Criticism
Despite being comprehensive for its time, Patterns of Sexual Behavior nevertheless contained a number of self-imposed limitations. Ford and Beach limited their definition of sexual behavior to "behavior involving stimulation and excitation of the sexual organs," and made no attempt to explore sexual symbolism. While acknowledging that their study might have implications for psychology and psychoanalysis, Ford and Beach felt themselves unqualified to explore specific questions pertaining to this field. The authors claimed to make no judgements of moral value, though their study is considered supportive of sexual relativism.
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