The Science of Orgasm - Hardcover

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

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080188490X ISBN 13: 9780801884900

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006

Synopsis

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 Beyer-Flores to view orgasm through the lenses of behavioral neuroscience along with cognitive and physiological sciences.

The authors explain how and why orgasms happen, why they fail to happen, and what brain and body events are put into play at the moment of orgasm. No topic is left unexplored, as the book describes the genital-brain connection, how the brain produces orgasms, how aging affects orgasm, and the effects of prescription medication, street drugs, hormones, disorders, and diseases.

Covering every type of sexual peak experience in women and men―from intense to phantom―this informative and entertaining work illuminates the hows, whats, and wherefores of orgasm.

About this title

About the Authors

Barry R. Komisaruk is Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University.

Carlos Beyer-Flores is head of the Laboratorio CIRA of the University of Tlaxcala and CINVESTAV in Mexico. He is the coauthor of The Science of Orgasm, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Beverly Whipple is a professor emerita at Rutgers University and a certified sexuality educator, counselor, and researcher. She is the coauthor of The Science of Orgasm, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Reviews

Behind its tongue-in-cheek "plain brown wrapper" cover, this unique book offers a thorough compilation of what modern science, from biomechanics to neurochemistry, knows about the secrets of orgasm. The three coauthors—neuroscientist Komisaruk, endocrinologist Beyers-Flores and sexuality researcher Whipple (coauthor of The G-Spot and Other Discoveries About Human Sexuality)—begin with a short overview of the role of hormones and the nervous system, as well as how the body changes during orgasm. Later chapters go into greater detail, describing the connection between the brain and genitals, and how various factors, from aging and physical condition to drugs, disorders and diseases, affect sexual response and orgasm. While some of the information is fairly common knowledge (the connection between antidepressants and reduced orgasmic response, for example), other topics, such as "phantom" orgasms in men and women with spinal cord injuries, orgasmic "auras" experienced by some epileptics and sexual response in transgendered individuals, provide fascinating glimpses into the complex and subtle interaction of brain and body in this most intimate and euphoric of states. The authors do a good job of keeping technical discussion at or near the layperson's level, and an extensive bibliography provides a wealth of resources for further investigation of this intriguing topic. (Nov.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080188490X
• ISBN 13: 9780801884900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376