William Masters (1915-2001)

Professional Life
William H. Masters was born on December 27, 1915, in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Hamilton College and later went on to join the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. While working in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the University’s medical school, Masters met and hired Virginia Johnson as a research assistant. This meeting led to a decades long relationship that resulted in their marriage. Together, Masters and Johnson studied human sexuality in ways that no one had previously done. They observed and recorded responses to sexual stimuli in test subjects within their laboratory. After several years, Masters and Johnson founded a non-profit organization, the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation, to continue their studies. Later, after they married, they renamed the foundation the Masters & Johnson Institute. 

Masters & Johnson's years of work led to groundbreaking advances in the field of sexual psychology and the treatment of sexual issues. Masters and Johnson treated many couples over the years, and shared their expertise with the world in their best-selling books, Human Sexual Response and Human Sexual Inadequacy. Masters continued to work with Johnson at the Institute, even after their divorce, until his retirement in 1994.

Contribution to Psychology
At the Masters & Johnson Institute, Masters observed and recorded heterosexual couples, gay and lesbian couples, and individuals, for sexual response. The work conducted at the institute led to monumental leaps in the identification and treatment of sexual dysfunction. Prior to their studies, very few experts had delved so deeply into the field of sexology. Alfred Kinsey was among the few who touched on the psychological aspects of sexual issues before Johnson and Masters, but Masters and his colleague were the first to study sexual intercourse and masturbation as it relates to sexual behavior and psychology. The team developed the four stage model of human sexual response and dispelled many sexual myths relating to age, gender, and sexual orientation.

One of the most profound impacts Master’s work had on the field of psychology was in the area of treating sexual dysfunctions. Until the observations at the Masters & Johnson Institute, sexual impairments were treated with very little success through prolonged courses of psychoanalysis. However, the team created a treatment method that involved both partners rather than only one. The therapy was designed to be a talking therapy and involved no sexual activity observation. Couples who previously had faced frustration and disappointment saw success rates over 80% with this technique.