Iwan Bloch (also known as Ivan Bloch) (April 8, 1872 – November 21, 1922) was a
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
dermatologistDermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin and its diseases, a unique specialty with both medical and surgical aspects. The name of this specialty originated in the form of the words dermologie and, a little later, dermatologia...
.
Born in
DelmenhorstDelmenhorst is an urban district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It has a population of 76,000 and is located between Bremen and Oldenburg...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, he is often called the first
sexologistSexology is the scientific study of sexual interests, behavior, and function. In modern sexology, researchers apply tools from several academic fields, including biology, medicine, psychology, statistics, epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, and criminology. It studies sexual development and the...
. He discovered the
Marquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer. His works include novels, short stories, plays, and political tracts; in his lifetime some were published under his own name, while others appeared anonymously and Sade denied being their author...
's manuscript of
The 120 Days of SodomThe 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Licentiousness is a novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in 1785. It tells the story of four wealthy male libertines who resolve to experience the ultimate in orgies...
, which had been believed to be lost, and published it under the pseudonym
Eugène Dühren in 1904.
In 1899 he had published
Marquis de Sade: his life and works.
Together with
Magnus HirschfeldMagnus Hirschfeld was a gay German physician, sex researcher, and early gay rights advocate.-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a Jewish family, the son of a highly regarded physician and 'Medizinalrat', Hermann Hirschfeld...
and
Albert EulenburgAlbert Eulenburg was a German neurologist who was a native of Berlin. He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin, Bern and Zurich, and in 1861 earned his doctorate. Among his instructors were Johannes Peter Müller , Ludwig Traube and Albrecht von Graefe...
, Bloch proposed the new concept of a science of sexuality:
Sexualwissenschaft or
sexologySexology is the scientific study of sexual interests, behavior, and function. In modern sexology, researchers apply tools from several academic fields, including biology, medicine, psychology, statistics, epidemiology, sociology, anthropology, and criminology. It studies sexual development and the...
. In 1906 he wrote "The sexual life of our time", a complete encyclopedia of the sexual sciences in their relation to modern civilization
Transl. eng. (1909)
The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization. Rebman, London. .
Iwan Bloch began the publication of his "Handbuch der gesamten Sexualwissenschaft in Einzeldarstellungen" (Handbook of Sexology in its Entirety Presented in Separate Studies). Three volumes appeared, the project was aborted because of Bloch's untimely death.
- Prostitution, vol. I (1912) — Iwan Bloch
- Homosexuality in Men and Women (1914) — Magnus Hirschfeld
- Prostitution, vol. II (after 1922) — Iwan Bloch
- Rétif de la Bretonne
Nicolas-Edme Rétif or Nicolas-Edme Restif , called Rétif de la Bretonne, was a French novelist. He was the son of a farmer, and was born at Sacy...
, der Mensch, der Schriftsteller, der Reformator, (Berlin, 1906)
- Rétif-Bibliothek, bibliography (Berlin, 1906)
- Sexual Life in England — Past and Present, Alfred Aldor, London, 1938
Legacy
According to
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
, Bloch's studies were instrumental in the development of the anthropological approach to the theory of sexuality. Before Bloch, homosexuality was analyzed using a pathological approach. (Freud, Three Essays of the Theory of Sexuality, 5.)
Sources