author
Albert Moll
1862–1939
A Berlin physician who helped shape early sexology, he wrote about sexuality, hypnosis, and medical ethics at a time when all three were hotly debated. Though later overshadowed by figures like Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld, his work remained influential for decades.
1 Audiobook
The Sexual Life of the Child
by Albert Moll
About the author
Albert Moll (1862–1939) was a German neurologist, psychologist, sexologist, and ethicist. He was born in Lissa and later worked in Berlin, where he ran a private practice focused on nervous disorders. Historians of medicine regularly place him alongside Iwan Bloch and Magnus Hirschfeld as one of the founders of modern sexology.
Moll wrote widely and was active in several overlapping debates of his era. Studies of his work describe him as an important voice on sexual science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and also note his involvement in discussions about hypnosis, forensic testimony, and the limits of occult and spiritualist claims. His 1902 book on medical ethics is especially notable for giving more room to patient self-determination than many medical writings of the time.
Although his reputation later faded beside better-known contemporaries, scholars still see him as a major figure in the history of sexuality and medicine. His career shows how closely questions of science, law, morality, and public life could intersect in early twentieth-century Europe.