Tova Feder Ph. D.

Sex is the Least of It: Surrogate Partners Discuss Love Life and Intimacy Tova Feder Ph. D.

The concept of surrogate partners grew out of the work of Masters and Johnson in the mid-1960s. Their initial research centered on understanding and improving the sex lives of married couples. Eventually their work addressed the issue of helping un-partnered individuals treat their sexual dysfunction. As necessity is the mother of invention, they recruited an untrained group of women to aid these single individuals in resolving their sexual problems. Masters and Johnson created a mechanical approach to sexuality, devoid of emotional intimacy. This book seeks to present the human face of a profession that has been shrouded in myths, misconceptions, and negative judgments. Rather than hearing the words of sexual robots, the participants reflect competence, intelligence (please see paragraph below), compassion, and wisdom. It is a profession that requires the ability to think and feel; to analyze and participate; to become emotionally involved yet maintain professional boundaries. Over the past four decades, surrogate partner therapy has grown to combine social therapeutic modalities in addition to sexual therapeutic techniques. This book utilizes, in part, the approach of interviewing 25 current and former surrogate partners to examine, compare, and contrast their experiences. It seeks to present the skills of surrogates as opposed to the sexual sensationalism which clouds objective evaluation of the subject. In addition to the interviews there are several relevant articles, being used with permission, exploring the work of other surrogates.