The Death of Alfred Kinsey
any people believe that Kinsey’s early death at the age of 62 was caused by the stress of the constant criticism and struggle he lived under as he tried to legitimize the field of sexuality research. In fact, Kinsey’s colleagues believed he literally worked himself to death trying to do all he could with his limited money and time (Pomeroy, 1982). Kinsey was also frustrated by the lack of respect many had for his controversial findings in sexuality research, which was then still considered taboo. After Kinsey’s death in 1956, the New York Times wrote:
The untimely death of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey takes from the American scene an important and valuable, as well as controversial, figure. Whatever may have been the reaction to his findings—and to the unscrupulous use of some of them—the fact remains that he was first, last, and always a scientist. In the long run it is
probable that the values of his contribution to contemporary thought will lie much less in what he found out than in the method he used and his way of applying it. Any sort of scientific approach to the problems of sex is difficult because the field is so deeply overlaid with such things as moral precept, taboo, individual and group training, and long established behavior patterns. Some of these may be good in themselves, but they are no help to the scientific and empirical method of getting at the truth. Dr. Kinsey cut through this overlay with detachment and precision. His work was conscientious and comprehensive. Naturally it will receive a serious setback with his death. Let us earnestly hope that the scientific spirit that inspired it will not be similarly impaired.
Source: Pomeroy (1982, p. 441).
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