Herman Musaph

Prof. Herman Musaph (Dutch: Heijman Musaph) (7 January 1915 – 18 November 1992) was a Dutch Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist, dermatologist and sexologist.

In 1977, Musaph became Professor of Medicine at the University of Utrecht. With John Money, he co-authored the influential Handbook of Sexology (1977) which emphasized the critical role of early mother-child skin contact in fostering healthy psychological and sexual development, linking touch deprivation to later abnormal behaviors. This book was a 1,402-page compendium which synthesized global research on human sexuality, spanning biology, psychosexual development, and disorders; it was later translated into multiple languages and praised as a foundational collection for the field.

In the same year, Musaph founded the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (NVSH), which was notably sympathetic to non-normative sexual identities and practices, including MAPs. His efforts culminated in the establishment of the Dr. Herman Musaph Prize for Medical Sexology in 1991, awarded by Dutch medical bodies to recognize advances in the discipline. Musaph's approach prioritized causal links between psychological trauma and sexual expression, critiquing overly moralistic frameworks in favor of observable physiological and relational dynamics.

Musaph made supportive statements about pedophilia and non-coercive age-gap sex in various publications and outlets. Theo Sandfort cited Musaph in some of his past writings on pedophilia, and it is likely that Musaph at one point had considerable impact and influence on Dutch academic and intellectual opinion, having been a senior, well-respected and well-published figure by the time he made non-condemnatory statements about pedophilia.

He was the winner of the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 1990, and the Herman Musaph Foundation for Psychodermatology is named in his honor. Musaph fell ill during a meeting of the European Society in Paris in late 1992. He died on 18 November 1992 in Amsterdam, aged 77, from heart failure.