Sex Without Guilt - Albert Ellis

Originally published in 1958, this book presents psychologist Albert Ellis’s arguments for a more open attitude towards sexuality, challenging conventional moral restrictions and examining masturbation, premarital sex, adultery, sex without love, censorship, sexual difficulties, sex education and the right to sexual enjoyment. Ellis also explores cultural assumptions about love, morality and sexual behaviour. However, some of the book’s views reflect outdated attitudes towards homosexuality, particularly its chapter titled “How American Women Are Driving American Males Into Homosexuality,” which suggests that women can cause homosexuality. Such ideas are considered stigmatising and inconsistent with modern psychological understanding, which recognises homosexuality as a normal variation of human sexuality, not a mental disorder. Despite these dated perspectives, the book remains a revealing historical document of mid-20th-century debates about sex, psychology and social conventions.