John Money

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John Money
Born (1921-07-08)8 July 1921
Morrinsville, New Zealand
Died 7 July 2006(2006-07-07) (aged 84)
Towson, Maryland
Fields Psychology

John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a psychologist, sexologist and author, specializing in research into sexual identity and biology of gender. He has been the subject of controversy due to his work with the sex-reassignment of David Reimer.[1]

Biography

Born in Morrinsville, New Zealand to a Plymouth Brethren family, Money initially studied psychology at Victoria University of Wellington,[2] graduating with a double master's degree in psychology and education at the end of 1944.[3] Money was a junior member of the psychology faculty at the University of Otago in Dunedin, but in 1947, at the age of 26, he emigrated to the United States to study at the Psychiatric Institute of the University of Pittsburgh. He left Pittsburgh and earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1952. He was married briefly in the 1950s but had no children.

Money proposed and developed several theories and related terminology, including gender identity, gender role,[4] gender-identity/role, and lovemap. Money was a professor of paediatrics and medical psychology at Johns Hopkins University from 1951 until his death. While there, Money was involved with the Sexual Behaviors Unit, which ran studies on sex-reassignment surgery. He received the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 2002 from the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research.

Money was an early supporter of New Zealand's arts, both literary and visual. He was a noted friend and supporter of author Janet Frame. In 2002, as his Parkinson's disease worsened, Money donated a substantial portion of his art collection to the Eastern Southland Art Gallery in Gore, New Zealand.[5] In 2003, the New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, opened the John Money wing at the Eastern Southland Gallery.[6]

Money died 7 July 2006, in Towson, Maryland,[7] of complications from Parkinson's disease.[8]

Sexological books

Sexual identity, gender identity and gender roles

Money's definition of gender is based on his understanding of sex differences among human beings. According to Money, the fact that one sex produces ova and the other sex produces sperm is the irreducible criterion of sex difference. However, there are other sex-derivative differences that follow in the wake of this primary dichotomy.

These differences involve the way urine is expelled from the human body and other questions of sexual dimorphism. According to Money's theory, sex-adjunctive differences are typified by the smaller size of females and their problems in moving around while nursing infants. This then makes it more likely that the males do the roaming and hunting. Sex-arbitrary differences are those that are purely conventional: for example, color selection (baby blue for boys, pink for girls). Some of the latter differences apply to life activities, such as career opportunities for men versus women.

Finally, Money created the now-common term gender role, which he differentiated from the concept of the more traditional terminology sex role. According to Money, the genitalia and erotic sexual roles were now, by his definition, to be included under the more general term "gender role;" including all the non-genital and non-erotic activities that are defined by the conventions of society to apply to males or to females.

Money made the concept of gender a broader, more inclusive concept than one of masculine/feminine. For him, gender included not only one's status as a man or a woman, but was also a matter of personal recognition, social assignment, or legal determination; not only on the basis of one's genitalia but also on the basis of somatic and behavioural criteria that go beyond genital differences.

Gender identity is one's own categorisation of one's individuality as male, female, or ambivalent as experienced in self-awareness of one's own mental processes and one's own actual behaviour.

Gender role is the public manifestation of one's gender identity, the things that one says and that one does that gives people a basis for inferring whether one is male, female, or fits neither of those categories.

To stress the idea that gender identity and gender role are two aspects of the same thing, Money coined a new term: Gender-Identity/Role, which he frequently abbreviated as "G-I/R."

Money also coined the term lovemap.

In 1972, Money presented his theories in Man & Woman, Boy & Girl, a college-level, mainstream textbook. The book featured David Reimer (see below) as a case in point.

"Gay, Straight and In-Between: The Sexology of Erotic Orientation"

In this book (Oxford 1988: 116), Money develops a conception of 'bodymind,' as a way for scientists, in developing a science about sexuality, to move on from the platitudes of dichotomy between nature versus nurture, innate versus the acquired, biological versus the social, and psychological versus the physiological. He suggests that all of these capitalise on the ancient, pre-Platonic, prebiblical conception of body versus the mind, and the physical versus the spiritual. In coining the term bodymind, in this sense, Money wishes to move beyond these very ingrained principles of our folk or vernacular psychology.

Money also develops here (Oxford 1988: 114–119) a view of "Concepts of Determinism," which, transcultural, transhistorical, and universal, all people have in common, sexologically or otherwise. These include pairbondage, troopbondage, abidance, ycleptance, foredoomance, with these coping strategies: adhibition (engagement), inhibition, explication.

