Self-Help Movement

As the seventies began, the search for self-awareness became an increasingly mainstream concept. After the rampant consumerism of the ’50s and early ’60s, and the tremendous social upheaval of the last few years, westerners believed that the solutions to their problems lay in “finding themselves”.

As a result, many self-help movements – from Werner Erhard’s EST to Transcendental Meditation (or “TM”) – became extremely trendy.

America’s struggle to come to terms with the thorny issues of sexual revolution and women’s liberation was reflected by books on the best-sellers list. Dr David Reuben’s Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex, J’s The Sensuous Woman, Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics, and Dr William H Masters and Virginia Johnson’s Human Sexual Inadequacy were some of the books on the country’s nightstands and bedside tables.

Published in 1973, The Joy Of Sex by Alex Comfort, was much more exciting and enlightening and became the sex manual of choice for liberated 70’s couples. The runaway success of the book inspired a 1974 sequel, imaginatively titled, More Joy of Sex.