Igor Kon


Igor Semyonovich Kon was a Soviet and Russian philosopher, psychologist, and sexologist. His scientific publications have been translated into many languages, such as English, German, and French.

Biography

Kon was born in Leningrad. He was evacuated during the Siege of Leningrad and returned after the lifting of the blockade in 1944. He graduated from Herzen State Pedagogical University with a degree in history in 1947 and was awarded a candidate of sciences degree by the same university in 1950. He was awarded the doctor of sciences degree by Leningrad State University in 1959.
Kon worked at a variety of academic institutions between 1950 and 1974, holding positions at the Vologda Pedagogical Institute in 1950-52, the Leningrad Chemical-Pharmaceutical Institute in 1953-56, Leningrad State University in 1956-67, the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1967-68, the Institute of Concrete Social Research of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in 1968-72, and the Institute of Social Sciences in 1972-74. He has been chief researcher of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1974.
Kon was one of the first Soviet scholars to write textbooks on sociology. He is most famous as an expert on sexology and sexual health. He started studying these matters in the middle of the 1960s. His Vvedeniye v seksologiyu was written as a textbook for universities.
He believed that sexology cannot be confined to the bounds of medical problems, but rather is an independent interdisciplinary science rather than a branch of medicine. Interviewed by Sarah Keller for his profile in a 1989 issue of the American magazine Mother Jones, Kon stated: Kon was a member of numerous scientific societies, including the International Academy of Sex Research, the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology, the International Sociological Association, the Polish Academy of Sex Research, and the European Association for Adolescent Psychology. He was a member of the International Advisory Board of the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research.

Death

Igor Kon died in Moscow, aged 82, in 2011, from cancer.

Honors

Kon was awarded an honorary professorship from Cornell University in 1989 and received a doctor honoris causa degree from the University of Surrey in 1992.
In 2005, the World Association for Sexual Health awarded Kon its Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to sexology.

Publications