Money suggests that the concept of threshold (Oxford 1988: 115) – the release or inhibition of sexual (or other) behaviour – is most useful for sex research as a substitute for any concept of motivation. Moreover, it confers the distinct advantage of having continuity and unity to what would otherwise be a highly disparate and varied field of research. It also allows for the classification of sexual behaviour. For Money, the concept of threshold has great value because of the wide spectrum to which it applies. "It allows one to think developmentally or longitudinally, in terms of stages or experiences that are programmed serially, or hierarchically, or cybernetically (i.e. regulated by mutual feedback)." (Oxford 1988: 116)

In this book, Money (1988: 127–128) suggests that love is like a Rorschach (ink blot) test, where, if projections (shaped by a bodymind's lovemap) on the other are mutual, pair-bonding occurs, typically in a courtship phase of mating.

Controversies

Sex reassignment of David Reimer

Main article: David Reimer

During his professional life, Money was respected as an expert on sexual behaviour, especially for allegedly demonstrating that gender was learned rather than innate. Many years later, however, it was revealed that his most famous case was fundamentally flawed. The subject was the sex reassignment of David Reimer, in what later became known as the "John/Joan" case.[9]

In 1966, a botched circumcision left David Reimer (aged 8 months) without a penis. Partly based on Money's recommendation, fourteen months later Reimer was reassigned as female by having his testes removed and being renamed Brenda. Money further recommended hormone treatment (which was done) and surgical creation of a vagina (which was not done). Money published a number of papers reporting the reassignment as successful.

In 1997, Milton Diamond reported that the reassignment had failed, that Reimer had never identified as female or behaved in a typically feminine manner, having switched from female to male hormone treatments and taken a male name (David) as a teenager.[1] Allegations were made that Money had falsified research, while Money's defenders responded that he had only seen Reimer once a year for much of the time Money was involved in the case, had no contact at all with the Reimer family after about 1978, and that during the annual visits the Reimer family had lied to lab staff about the child's progress.

In 2000, David and his twin brother (Brian) alleged that Dr. Money had taken numerous naked photos of the twins during their treatment and had forced them to engage in "sexual play" at age 7. In 2002, David's twin brother was found dead from an overdose of the drugs used to treat his schizophrenia. On 5 May 2004, shortly after being asked by his wife for a separation, Reimer committed suicide. Reimer's parents have stated that they believe Dr. Money's methodology was responsible for the deaths of both of their sons.[10]

Money claimed that media response to the exposé was due to right-wing media bias and "the antifeminist movement." He claimed his detractors believed "masculinity and femininity are built into the genes so women should get back to the mattress and the kitchen."[11] However, intersex activists also criticised Money, stating that the unreported failure had led to the surgical reassignment of thousands of infants as a matter of policy.[12] Privately, Money was mortified by the case, colleagues said, and as a rule did not discuss it.[13] Money's own views also developed and changed over the years.[1][14]

Pedophilia opinions

John Money was critical in debates on chronophilias, including infantophilia, ephebophilia, and paedophilia. He felt that both sexual researchers and the public do not make distinctions between affectional paedophilia and sadistic paedophilia. Money believed that affectional paedophilia was about love and not sex.

If I were to see the case of a boy aged ten or eleven who's intensely erotically attracted toward a man in his twenties or thirties, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual ... then I would not call it pathological in any way.[15][16]

His view was that affectional paedophilia is caused by a surplus of parental love that became erotic, and is not a behavioural disorder. Rather, he felt that heterosexuality is another example of a societal and therefore, a superficial, ideological concept.[15][16]

