Rating: 
Summary: Why oh why oh why do you do me this way
Review: Dean Hamer, while working in his laboratory at the National Institute of Health, made headlines around the world when he discovered a genetic link to male homosexuality. From such notoriety comes this book, the essence of which is that ones behavior is much more a function of nature/genetics than it is of nurture or whether mother's dominance warped you for life. Hamer goes through the effects of your genetics as it relates to your personality; your propensity to seek thrills; your tendencies toward aggression, anger and violence; your capacity for addiction; your needs in regard to sex and love; your body weight and eating habits; your rate of aging; and your emotional temperament. And, guess what? The odds are about 70% genetic and 30% upbringing and character as to how you'll turn out as an adult. This book doesn't try to mystify the reader and is, in fact, easy to read. Hamer weaves in the stories of individuals in order to keep the reader glued to each individual's saga. The sine qua non comes with the twin studies. They've multiplied over the years and today offer an abundant body of proof in support of Hamer's assertions. The factual evidence is overwhelming in favor of genetics as the deciding factor in behavior. Read it and you will see. This book was published in 1998 which makes it quite old in the rapidly moving world of genetic research. Let me give you an example of what has happened in the interim. Not only have genes for fear and confidence been revealed, but a gene or constellation of genes has been posited for one's proclivity for belief in a higher order being, God. The Darwinian selection for such a trait comes from man's need to organize and work together in groups, in arduous circumstances, over long periods of time. Wow? I knew that profound unshakeable belief had to be genetic after talking to so many "true believer" anti-war protestors. The whole concept gives a new slant to Eric Hoffer's classic, "the True Believer". I've written often about man's seeming infinite capacity for self deception, but now I have, presto, a genetic component where none was available prior. The other half of this juxtaposition is man's inexhaustible need to feel morally virtuous, a way of puffing one's self-importance or so it seems from here. After you read this book, and if you've never read much on the genetic influences on your behavior, you might see yourself and many of your friends in a completely different light. I really enjoyed the experience of reading what Hamer has to say, and I believe you will too.
Rating:
Summary: Why oh why oh why do you do me this way
Review: Dean Hamer, while working in his laboratory at the National Institute of Health, made headlines around the world when he discovered a genetic link to male homosexuality. From such notoriety comes this book, the essence of which is that ones behavior is much more a function of nature/genetics than it is of nurture or whether mother's dominance warped you for life. Hamer goes through the effects of your genetics as it relates to your personality; your propensity to seek thrills; your tendencies toward aggression, anger and violence; your capacity for addiction; your needs in regard to sex and love; your body weight and eating habits; your rate of aging; and your emotional temperament. And, guess what? The odds are about 70% genetic and 30% upbringing and character as to how you'll turn out as an adult. This book doesn't try to mystify the reader and is, in fact, easy to read. Hamer weaves in the stories of individuals in order to keep the reader glued to each individual's saga. The sine qua non comes with the twin studies. They've multiplied over the years and today offer an abundant body of proof in support of Hamer's assertions. The factual evidence is overwhelming in favor of genetics as the deciding factor in behavior. Read it and you will see. This book was published in 1998 which makes it quite old in the rapidly moving world of genetic research. Let me give you an example of what has happened in the interim. Not only have genes for fear and confidence been revealed, but a gene or constellation of genes has been posited for one's proclivity for belief in a higher order being, God. The Darwinian selection for such a trait comes from man's need to organize and work together in groups, in arduous circumstances, over long periods of time. Wow? I knew that profound unshakeable belief had to be genetic after talking to so many "true believer" anti-war protestors. The whole concept gives a new slant to Eric Hoffer's classic, "the True Believer". I've written often about man's seeming infinite capacity for self deception, but now I have, presto, a genetic component where none was available prior. The other half of this juxtaposition is man's inexhaustible need to feel morally virtuous, a way of puffing one's self-importance or so it seems from here. After you read this book, and if you've never read much on the genetic influences on your behavior, you might see yourself and many of your friends in a completely different light. I really enjoyed the experience of reading what Hamer has to say, and I believe you will too.
Rating:
Summary: groundbreaking
Review: excellent evidence presented to support view of genetic role in predisposed personality development. includes how our genes might influence sex, addiction, hunger, disease, novelty-seeking, etc. conclusion on altering genetic tempermant is incredibly stimulating on the topic of bioethics.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I've been living with my genes for a long time now. It's like living with a violent, crazy family member, one that'll be nice one day, and bury a butcher knife in your back the next. This book reminds me how hopeless the whole thing is - the future belongs to the genetically perfect. Me? I'm disqualified -crooked, decay-prone teeth, eyeglasses, and male pattern baldness. Only the preppies will be allowed to breed. Guys like me will be hunted down and killed.
