Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: This book disturbed me so much. The story of this boys life was so difficult to read that at points I had to put the book down. I had never heard of this case until we choose it for our bookclub. It broke my heart. It is such a testimonial to how when we feel lost we can be swayed by what we want to hear. This child suffered so much in the name of science. The entire family became a victim of this horrible doctor. How did he go on for as long as he did using the tactics he did? Thank goodness there were ethical people out there who intervened in this child's life.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredible tale of courage and survival!
Review: This book tells the incredible story of Bruce Reimer--Brenda Reimer--David Reimer. His story is one of inspiration and survival, and the face of incredible odds.After a botched circumscision, he was "reassigned" as a girl, as a modern experiement in the "nature vs. nurture" argument. In a scientist's dream, David is one of a pair of identical twins, so the experiment truly had a control. The experiment failed. You can't simply dress someone in girl's clothing and convince them to be a girl. Biology isn't so simple. These are the facts. The story behind them will amaze you. I am awestruck that David has survived this ordeal, that he is happily married, and is so down to earth. He seemingly holds no animosity towards his parents, who were doing the best that they can. He has a common sense attitude towards his ordeal, as well as his manhood. The book also discusses the personalities of the various physicians and psychologists who were involved in the case. The science in the book is simple, and explained well to the layman. What I liked best about this book, was its lack of sensationalism. It tells the story simply, with first person interviews, and relies on factual data. It is an inspiring story of a man who knew who and what he was, his parents who tried their best to do what was right for him, and a psychologist who let his research get in the way of his scientific objectivity.
Rating:
Summary: Learning to Embrace
Review: It was the title of the book that caught my eye. " The Boy Who was Raised as a Girl"? The title was interesting, but the summary at the back of the book was even more interesting. "In 1967, after a baby boy suffered a botched circumcision, his family agreed to a radical treatment. . . the boy was surgically altered to live as a girl . . . But the case was a failure from the outset. From the start, the famous twin had, infact, struggled against his imposed girlhood. John Colapinto tells this extraordinary story for the first time. A macabre tale of medical arrogance . . . " After reading this, I felt a compelling desire to read the book. I started the first chapter and couldn't put it down. I learned so much from this book, it gave me so much knowledge and information that is usually taboo in "proper" society. It is important that we as a society come to embrace people who have suffered these kinds of tragedies (not necessarily a "botched circumcision, but tragedies such as being born with undeveloped parts, etc.), to not push them away; making them feel alone and isolated. It was not David's fault that this event happened to him, and we should not punish him like it is; and that is the important thing I learned from the book. The fact that he overcame his hardship is his biggest success. After finishing the book, I couldn't wait to share it with my friends, and I hope you will feel the same after you finish it too!
Rating:
Summary: a harrowing story, brilliantly told
Review: The story of David Reimer is gripping, heartbreaking, enraging, and finally deeply moving. Reading this book will leave you with grave doubts about the medical profession, its self-appointed experts, and the devastating impact that bad ideas and big egos can have on the lives of ordinary people. John Colapinto's achievement is amazing. He maintains a rigorously objective tone throughout the book, never hectoring the reader with over-obvious moralizing, even when describing the most horrendous abuses. The result is that the reader is given the material to make his/her own judgements. These will be severe: it's impossible to read the book without becoming deeply angry both at John Money, who appears to be far more interested in his own prestige than in the well-being of his patients, and at David's other doctors, many of whom were too cowardly to challenge the opinion of the powerful Dr. Money. The book ends with David's own judgement on what happened to him, rendered with extraordinary clarity from the perspective of adulthood; it is eloquent, just, and unforgettable. I join other readers of this amazing book in congratulating David on the dignity with which he has come to terms with the hurts inflicted on him during his terrible childhood. He is a great human being.
