As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As a Girl

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Summary: A chilling and moving story...
Review: An accident, an arrogant doctor, and an exploration of how we all have more to our gender than just our genitals. The book weaves a chilling and tragic tale that fortunately ends with a couragous choice by a real person. Before I read this book, I was not convinced that the difference between boys and girls was too much more than socialization and societal role models. Now, I am convinced of just the opposite. It may be easy to mock the premise, but it doesn't take more than half a dozen pages to discover the human tale told herein. I could not put this book down. It is well-written, well-reasoned, and very, very moving.

Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Story
Review: I read this book due to an interest in the Reimer case that I first heard about while in a General Psychology course. Now I am in a Hormone/Endocrinology course, and the case was once again brought to my attention. I found the reading to be easy and straight-forward. What I liked about the book was that it wasn't geared to those who are experts in the field. Instead it is a general interest book with a true-life story that is fascinating. Some parts tend to be a bit too lenghty, but otherwise good reading! -You probably won't want to put it down until you're finished!

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Summary: From a stricly uneducated layman's point of view....
Review: This was a riveting and heartbreaking revelation that help me to solidify my opinion on the nature/nurture question so often discussed, debated, and studied.

There were two distinct sections to this book; one detailed the events regarding the decisions, actions, and opinions of researchers and physicians working in the medial field; the other documented the unfortunate personal tragedies endured by Bruce/Brenda/David Reimer.

It is impossible to fault the parents in this dreadful set of circumstances. As such a large portion of the population, they were influenced entirely by the 'higher knowledge' of the experts in the field of medicine.

David, is course entirely blameless. He stands as the victim who survived and indeed emerges as a hero for having successfully lived through the daily horrors life offered him as a male forced to grow up as a girl. Horrors resulting from the taunts of confused schoolmates, the conflicts of his own internal frustration, the pain of observing a twin living a life that David wanted for his own, and mostly the mental and physical abuse heaped upon him year after year by the 'expert' John Money. The fact that David was able to fight for his own identity, determine his own fate, marry, and successfully regain control of his life stands as a monument to the inner strength this remarkable individual retained through all those painful and confusing years.

Less interesting in print, but even more enraging in content, were the details presented regarding the details of the botched circumcision, the decisions and more importantly (and angering) the reasons for those decisions made my Dr. Money and his peers, and the unbelievable actions of a man of education and medicine during the personals-therapy-sessions the twins endured with Dr. Money on an annual basis.

As a nation, we are so often become sheep, shedding our own inner feelings and beliefs and ignoring the alerts from our own bodies and minds, to blindly follow the directions of physicians and experts, most often without even a question. Even the review of this book appearing above from 'The New England Journal of Medicine, May 11, 2000' has somewhat misleading statements and presents a slightly canted view of this important case.

For although this is a case that was handled terribly wrong and repeately reported inaccurately for years, it is an important case in the field of gender identity because of the ultimate outcome.

It would be easy to determine that the decision to raise a male castrated in a shocking medical mistake as a female could have succeeded but for the highly inappropriate manipulation by Dr. Money. Easy to believe that, but for Dr. Money's blantant sexual abuse of the twins, Bruce may have come to accept his plight as Brenda, and never emerged as David. Easy to fantasize that the anger Brenda vented may never have arose had Dr. Money taken a more conventional apporach during therapy and a less sexually frightening and deviant method of exploring a child's already confused sexuality.

As diabolical as Dr. Money's actions were however, one cannot place the 'failed' outcome of his experiment on his mishandling of therapy. It has to be explained rather by his unfortunate original misunderstanding of how one's sexual identify is formed. A less arrogant, more discerning physician could have spotted his initial mistake and learned from it early on, saving David from a life of tragedy and moving the study of gender identity into new insights far earlier in medical history.

While this book is frustrating and painful to read, it is written for those unschooled in medicine and psychiatry to understand and to become educated and informed. If you have any interest in the nature/nurture question, this book will go a long way toward helping your sort our your feelings and beliefs. It makes for intriquing reading that would certainly be less painful if it were not true, for certainly it will stir your anger at the pride and arrogance at Dr. Money, while producing inspiration and admiration for the person who was always David.

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Summary: One of the best books I've read so far
Review: THANK YOU John for giving us a true insight and accounts of the lives of David. Your writing is clear, direct and certainly made reading it a pleasure.

And THANK YOU David for your willingness to share and recall for the benefit of others, for science and hopefully for yourself too. I salute your courage, determination and perseverence. This serves as a reminder to all that we've got to believe in ourselves.

This is certainly one of the best books I've read so far. I found myself choked with tears on certain encounters related by David. A MUST READ book.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding exploration
Review: Nature or nurture? How much of sexuality is in culture, and how much is written in our DNA? That question was the basis of a study decades ago, when a normal baby boy was raised as a baby girl, with results entirely opposite what were expected. The story of the outstandingly strong and courageous David Reimer is a fascinating read.

