The Mythical Origins of Sexual Therapy

The concept of sexual intercourse as a form of medicine traces its roots to ancient Greece, where mythology and early medical theories intertwined. One of the earliest recorded instances comes from the legend of Melampus, a renowned healer summoned by the rulers of Argos. The city faced an unusual crisis: its virgins had fled into the mountains, refusing to participate in a sacred ritual. Melampus’ solution? He dosed them with hellebore—a potent herb—and encouraged them to engage in sexual relations with robust Greek warriors. The result? Their supposed “hysteria” vanished, and they returned to society, cured.

This myth reflects an early belief that female mental and physical health was tied to sexual activity—or the lack thereof. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, later formalized this idea, attributing many women’s ailments to a “wandering womb.” His prescription? Marriage and regular intercourse to “anchor” the uterus. Yet, paradoxically, other ancient physicians like Soranus of Ephesus advocated chastity as the path to wellness. The contradiction highlights how cultural biases shaped medical “advice” for millennia.

From Sacred Rituals to Medical Prescriptions

The Romans took a more public approach to sexual healing. During the Lupercalia festival, naked men roamed the streets, ritually striking women to promote fertility—a practice immortalized in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, Hippocrates’ theories evolved into medieval Europe’s medical dogma, where women’s health remained a puzzle solved by male physicians—until the 11th century. That’s when Trota of Salerno, one of Europe’s first female doctors, challenged the status quo. She argued that sexual health was too intimate for male practitioners and endorsed marital sex as therapeutic, even recommending musk oil and mint to regulate desire.

The Victorian Era: Hysteria and the Rise of the Vibrator

By the 19th century, “female hysteria” had become a catch-all diagnosis for everything from anxiety to fatigue. Water-cure specialist Russell Thrail boldly claimed 75% of American women suffered from it. The cure? A “pelvic massage” to induce “hysterical paroxysm” (a clinical euphemism for orgasm). Exhausted physicians lamented the hour-long sessions required, complaining of sore wrists—until technology intervened.

In the 1880s, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the first electromechanical vibrator. Marketed as a medical device, it reduced treatment time from 60 minutes to five. But when vibrators became compact and affordable (sold via Sears catalogs by the 1900s), women embraced them for private use, and the medical profession quietly abandoned “therapeutic” massages. By the 1920s, early adult films exposed the vibrator’s non-medical uses, cementing its place in the realm of pleasure rather than therapy.

Bizarre Medical Devices and the Quest for “Energy”

Victorian ingenuity didn’t stop at vibrators. The “Dr. Young’s Perfect Rectal Dilator”—a rubber device sold in four sizes—claimed to cure constipation and hemorrhoids. Advertisements urged users to “join the ranks of the relieved,” but by the 1940s, the FDA shut it down for false claims. Meanwhile, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich introduced the “Orgone Accumulator,” a wooden box he claimed harnessed cosmic life energy (“orgone”) through layered materials. Promoted as a cure for depression and sexual dysfunction, it attracted countercultural figures like William S. Burroughs and even Kurt Cobain. The FDA, unamused, banned the devices and jailed Reich for defying the order.

Modern Science Validates Ancient Instincts

Today, research confirms what ancient healers intuited: sexual activity boosts immunity, lowers blood pressure, and reduces stress. Yet the journey from myth to medicine reveals how cultural taboos and power dynamics have long dictated “expert” advice on sexuality. From Hippocrates’ wandering womb to Reich’s orgone box, the history of sexual healing is a testament to humanity’s enduring—and often misguided—quest to harness the body’s most intimate energies.

So, as Marvin Gaye crooned, let’s get it on—for science, of course.