Rating: 
Summary: A Note from the Lab
Review: I was a research assistant in John Money's lab for five years, during the time when this subject was "lost to followup" -- in other words, not in contact with the lab. I think this gives me a few bits of perspective on this case, and on sex research in general, which I think the book could have used. (Or at least maybe some readers can :) This book seems to want to scapegoat John Money as "the bad doctor" who ruined a boy. But John Money was a researcher in Baltimore, trying to deal with a case of a child living in Canada. He saw the child once a year, for an uncomfortable interview -- I find it peculiar that the book mentions the woman in the lab who did most of the work with children only once, for a single sentence. The book characterizes the parents as "bewildered and trusting" -- but they also appear to have been willing to lie, including to Dr. Money, to keep up their own appearance of success. I'm not sure by what sort of clairvoyant methods the authors would have expected Dr. Money to figure out how to have handled the case better. In retrospect, it's easy to see several things that were badly wrong with the way the case went. A mass of scar tissue that spurts urine straight out of the belly is not a normal girl's genitalia -- but that is the fault of the surgeons, and perhaps of a sexist belief that "if it's not a penis, it must be okay for a girl". Little girls should not be forced to wear skirts in freezing weather. It's hard to be at all "unconventional" in a society that insists on strictly assigning individuals to roles. And a once-a-year visit to a faraway city is not adequate medical supervision for a child being raised on the cutting edge of medical technology. On another peculiar note, the genitally-damaged twin is always cast as the "masculine" one compared to the non-damaged twin, whose knowledge of and comfort with "feminine" things is used over and over again to highlight the "masculinity" of Brenda/David. At the same time, the authors preach the gospel of hormones and chromosomes in determining gender identity. But the non-reassigned twin was, in all of those ways, exactly the same. So I have to say I found these "contrasts" ironic, if not disingenuous. Science is the pursuit of knowledge. It's not like real scientists can look up the "correct answer" at the back of the textbook; you have to keep going and thinking and keep your mind open to the process. Medicine is the even more difficult process of trying to apply scientific knowledge, which may or may not be adequate, to the lives of human beings in need. If you attempt either science or medicine, you need to accept that you are not going to be right all the time, even working with the best of intentions and the best information available to you. The same is even more true, of course, of parenting -- especially of being a parent to a child in a situation you never imagined having to deal with. Anyway. I'd recommend anybody interested in issues such as these to look at the work of the Intersex Society of North America [...]. I'd also recommend a longer, harder look at John Money's greater body of work before you draw judgement about it. Or just ask yourself -- what would you have done, and why?
Rating:
Summary: Provoking, Shocking, Disturbing
Review: I bought this book a while ago, but hadn't got around to read it until now. If I only knew what kind of treat that was waiting for me, I sure would have started reading it right away! As soon as I started reading this book, I was hooked. I read it just a few sittings, completely fascinated by Bruce/Brenda/David's history. We meet the twins Bruce and Brian and their parents, Ron and Janet Reimers from Winnipeg, Canada. The twins did, at 7 months old, have problems urinating. Janet takes them to the doctor, and they decide that to avoid more infections/problems, the twins should be circumcised. And it is during this routine procedure that the disastrous accident happens - the doctor burns off little Bruce's penis. [The tragic irony is that his twin brother, Brian (who, of course after what happened to Bruce, did not have the operation), got well after a few weeks, and never experienced similar problems later...] So, what was to be a "5-minute routine operation" is now turned into a disaster for the young, and not very well educated, couple (just turned 19 and 20). They now have to decide what to do. Surgical (very painful) operations to rebuild what's left of Bruce's penis (very little or nothing), or the later introduced option - a full sex change (castration, removal of his male organs, and surgically making a vagina) and raise the boy as a girl. Although sceptical to the procedure, the medical expert Dr. Money manages to convince the young couple that Bruce will be better off as Brenda, and that s/he will grow up as any other girl with the exception of having children of her own. The parents follow Dr. Money's directions one hundred percent, and then some. Brenda always dressed in girly clothes, encouraged to play with dolls etc. But already at a very early stage it is quite clear that Brenda is, at best "tomboyish", and more "boyish" than her quieter twin brother, Brian. At age 14, Brenda decides to live as a boy. S/he starts the painful procedure of reversing the effect of the estrogens s/he had been forced to take for a couple of years. Bruce/Brenda/David suffered so much growing up. More than we can ever imagine. Sadly, much of it because of the medical expert, Dr. Money. An arrogant doctor who let his pride and career get it the way for common sense. He wanted to prove his theory no matter what price his patient(s) had to pay. "As nature made him" is one of the most provoking books I have read in a long time. Thanks to David's unbelievably strong spirit this book has a happy ending. I am not going to say that I know how much he has suffered. Because I don't - and I never will. I just have to admire him, and be grateful that he was strong enough to share his story. Highly recommended. 5 stars for David!