Bruce Reimer, one of two identical twins, lost his penis when a surgical circumcision went horribly wrong. His aghast parents eventually went to sex researcher Dr. John Money to see what could be done, and were convinced that they could raise Bruce -- renamed "Brenda" -- as a transsexual girl. After the beginning surgery, the parents began raising their son as a daughter. But masculinity proved to be more than skin-deep. "Brenda" proved to be tough, scrappy, disliked traditionally female clothing and tasks.

Throughout the years until adolescence, "Brenda" and Brian also had to deal with Dr. Money's intensely creepy inquisitiveness about sex, gender identity, and the two of them. The world accepted "Brenda" as an example of gender being entirely a matter of nurturing -- except that "Brenda" always identified "herself" as a boy, and upon reaching teen years, "her" voice began to crack and an attraction to teenage girls formed. The Reimer family was traumatized by the deception and strain, until "Brenda" was told the truth. He took on the name "David," began dressing like a man again, and has since married a compassionate, sweet woman and adopted her children.

This is an immensely disturbing book, and not just because of the events that started it off, but because of the cold, callous Dr. Money. Identifying his abusive father as being masculine, and living with a bunch of anti-male aunts and mom, he clearly had strong disdain for other men (one striking comment is his statement that women would be better off if all men were castrated), and a lot of radical sexual views that he used as bullets against experts who disagreed with him. One incredibly disturbing anecdote is when he forced the very young siblings Brian and "Brenda" to simulate sex, as well as showing them a lot of pornography and asking extremely graphic, personal questions that two young children should not have been asked. David's parents, despite their dogged willingness to go along with Money, are not portrayed as uncaring or stupid -- rather they were desperate to give their son some kind of happiness.

Despite being told almost entirely in quotes and articles, as well as many exclusive interviews with David and his family members, this book manages to really capture the reader's attention and not let go. While keeping an impartial distance from the drama, this book nevertheless draws the reader into the real-life events; it also gives a lot of information about hermaphrodites and what causes the condition. The pictures add a great deal: Some show how identical the twin boys were, despite the long hair and dresses that "Brenda" had. Others show David as he shifted back into the role he was born to, and ends with a beautiful picture of himself and his wife after their wedding.

This book never becomes sordid or sensationalistic, but tells it how it is. The story of David Reimer is a genuine "David and Goliath" story, extremely inspiring and disturbing. An eloquent and dignified book about a horrific real-life drama.

