Volkmar Sigusch (born 11 June 1940) is a German sexologist, physician and sociologist. From 1973 to 2006, he was the director of the ''Institut für Sexualwissenschaft'' (Institute for Sexual Science) at the clinic of

Goethe University Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. Sigusch was born in

Bad Freienwalde Bad Freienwalde is a spa town in the Märkisch-Oderland district in Brandenburg, Germany. Geography The town is situated on the Alte Oder, an old branch of the Oder River at the northwestern rim of the Oderbruch basin and the steep rise of the ...

. He studied medicine, psychology and philosophy (student of

Max Horkheimer Max Horkheimer (; ; 14 February 1895 – 7 July 1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research. Horkheimer addressed authoritarianism, militari ...

and

Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of criti ...

) in Frankfurt am Main,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. In 1966 and 1972, Sigusch got his German M. D. and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

at the university in Hamburg. He worked then since 1973 at the university in Frankfurt as professor. In 1972 he founded the Institute for Sexology at the University Hospital in Frankfurt and was its director until his retirement and the closure of the institute in 2006. Sigusch wrote several books in sociology, psychology and sexual medicine. Sigusch is founder and since 1988, co-editor of the scientific, peer-reviewed journal ''Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung'' (Thieme Verlag Stuttgart and New York) and wrote articles for different magazines. From 1979 to 1986, he was editor of the cultural magazine ''Sexualität konkret''. In a 1991 publication "Die Transsexuellen und unser nosomorpher Blick" ("Transsexuals and our nosomorphic view"), Sigusch coined the term cissexual (zissexuell in German). As an antonym to

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignment ...

, cissexual refers to a person whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. However, using a cis/trans dichotomy as transgender patois predates Sigusch back to 1914 with

Ernst Burchard Ernst Burchard (9 September 1876 – 5 February 1920) was a German physician, sexologist, and gay rights advocate and author. Burchard, who was gay, testified as an expert witness in several court cases involving prosecutions on grounds of Parag ...

in ''Lexikon des gesamten Sexuallebens''.

Works

Sigusch wrote over 600 scientific articles and 40 books, for example: * ''Das Vorurteil gegenüber sexuell devianten Gruppen'', 1967 (with

Gunter Schmidt Gunter Schmidt (born 22 November 1938) is a German sexologist, psychotherapist and social psychologist. He was born in Berlin. Schmidt was the director of the centre for sexual research in the clinic of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppe ...

). * ''Exzitation und Orgasmus bei der Frau'', 1970. * ''Tendenzen der Sexualforschung'', 1970 (with Gunter Schmidt and Eberhard Schorsch). * ''Arbeiter-Sexualität'', 1971 (with Gunter Schmidt). * ''Ergebnisse zur Sexualmedizin'', 1972, 1973. * ''Jugendsexualität'', 1973 (with Gunter Schmidt). * ''Die Zukunft der Monogamie'', 1974 (with Gion Condrau, Jean-G. Lemaire). * ''Therapie sexueller Störungen'', 1975, 1980. * ''Medizinische Experimente am Menschen'', 1977, 1978. * ''Sexualität und Medizin'', 1979. * ''Die sexuelle Frage'', 1982. * ''Vom Trieb und von der Liebe'', 1984. * ''Die Mystifikation des Sexuellen'', 1984. * ''Sexualtheorie und Sexualpolitik'', 1984 (with Martin Dannecker). * ''Sexualität konkret''. Sammelband 2, 1984 (with Ingrid Klein and Hermann L. Gremliza). * ''Operation AIDS'', 1986. * ''AIDS als Risiko'', 1987. * ''AIDS. Ergebnisse eines Kongresses'', 1988 (with Steffen Fliegel). * ''Kritik der disziplinierten Sexualität'', 1989. * ''Anti-Moralia'', 1990. * ''Geschlechtswechsel'', 1992, 1993, 1995. * ''

Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (28 August 1825 – 14 July 1895) was a German lawyer, jurist, journalist, and writer who is regarded today as a pioneer of sexology and the modern gay rights movement. Ulrichs has been described as the "first gay man in ...

. Der erste Schwule der Weltgeschichte'', 2000. * ''Freud und das Sexuelle. Neue psychoanalytische und sexualwissenschaftliche Perspektiven'', 2005 (with Ilka Quindeau). * ''Praktische Sexualmedizin: eine Einführung'', 2005. * ''Sexuelle Welten: Zwischenrufe eines Sexualforschers'', 2005. * ''Neosexualitäten: über den kulturellen Wandel von Liebe und Perversion'', 2005. * ''Sexuelle Störungen und ihre Behandlung'', 1996, 1997, 2001, 2007. * ''Geschichte der Sexualwissenschaft'', 2008. * ''Personenlexikon der Sexualforschung'', 2009 (with Günter Grau). *''Auf der Suche nach der sexuellen Freiheit''. Über Sexualforschung u. Politik. Frankfurt a. M., New York 2011. *mit Günter Amendt und Gunter Schmidt: ''Sex tells''. Sexualforschung als Gesellschaftskritik. Hamburg, 2011. *''Sexualitäten. Eine kritische Theorie in 99 Fragmenten''. Frankfurt a. M., New York 2013 –

External links

Literature by Volkmar Sigusch
in

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

Institute for Sexualwissenschaft

Sigusch: The Neosexual Revolution. Archives of Sexual Behavior 27 (4), 331-359, 1998
Sigusch: On Cultural Transformations on Sexuality and Gender in Recent Decades. German Medical Science 2, 1-31, 2004

Article by Sigusch in Ärzteblatt

* ttp://derstandard.at/druck/?id=2248351 Article by Sigusch in ''Der Standard''
Article ''Jugend und Pornographie'' by Sigusch in ''Der Spiegel''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sigusch, Volkmar 1940 births Goethe University Frankfurt faculty German psychologists German sexologists German sociologists Living people Psychology writers German male writers