Rating: 
Summary: A true story that stuns you
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend taking a psychological course. It is about a baby Bruce (later known as David) who lost his manhood in a mistake made by the surgeon. His parents decided to nurture him as a girl, Brenda. Brenda grew up without knowing that (s)he was born a he.
One can feel the trauma this family went through, with Brenda being unpopular in her social life for her tomboyish behavior, being labelled as a freak, and experiencing identity crisis as (s)he did not see him(her)self as a girl. It was not until (s)he was 15 years old when (s)he learnt the truth.
This story makes you feel that the society views losing a penis as a greater handicap than losing a limb. Readers will be glad to know that David has a wonderful marriage in the end. I would have graded this book five stars except that some of the parts are quite technical and I rushed through those. Overall, it's a wonderful book that makes you feel how vulnerable one is during a surgery, that accidents do happen despite all the assurance you get from doctors.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Expose of Psychobabbling Shrinks!
Review: It's high time a book like this came out on the market: one that reveals the long-term effects of perilously bad 'therapy' as practiced on helpless children. The fact that the psychiatrist in question in this book was making the twins strip naked and play sex-role games behind the (conveniently for the 'doctor') closed door of his office when they were SIX YEARS OLD is just plain sick, ridiculous and disgusting! Yet it is also quite common among the so-called psychological 'experts' to put a sexual spin on absolutely EVERY facet of life, even a child's life, even the lives of children who are far too young to be thinking of sex. This book should serve as a cautionary tale for any parent who thinks it's 'okay' to hand their parental power and their child over to a so-called 'expert' and let the child be 'treated' by mindless - and scientifically unproven - psychological theories, not to mention the sort of people who gravitate to them and become practicioners of them. Think about it for a moment: what kind of person needs to pick children's minds, hearts and souls APART by using unproven theories as a CAREER CHOICE? That David remained sane at all is a miracle and a testament to what a wonderful human being David obviously is, because the shrink he was dragged to basically raped the poor little child's mind, and not once, but over and over and over. I wish all the best in all the world to David...and I also wish that some legislation could be enacted to prevent shrinks like the one who abused David from imposing their repugnant views on any more children!
Rating:
Summary: A STORY THAT PROVOKES EVERY EMOTION!
Review: As one reads the true-life story of David Reimer, one will be affected by almost every emotion. There will be saddness for the horrifying life David was forced to live during his childhood, and relentless anger at Dr. John Money who, himself, should have been committed to a psychiatric facility or faced a hefty prison term for the acts committed upon David and his twin all in the name of treatment. How many of us could possibly imagine the emotional or physical horrors of being raised as the opposite sex of what one was born to be, to be stripped of your name, self-identity and all the charastictics that make you who you are as an individual? David tells his story in a manner that grips the reader's attention from page one and never lets go. One, however, will also be left with a sense of joy and peace as David miraculously finds his true self and puts the pieces of his life back together against all odds. A fascinating, though often difficult account to read, and definitely worth a rating of five-stars plus!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating..................WELL WRITTEN.................
Review: This book definitely qualifies as one of my all time favorites. As an avid reader, I'm sure to include this book on my shelf to be lent out to my friends and family. Thank-you David for allowing your story to be told. Countless people will find inspiration in your courageous story. What struck me the most in this book was young Brenda's correct intuition about Dr. Money. She did not like him right from the start and dreaded the yearly visits to his clinic to the point of threatening suicide if she had to return again. Also, she had feelings of not being right with her gender from the beginning. Maybe after enough people read this book, scientists will be pressured to stop performing the likes of genital mutilation. John Colapinto, you did a wonderful job writing this story - very interesting and well researched. I'd love to read a follow up to this book.
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