PL-06 The Sexologist Standpoint: On the Need to Adopt the Trans-Disciplinary Model

Abstract

In 1907, Ivan Bloch1, a dermatologist with profound knowledge of other disciplines realised that a full understanding of human love and sexual behaviour would be impossible from the standpoint of biology alone, and the proposal to develop a centralised point of view in the science of sex was put forward and initiated the attempts to integrate knowledge in a new field: sexology. This seminal idea created enthusiasm and followers all over the world, but accomplishing this ideal has become more and more difficult as the amount of knowledge, the variety of methodologies and its level of complexity and sophistication has rendered almost impossible to create a “single specialist” that can grasp the contributions of the many disciplines that produce relevant knowledge on sexuality related topics. In view of this difficulty, disciplines’ approaching complex areas of knowledge have moved from the uni-discipline, to the multi-discipline, then the inter-discipline and recently to what is termed the trans-discipline 2