Rating:
Summary: This is a brilliant book
Review: It's a little dated. For instance, they thought that there would be approximately 100,000 genes in the human genome when there actually turned out to only be 40,000. It's hard to say enough good things about this book, but the most important good points are:
1. An extremely light, easy and engaging read. I finished the whole thing in 1 day.
2. There is some much needed discussion of heritability, something that is very commonly misunderstood popularly.
3. A very cogent explanation of why genetic determinism is not sufficient to explain behavior.
4. Separation of the concepts of "correlation" and "causation." This is something that "everybody knows" are two separate things, but this author actually went into the details with his illustration of the "Chopstick Gene" that is found in Asian people. He also talks about what it means when you have two populations with fairly similar averages, which is: There will be plenty of overlap between the populations, especially if the "spread" is sufficiently high.
5. His handling of the genetic origins of intelligence are very sensitive and balanced, as well as his discussion of what IQ tests measure.
6. The experimental detail in this book is not overwhelming. It's just enough so that you'll get a sense of what is being discussed (if you're a dabbler in Biological Science).
7. Several very thorough discussions of genes as a basis for behavior. Homosexuality, impulse taking, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but there's better to be found
Review: The book cover describes this book as "groundbreaking", but it's not. In fact, it's really quite light. In a fashion typical of psychologist, it tells many quaint stories about people that the authors seem to believe makes their discussion more interesting, but really just insults the readers' intelligence. This book makes a decent attempt to describe the relationship between genes and behavior. It's a good place to start. But it reads like it were written for first-year college students, and merely restates things that are much better stated elsewhere. If you want a book that does a MUCH better job, and is much better written, try Matt Ridley's excellent book "Genome", or his more dense "The Red Queen". And for serious books that truely are groundbreaking, try E.O. Wilson's "On Human Nature" or Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". Each of those books are significantly better than "Living With Our Genes."
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding synopsis of our biological roots
Review: The refutation of Dean Hamer's finding the gene for homosexuality mustn't deter readers from this important work. Ever since E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology, the biological role of behaviour is being earnestly scrutinized. Calamity howlers may regret that the concept of "free will" isn't as absolute as they might like, but there is clearly some link between our chemistry and our actions. Hamer and Copeland have brought together a summary of the most recent research in this field. Selecting a group of major behaviour areas, they relate how studies have shown correlations between genetics and personality. The focus is on comparative and correlated actions in twins. With increasing numbers of studies of twin behaviour in different environments being conducted around the world, the presentation is more than a little convincing. Most significantly, this book confronts us with questions that must be addressed. Hamer and Copeland don't attempt to claim that this book provides any final answers to the relationship of genes with our habits. They do ask us to review our thinking about the issue. It's vital work in the effort to find out who we are. Hamer and Copeland remind us that we're biological creatures, not minds being carried around by bodies. For decades zoologists described animal activity as "instincts, secure in the belief that animals could be trained, but not taught. Genetic research has shown this outlook is misleading. Living With Our Genes is the flip side of that view in showing human activity has strong biological roots. They accomplish this without adopting the absolutist view exhibited by earlier researchers. Going beyond simple statistics of behaviour patterns, they delve into the findings of geneticists who've identified specific gene expressions in the body. That our cells produce numerous chemical compounds is old news. A wide spectrum of pharmaceuticals is available to counteract or enhance a number of these chemical signals. What is only now coming to light, as Hamer and Copeland point out, is how these compounds work on the body and why. In their chapter on worry they discuss the research on serotonin, the "genetic Prozac". It turns out that in one segment of our DNA, there are more or less copies of the serotonin transporter gene. Such genes are naturally inheritable, giving a segment of the population a trend toward anxiety. Anger, and its expression in violence is another area of common concern. The authors provide an extensive description of various forms of anger expression. They stress that anger can be controlled - genetic expression is important, but not an absolute. As with anxiety, serotonin and its by-products provided an important clue in the study of violence. Molecular genetics has accomplished an incredible amount in the fifty years since the structure of DNA was revealed. Hamer's extensive bibliography is an indication of how much work has been achieved. Today the research is expanding into a new field called behavioural genetics. As one of the first understandable accounts of what's been and what needs to be done, it should be placed on your shelf alongside Matt Ridley's Genome.