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Summary: Disturbing account of professional misconduct
Review: This book will make you very angry ' that a child could be so maltreated by an 'expert,' who clearly was in need of help himself, but who was so intent on proving a theory that he disregarded substantial evidence to the contrary. You'll be angry, too, with other professionals who were reluctant to challenge the 'great' man even when their own evidence pointed in an opposite direction. But you'll be astonished and satisfied by the incredible fortitude of a young child who realized that something was wrong and in his own way stood up to the extraordinary pressure that was put on him.
David Reimer was the victim of numerous mistakes. The first was a botched circumcision that essentially fried his penis. Then he became subject to the attempts of a famous sex researcher to verify his theories about the nature of gender development. The result was a lot of pain for David and his family.
Colapinto got permission from the family to write this book, and all conversations, everything in quotes, is from transcripts or documents. All the scarier.
It all began when David (then called Bruce) and his identical twin brother Brian were diagnosed with a condition called phimosis that circumcision normally repaired. Bruce was operated on first, but a serious mistake in the voltage levels of the electrical surgical device was made and his genitalia burned beyond salvage. The medical staff suggested that Bruce be raised as a girl. This was at a time when feminist theory, supported by some psychologists, proposed that gender identity had nothing to do with biology: it was all a social construct. Eventually, the parents were referred to Dr. Money at Johns Hopkins University. Money was a world-renowned sex researcher who apparently suffered from a multitude of sex hang-ups himself. Money had staked his reputation on the belief that sexual identity was socially determined, and he had worked with numerous transsexuals. When Bruce's parents showed up with an identical twin who had no male genitalia, it was an obvious answer to his prayers, for now he could develop data from a twin study to validate Money's theories. Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins had performed numerous sex reassignment surgeries on hermaphrodite children, but no such operation had ever been attempted on a child born with normal genitalia and nervous system, a distinction that the parents, Ron and Janet, never grasped until years later. Money's conviction was the procedure would be successful; 'I see no reason why it shouldn't work,' he told them. The decision had to be made early, because, according to his theory, there was a gender identity gate at which point the child was locked into a male or female identity. Bruce became Brenda and was raised as a girl. There were problems from the start, but Money insisted he was right and continued to promote the case as an example of the correctness of his theory of psychosexual neutrality at birth.
In the meantime, at the University of Kansas, a young researcher was studying the role of hormones on behavior, and in a paper published in the late fifties, he marshaled considerable evidence from biology, psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, and endocrinology to argue that gender identity is hardwired into the brain virtually from conception. Hermaphrodites had an inborn neurological capability to go both ways, a capability that genetically normal children would not share.
The researcher, Milton Diamond, was to become a thorn in Money's side as he marshaled considerable evidence of the role of prenatal hormones in determining gender identity. Money's accusation that Diamond's alliance with unscrupulous media caused the cessation of what would have been the culmination and piece de resistance of his life's work, the twin study, finally pushed Diamond to a public response in the form of a paper. Money's work was still being used to support the behaviorist proponents in the psychological community, who were still trying to 'convert' and 'change' adult homosexuals back to a heterosexual orientation. In the meantime, Money had been uncharacteristically silent what was occurring with the twins. Diamond managed to track down the psychiatrist,Keith Sigmundson, who had been working with Brenda/David in the intervening years. Having seen firsthand the implementation of Money's theories, Sigmundson, after reading Diamond's papers and convincing himself of Diamond's research integrity, agreed that something needed to be documented publicly as to the outcome of the case.
By this time, Brenda had become David, reverting to male, and had married. His parents, after years of therapy for the whole family, had finally broken with Money, and told Brenda of the genital removal. David had married and wanted to put everything behind him, but finally agreed to meet with Diamond. Realizing after their conversations that his case was being used as evidence to support the implementation of Money's theories in other cases, he decided he had to speak out. The resulting paper warned physicians of the dangers of surgical sexual reassignment, especially for intersexual newborns, since 'physicians have no way of predicting in which direction the infant's gender identity has differentiated.' Assigning a sex, i.e. name, hair length, and clothing, was one thing, but irreversible surgical intervention had to be avoided until the child was old enough to determine and articulate. 'To rear the child in a consistent gender ' but keep away the knife,' was the caveat expressed by as Diamond to Colapinto.
One of the more interesting side issues I think the book raises is the nature of authority, i.e. what constitutes being an expert. Certainly, being right, correct, and knowledgeable appears not to be criteria.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, horrifying, amazing story
Review: This is a simply astounding book. This man's journey cannot be described as anything other than amazing and horrifying. It's an amazing testament to nature's true force, as he knows something isn't right with him and that he feels like a boy, even though everyone tells him he's a girl. Nature is strong and won't be denied.
Dr. Money should be put in jail for child endangerment and sexually deviant behaviour.
Read this book. It is one of the best I"ve ever read.

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Summary: A book that's an experience!
Review: I really think this book is a must read. Gender identity is such a fascinating mystery that any new cues science and life give us about it are to be taken and in depth examined. As a psychologist, I really enjoyed the book, but I find its language very easy to understand by anybody, no matter which your profession is! The language is made very easy, as easy to understand are the many sufferences the boy who was raised as a girl went through. You will identify yourself with him and feel how unfair human justice may be! Pleas email me if you want to discuss about the book ;-)

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Summary: So many things to so many people
Review: If found this book fascinating, and I find discussions of it even more so. The story is so compelling that no one walks away unchanged. To some it is a triumph over adversity, to some a medical travesty, and to others it either validates or challenges their own system of beliefs.

To me it highlights how little we know about certain processes, and how hubris can sometimes lead even the most gifted minds down the wrong path - in this case with tragic results. Dr. Money's research into intersexed individuals was groundbreaking, but his interpretation of those results and how they might apply to those who did not fall into the middle ground were grossly mistaken. It also hints at a biological cause for such socially troubling phenomena as homosexuality and transgenderism by providing such a graphic counterexample.

Gender identity is so basic, so primitive that 99.9% of the people on this planet never examine or question it, but this book forces us to look at these issues and how we as a society cope with variations from the norm. It gives us profound evidence that such questions cannot be ignored. One thing is certain, one cannot help but be touched by the story of David's battle to beat his own personal Goliath of gender.

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Summary: Couldn't put it down, read it in one sitting
Review: This book is excellent example of the tragic circumstances when we refuse to question the "experts". Dr John Money is a monster who used his position for his weird sexual interests .He makes Dr Frankinstein look like Mr. Rogers and should have been arrested for child molestation, for starters.
I found the account of David's life written with passion and care. The author seems to leave no stone unturned. Although one of the scariest stories I have ever heard, it's one that should be read. David's suffering will continue as long as Doctors such as his are allowed to continue without scrutiny.
Extremely interesting, tragic, loving, shocking, couragious, infuriating and full of ignorance and wisdom. The author should be comended for taking on this difficult story and handling it professionally and with care. He makes it very clear and readable. Read this book.