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Lovemap Guidebook

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John Money
The Lovemap Guidebook:
A Definitive Statement

(New York: Continuum, 1999) 284 pages
(ISBN: 0-8264-1203-3; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: BF692.M57 1999)

John Money is the foremost sexologists of the 20th century.
His expression "lovemap" means the same as "sex-script".
This book sums up the most important points
considered at greater length in his many other works of sexology.
Sometimes he compresses the contents of a whole book into 1 or 2 pages.

The Lovemap Guidebook focuses on unusual lovemaps or sex-scripts.
These are commonly called "paraphilias".
Over 100 are named and discussed in this book,
organized into careful categories that show their similarities.

Most readers will not have any of these uncommon sex-scripts.
But unusual sexual responses are the ones that draw scientific attention.
And understanding the origins and dynamics of these paraphilias
should help everyone to understand his or her own sexual responses.

Money draws on Greek and Latin to create what he hopes will become
accepted scientific names for the paraphilias he discusses.
Wisely, he has included a glossary at the end of The Lovemap Guidebook,
which briefly explains the meaning of each term.
Only a few of these are found in common usage:
bestiality, cunnilingus, exhibitionism, fellatio, fisting, masochism,
necrophilia, nymphomania, pedophilia, sadism, sodomy, & voyeurism.

John Money presents facts about the unusual forms of human sexuality
that have been confirmed again and again by scientific observers.
Only very rarely does he project
what might be the next scientific discoveries in sexology.

Because Money has spent his professional career working with unusual sex-scripts,
this book is not very useful for exploring common lovemaps.
Readers will have to extrapolate from this book
in order to gain a deeper understanding
of the more common imprinted sexual fantasies.

However, as we gain more understanding of the origins of paraphilias,
we might understand better how ordinary sex-scripts arise.
An analogy might be the imprinting of one's native language:
Even the study of unusual languages can help us understand
how each person acquires his or her first language.

This wise and compassionate book will stand the test of time.

If you would like to discover other books on imprinted sexual fantasies,
search the Internet for the following bibliography:
"SEXOLOGY---SEX-SCRIPTS---BEST BOOKS".

James Leonard Park, author of
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies:
A New Key for Sexology.