* Hermann Musaph; Pioneer in Mother-Child Skin Contact Studies

Hermann Musaph, 77, whose work on the importance of skin contact between mother and child made him one of the leading sexologists of his generation. “He was one of the most important figures in European--if not world--sexology,” said Dr. Woet Gianotten, a medical sexologist at Rotterdam and Utrecht universities in the Netherlands. “He basically founded the field of psycho-dermatology,” Gianotten said. Musaph said that mother-child skin contact is essential for the child’s healthy psychological and sexual development. He claimed that much abnormal sexual behavior could be traced to touch deprivation in early years. With John Money of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Musaph wrote the standard work in the field, “Handbook of Sexology.” Musaph also was prominent in Dutch Jewish circles. His father, mother, brother and sister died in Nazi concentration camps. He wrote most of his graduation thesis while in hiding from the German wartime occupiers of the Netherlands. In Amsterdam on Wednesday of heart failure.