Bibliography

  • Money, John. (1952). Hermaphroditism: An Inquiry into the Nature of a Human Paradox. Thesis (Ph.D.), Harvard University.
  • Money, John. (1957). The Psychologic Study of Man. Thomas: ASIN B0007E4LMC
  • Money, John. (1972). A Standardized Road-Map Test of Direction Sense (1965) Academic Therapy Publications: ASIN B0006WTB2K. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 1-56821-812-5
  • Money, John, and Patricia Tucker. (1975). Sexual Signatures on Being a Man or a Woman. Little Brown & Co: ISBN 0-316-57825-8
  • Money, John. (1980). Love and Love Sickness: the Science of Sex, Gender Difference, and Pair-Bonding, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-2317-X, ISBN 0-8018-2318-8 (pbk.)
  • Money, John. (1985). The Destroying Angel: Sex, Fitness & Food in the Legacy of Degeneracy Theory, Graham Crackers, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes & American Health History. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-277-7
  • Money, John. (1986). Lovemaps: Clinical Concepts of Sexual/Erotic Health and Pathology, Paraphilia, and Gender Transposition in Childhood, Adolescence, and Maturity. New York: Irvington. ISBN 0-8264-0852-4
  • Money, John. (1986). Venuses Penuses: Sexology, Sexosophy, and Exigency Theory. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-327-7
  • Money, John. (1988) Gay, Straight, and In-Between: The Sexology of Erotic Orientation. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-505407-5
  • Money, John. (1989). Vandalized Lovemaps: Paraphilic Outcome of 7 Cases in Pediatric Sexology. Prometheus Books: ISBN 0-87975-513-X
  • Money, John, and H. Musaph (eds). (1991). Biographies of Gender and Hermaphroditism. Elsevier Publishing Company: ISBN 0-444-81403-5
  • Money, John, Gordon Wainwright, and David Hingsburger. (1991). The Breathless Orgasm: A Lovemap Biography of Asphyxiophilia. Prometheus Books: ISBN 0-87975-664-0
  • Money, John. (1992). The Kaspar Hauser Syndrome of "Psychosocial Dwarfism": Deficient Statural, Intellectual, and Social Growth Induced by Child Abuse. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-754-X
  • Money, John. (1993). The Adam Principle: genes. genitals, hormones, and gender: Selected readings in sexology. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-804-X
  • Ronald W. Keyes and John Money. (1993). The Armed Robbery Orgasm: A Lovemap Autobiography of Masochism. Prometheus Books: ISBN 0-87975-856-2
  • Money, John. (1994). Principles of Developmental Sexology. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1026-X
  • Money, John. (1994). Reinterpreting the Unspeakable: Human Sexuality 2000 : The Complete Interviewer and Clinical Biographer, Exigency Theory, and Sexology for the Third. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-0651-3
  • Money, John. (1994). Sex Errors of the Body and Related Syndromes: A Guide to Counseling Children, Adolescents, and Their Families , 2nd ed. Baltimore: P.H. Brooks Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55766-150-2
  • Krivacska, James J., and John Money, eds. (1994). The Handbook of Forensic Sexology: Biomedical & Criminological Perspectives. Prometheus: ISBN 0-87975-883-X
  • Money, John. (1995). Gendermaps: Social Constructionism, Feminism, and Sexosophical History. New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-0852-4
  • Money, John, and Anke Ehrhardt. (1996). Man & Woman, Boy & Girl: Gender Identity from Conception to Maturity. Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson. Originally published:
  • Money, John. (1999). The Lovemap Guidebook: A Definitive Statement. Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1203-3

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Diamond M, Sigmundson HK (1997). Sex reassignment at birth. Long-term review and clinical implications. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 1997 Mar; 151(3):298–304. PMID 9080940. Full text
  2. ↑ (10 July 2006) Kiwi sexologist dies in US hospital, New Zealand Herald
  3. ↑ "John Money, PhD". Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Retrieved 15 April 2008. 
  4. ↑ Diamond, Milton. (2004). ‘Sex, gender, and identity over the years: a changing perspective’, Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 13: 591–607. PMID 15183375 Full text
  5. ↑ Brewington, Kelly (9 July 2006). Dr. John Money 1921–2006: Hopkins pioneer in gender identity. Baltimore Sun
  6. ↑ http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0312/S00341.htm
  7. ↑ Highleyman, Liz (3 August 2006). "Sex researcher John Money dies". The Bay Area Reporter. Retrieved 1 March 2009. 
  8. ↑ Fitzgerald, John Warner (9 July 2006). "Obituaries in the News". Associated Press via Fox News. Retrieved 1 March 2009. 
  9. ↑ Dr. Money And The Boy With No Penis Retrieved 24 December 2010.
  10. ↑ "Born a Boy, Raised as a Girl" Documentary, The Learning Channel
  11. ↑ Walker, Jesse (24 May 2004). The Death of David Reimer: A tale of sex, science, and abuse. Reason
  12. ↑ Who was David Reimer (also, sadly, known as "John/Joan")? via Intersex Society of North America. Retrieved 10 July 2006.
  13. ↑ Carey, Benedict (11 July 2006). John William Money, 84, Sexual Identity Researcher, Dies, New York Times
  14. ↑ Wisniewski AB, Migeon CJ, Gearhart JP, Rock JA, Berkovitz GD, Plotnick LP, Meyer-Bahlburg HF, Money J. Congenital micropenis: long-term medical, surgical and psychosexual follow-up of individuals raised male or female. Hormone Research 2001;56(1–2):3–11. PMID 11815721 Press release
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Interview: John Money. PAIDIKA: The Journal of Paedophilia, Spring 1991, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 5.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Cited online in John Colapinto,'The True Story of John / Joan', Rolling Stone December 1997: 54–97.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Money

Literature

Ehrhardt, Anke A. 'John Money, Ph.D.' Journal of Sex Research 44 (2007): 1–2.

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