert J. Stoller
Pain
and Passion:
A
Psychoanalyst
Explores the World of S & M
(New York: Plenum, 1991) 306 pages
An
account of the life and work
of
"bondage and discipline" clubs in California,
based on interviews with owners and workers.
Interesting raw data for further thinking and research
into sadomasochistic sex-scripts.
Why do some people derive sexual pleasure from pain
(or pretenses of pain) and humiliation?
16.
Nancy Friday
My
Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies
(New York: Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1973) 336 pages
A
collection of women's sexual
fantasies as told by themselves.
Good raw data for further research into sex-scripts.
They seem little different from men's fantasies.
Many show signs of early sexual imprinting.
17.
Colin Wilson
The
Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders
(New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1988) 272 pages
This
popular writer pulls together
what he has learned
about unusual forms of sex from his reading.
It is a good source of raw
material for a new theory
of sex,
but Wilson attempts no such
synthesis.
18.
Colin Wilson
Origins
of the Sexual Impulse
(London, UK: Arthur Barker Limited, 1963) 263 pages
An
original book of observations
about sex,
especially 'perversions' and criminal sexual behavior.
Compatible with the sex-script
hypothesis.
{last}
James Park
Imprinted
Sexual Fantasies:
A New Key for Sexuality
(Minneapolis,
MN: Existential Books,
2008) 176 pages
(ISBN: 978-0-89231-561-7; paperback)
(Library of Congress call number: HQ21.P37 2008)
updated
August, 2008; 3-20-2009; 4-24-2009; 9-17-2010; 9-25-2010; 2-16-2011;
4-18-2018;
Related Bibliographies
This
bibliography is related
to several others in sexology.
Here is the complete list:
Sex-Script
Hypothesis
B-SEX-SC
Variations
of
Sex and Gender B-V-SG
I. Intersex
B-CRIT
II. Transsexualism
B-TS
Transsexual
Autobiographies B-TS-AB
III. Sex-Roles
B-ROLE
IV. Gender-Personality
B-GEND
V. Sexual
Orientation
B-ORNT
VI. Cross-Dressing
B-TV
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James
Leonard Park—Free
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