Rating:
Summary: Behavioral genetics in isolation: useful but incomplete
Review: This book contains a good introduction to the concepts underlying behavioral genetics research, and its contribution to culture, but I can't recommend it as a source of scientific understanding about human nature. It does touch on research from other fields, but not in a consistent or thorough way, except to support its rhetorical purpose of popularizing the research explaining behavior in terms of genes. One of the great success stories of the science of our age has been the growing conceptual integration that has let us edge slowly past the philosophical anachronism of "nature or nurture ?" We no longer think that schizophrenics are people who had bad mothers, nor that there is a gene for nose-picking. We are learning to better define the categories we assign to people, and understand the context for our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, rather than applying simplistic labels like "creative," "moody," and even "intelligent." We are coming up with better combinations of methods for studying the contributions of the genome and the contribution of particular kinds of events in developmental and life history in determining the way we respond to particular kinds of situations. The young but energetic science of evolutionary psychology for example attempts to find patterns in human thinking that may have been adapted from uses in our evolutionary past, and therefore link our genome to influences on behavior. All of this is fascinating good science, even if it has a long way to go. On the other hand, the authors of this book appear to have no patience for things like the significance of context on behavior nor even the complexities of how different gene patterns combine to create multiple linked patterns in human behavior. They continue to search for specific genes for complex behaviors, in spite of the history of behavioral genetics being so far a series of claims to have found the magic gene for this or that, and then failing to replicate the finding. They continue to feed our hunger for simplistic explanations like a gene for women loving other women, or a gene for cigarette smoking, or for divorce or for overeating. The failure of this book to do justice to the vast science doesn't make it useless. Admittedly it would be a daunting task to truly cover all of the research and thinking that pertains. Certainly many people will find it satisfying to hear "at last" that their bad habits, obesity, social isolation, and unhappiness can be blamed on their genes. We all suspect this, in some way, and we are certainly at least partly right. But it is a hollow victory in the end. Gene patterns themselves are surely important, but not quite that important that we can abdicate responsibility for living up to committments, living a healthy lifestyle, and generally treating each other with humanity and morality. For those who don't realize the legitimate advances made in recent decades through twin studies and other behavioral genetics techniques, this provides a readable introduction to that field. But the reader has to understand that behavioral genetics research, left in a vacuum, leads to very misleading conclusions when it meets our human need for simplified explanations about why some people rape or steal or murder under certain conditions, why we marry and divorce, and why we act in particular ways with people in various situations. Good science dealing with complex human behaviors has to pull from a multitude of methods before solid conclusions can be drawn from it. When we pull from social sciences, behavioral sciences, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and genetics, among other fields, we get an emerging picture very different from the one presented in this book. We find human beings responding to their environment according to rough "ranges" and extremely complicated rules that link patterns of culture and biology over evolutionary time and cannot exist solely within either our genes or our culture. In spite of what we've learned, we still find ourselves entertained and engaged by popular literature that makes extreme claims about complex behaviors being in our genes, or in our free will, or in our "environment." We live largely within the stories of our own making. That's our genetic and evolutionary heritage, to be storytellers. We build the mythology of our time from engaging popular science writing like this, so we had better be careful to make that mythology one that empowers us rather than limits us unneccessarily.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but there's better to be found
Review: This book makes a decent attempt to describe the relationship between genes and behavior. Its cover describes this book as "groundbreaking", but it's not. In fact, it's really quite light. In a fashion typical of psychologist, it tells many quaint stories about people that the authors seem to believe makes their discussion more interesting, but really just insults the readers' intelligence. It's a good place to start. But it reads like it were written for first-year college students, and merely restates things that are much better stated elsewhere. If you want a book that does a MUCH better job, and is much better written, try Matt Ridley's excellent book "Genome", or his more dense "The Red Queen". And for serious books that truely are groundbreaking, try E.O. Wilson's "On Human Nature" or Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". Each of those books are significantly better than "Living With Our Genes."
Rating:
Summary: Good, but there's better to be found
Review: This book makes a decent attempt to describe the relationship between genes and behavior. Its cover describes this book as "groundbreaking", but it's not. In fact, it's really quite light. In a fashion typical of psychologist, it tells many quaint stories about people that the authors seem to believe makes their discussion more interesting, but really just insults the readers' intelligence. It's a good place to start. But it reads like it were written for first-year college students, and merely restates things that are much better stated elsewhere. If you want a book that does a MUCH better job, and is much better written, try Matt Ridley's excellent book "Genome", or his more dense "The Red Queen". And for serious books that truely are groundbreaking, try E.O. Wilson's "On Human Nature" or Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". Each of those books are significantly better than "Living With Our Genes."
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