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, later translated into multiple languages) 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. In the same year, he founded the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (NVSH), which was notably sympathetic to non-normative sexual identities and practices, including MAPs.

He was the winner of the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 1990, and the Herman Musaph Foundation for Psychodermatology is named in his honor.