Lonnie Barbach's Intimacy Revolution
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- Dr. Lonnie Barbach published For Yourself: The Fulfillment of Female Sexuality in 1975 through Doubleday.
- For Yourself sold over 1 million copies and was translated into 18 languages, becoming a foundational text of second-wave feminist sexuality.
- Barbach co-founded the first pre-orgasmic women's group at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco in 1972.
- Shared Intimacies (1980) compiled interviews with 120 women discussing sex, relationships, and pleasure — the first such anthology framed as psychology, not erotica.
- The Intimate Male (1984), co-authored with Linda Levine, extended Barbach's clinical model to male sexuality and emotional intimacy.
- Barbach served as an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Francisco throughout her publishing career.
For Yourself — Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D.
The book that launched a thousand orgasms — literally.
For Yourself wasn't the first book to mention female pleasure, but it was the first to treat it as a clinical problem with a clinical solution. Barbach's nine-step "Bodywork Program" — a self-guided course in anatomy, masturbation, and communication — became the blueprint for sex therapy in the 1970s and 80s. The prose is warm, the advice is frank, and the foxed pages of vintage copies carry the weight of being passed hand-to-hand through women's consciousness-raising groups. This is the one that changed the conversation. Explore our current copy of For Yourself or browse more Science books at Patina.
For Each Other — Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D.
The relationship-focused sequel that moved pleasure from solo practice to shared experience.
Published in 1982, For Each Other picks up where For Yourself left off: you've learned your own body, now how do you bring that knowledge into a partnership? Barbach draws on case studies from her private practice to walk couples through communication breakdowns, mismatched desire, and the politics of bedroom equity. It's less prescriptive than For Yourself — more of a field guide than a workbook — but the clinical backbone is the same. The yellowed pages and creased spines of secondhand copies hint at how many bedside tables this has lived on. Explore our current copy of For Each Other or browse more Science books at Patina.
Shared Intimacies — Lonnie Barbach
The oral history of women's sexual liberation, told in their own voices.
Shared Intimacies (1980) compiles interviews with 120 women — ages 18 to 73, straight and queer, married and single — about sex, pleasure, fantasy, and disappointment. Barbach positions it as research, not titillation, and the framing works: the book became a bestseller and a touchstone for women who'd never seen their own experiences reflected in print. It's part sociology, part self-help, part radical honesty. As of July 2026, Patina's Science collection includes rotating copies of Barbach's interview-based work alongside clinical guides like The Hite Report (1976). Explore our current copy of Shared Intimacies or browse more Science books at Patina.
The Intimate Male — Linda Levine and Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D.
The book that asked men to talk about sex — and then actually listened.
Co-authored with therapist Linda Levine in 1984, The Intimate Male applies Barbach's interview model to 120 men discussing performance anxiety, emotional intimacy, and the gap between cultural expectations and lived experience. It's a compassionate, clear-eyed look at male vulnerability in an era that didn't have much patience for it. The mass-market paperback format and worn covers of secondhand copies suggest this circulated quietly — passed between friends, not displayed on coffee tables. Explore our current copy of The Intimate Male or browse more Science books at Patina.
Pleasures: Women Write Erotica — Lonnie Barbach (Editor)
The anthology that reframed women's desire as art, not pathology.
Published in 1984, Pleasures is Barbach's pivot from clinical writing to literary curation. She anthologised short fiction by women about sex, pleasure, fantasy, and power — work that would've been dismissed as "bodice-rippers" if men had written it. The contributors include literary heavyweights (Anaïs Nin) and unknowns; the tone ranges from tender to transgressive. It's the book that said women's erotica deserved the same shelf space as men's — and got it. Explore our current copy of Pleasures or browse more Science books at Patina.
The Erotic Edge — Lonnie Barbach
The late-career guide that brought fantasy, role-play, and experimentation into the clinical mainstream.
Published in 1994, The Erotic Edge marked Barbach's shift from foundational education to advanced practice. By the mid-90s, her audience had read For Yourself and For Each Other; this book was for couples ready to push boundaries. Barbach covers fantasy exploration, role-play, and the erotics of power exchange with the same clinical clarity she brought to anatomy in 1975. The mass-market paperback format and creased spines of vintage copies hint at how many suitcases this travelled in. Explore our current copy of The Erotic Edge or browse more Science books at Patina.
Barbach's work sits alongside Betty Dodson's Sex for One (1974), Shere Hite's The Hite Report (1976), and Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden (1973) as the architecture of second-wave sex-positive feminism. What set her apart was the clinical framing: she wasn't a journalist or an artist, she was a therapist with data. That's why the books still hold up — they're built on research, not hot takes. Shop all Science books at Patina Paperbacks →
Where can I buy secondhand copies of Lonnie Barbach's books in Australia?
Patina Paperbacks stocks rotating preloved copies of Barbach's major works — For Yourself, For Each Other, Shared Intimacies, The Intimate Male, Pleasures, and The Erotic Edge — as vintage 1970s–90s sexuality guides. We're a Sydney-based online bookshop with 13,000+ secondhand titles and free shipping over $29 Australia-wide. Check our Science collection for current stock.
What's the difference between For Yourself and For Each Other?
For Yourself (1975) is a solo self-help guide focused on female anatomy, masturbation, and orgasm — essentially a workbook for learning your own body. For Each Other (1982) is the relationship sequel, applying that knowledge to partnered sex, communication, and navigating mismatched desire. Read For Yourself first if you're starting from scratch; For Each Other works best as a follow-up.
Are Lonnie Barbach's books still relevant in 2025?
Honestly, yes. The clinical advice holds up because it's grounded in anatomy and communication, not trends. The cultural framing is dated — Barbach wrote for a straight, partnered, cisgendered audience in the 1970s and 80s — but the core work on desire, boundaries, and sexual self-knowledge translates. If you can read past the heteronormative default, there's real substance here.
Which Lonnie Barbach book should I start with?
Start with For Yourself if you want a structured program in sexual self-knowledge, or Shared Intimacies if you prefer oral history and first-person accounts. For Yourself is the foundational text; Shared Intimacies is the more accessible, story-driven entry point. Both work as standalone reads.
What other vintage sexuality guides pair well with Barbach's work?
Betty Dodson's Sex for One (1974), Shere Hite's The Hite Report (1976), and Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden (1973) form the second-wave feminist sexuality canon alongside Barbach. Dodson is more radical and DIY; Hite is more data-driven and sociological; Friday is more focused on fantasy and taboo. All four authors were in conversation with each other — and with the broader women's liberation movement.