John Money

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John William Money (born July 8, 1921 in Morrinsville , New Zealand, † July 7, 2006 in Towson , Maryland , USA ) was a clinical psychologist and sexologist . His work focused on developmental sexology, in particular the development of gender identity , sexual orientations , preferences and paraphilias , as well as intersexuality and psychoendocrinology . His research activities included long-term follow-up studies on children and adolescents who were affected by various endocrine and intersex syndromes. Money introduced the terms "gender identity" (English. Gender identity ) and " gender role (Engl." Gender role ) one. He is counted among the most influential American sexologists of the 20th century.

Life

After earning a double degree from Victoria University of Wellington in 1944, Money, who was born in New Zealand, migrated to the United States in 1947 and studied psychology at the University of Pittsburgh . He received his PhD in Psychology from Harvard University in 1952 . Shortly before his doctorate, after an interim employment at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he moved to Johns Hopkins University in 1951 on the basis of an offer from the endocrinologist Lawson Wilkins , where he stayed until his retirement and as an emeritus almost until his death continued to work. With funds from a grant from the National Institutes of Health , he founded a research unit that gave rise to the Psychohormonal Research Unit , which he headed and which dealt primarily with questions of gender determination. In the 1950s he married the writer Grace Admundson. The marriage was soon divorced again, childless. Afterwards, according to his own testimony, he had sexual contacts with both men and women, but did not enter into a fixed relationship for life. Money was initially an associate professor of paediatrics and later a professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins University. In 1966 he was one of the initiators and founders of the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic , in which operations on genital organs, especially on intersex patients, were performed. The clinic was closed after 1975 due to professional controversy about the results, which, according to the testimony of companions, made Money very bitter. Money died of complications from Parkinson's disease in 2006 at the age of 84 .

Money authored around 2,000 scientific articles, reviews , books, and book chapters. The German Society for Sociological Sexual Research , for which Money worked, awarded him the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 2002 - as had his critic Milton Diamond before .

The "John / Joan" case

In 1967 Money advised the parents of the almost two-year-old boy Bruce Reimer to subject their son to a feminizing operation after his penis was inadvertently irreparably injured in a medically indicated circumcision . At the age of 22 months, the remaining testicles were removed ( orchiectomy ) and rudimentary labia were formed from the skin of the scrotum . In addition, the child was treated with female hormones from around the age of 12 . This was seen as an opportunity to do a twin study to see if the child would develop differently from their twin brother. "Brenda", as Bruce was now called, did not take on the assigned gender role. For example, instead of dolls and jewelry , the child preferred the brother's toys. "Brenda" raged, fought and was interested in cars and weapons. At the age of 14 he learned that he was born as a boy and had the "sex reassignment" reversed. From then on he called himself David.

In the spring of 2004, Reimer committed suicide . Two years earlier, his twin brother had died from a drug overdose .

The "John / Joan case" initially served as evidence of the social choice of gender. Alice Schwarzer wrote in 1975 that “childbearing is the only difference that remains between a man and a woman. Everything else is artificial. ”She recognizes the Money experiment as one of the“ few exceptions that do not manipulate, but do justice to the educational mandate of research. ”In contrast, David's mother said she believed that her son was still alive would have been if he had not been the victim of the "catastrophic experiment" that had caused him so much suffering.

In the 2004 publication The Power of Gender Norms and the Limits of the Human ( Undoing Gender ), Judith Butler presents her concept of performativity on the fate of David Reimers.

Sexual education of children

Money took the view that sexual misalignments and pathologies are primarily due to undesirable developments in childhood. In particular, cases of sexual abuse came from perpetrators who were victims of such practices in their youth. Public double standards and censorship also lead to the promotion of actions that they allegedly condemn. As an antidote to undesirable developments, he recommended sexual training and education for children and adolescents, which in his opinion should also include playful rehearsals and pornography . Money frequently and vehemently opposed the repression and demonization of child and youthful sexuality. He advocated the tendency to view all sexual relationships, especially those between young people and adults, as special cases of “couple bonds”; he condemned “taboos” as well as a victimology that makes one of the participants the only perpetrator and the other as the victim. His critics see this as a tendency to justify and excuse pedophilia .

criticism

In particular, the "John / Joan" case, in the course of which both twins finally committed suicide, gave rise to harsh criticism of Money in various major US media. Colleagues reported that Money was offended and unwilling to discuss the case. Money attributed the criticism of his work to the politically right-wing orientation of the media and the "anti-feminist movement". Money was also attacked by intersex activists; his refusal to publicize the failure of his experiment resulted in thousands of young children undergoing sex reassignment surgery.

In Germany , the evolutionary biologist Ulrich Kutschera received media attention for his criticism of John Money's work and, in general, of the “gender ideology” that went back to him. With his “John / Joan” experiment, Money went “over dead bodies”. The gender theory is a "woman-equal-man heresy". In February 2016, Kutschera published the book Das Gender Paradoxon on this topic .

Works (excerpt)

  • Gender maps. Social Constructionism, Feminism, and Sexosophical History . Continuum, New York 1995, ISBN 0-8264-0852-4 (English).
  • Love and Love Sickness. The Science of Sex, Gender Difference and Pair-Bonding . JHU Press , Baltimore 1980, ISBN 0-8018-2317-X (English).
  • Sexual Signatures. On being a man or a woman . Little, Brown and Company , Boston 1975, ISBN 0-316-57826-6 (English).
  • Man & Woman, Boy & Girl. The Differentiation and Dimorphism of Gender Identity from Conception to Maturity . JHU Press , Baltimore 1972, ISBN 0-8018-1405-7 (English).
  • With Joan G. Hampson and John L. Hampson: Imprinting and the Establishment of Gender Role . In: Arch NeurPsych . tape 77 , no. 3 , 1957, pp. 333–336 , doi : 10.1001 / archneurpsyc.1957.02330330119019 .
  • Hermaphroditism, gender and precocity in hyperadrenocorticism: psychologic findings . In: Bull Johns Hopkins Hosp . tape 96 , no. 6 , June 1, 1955, pp. 253-264 , PMID 14378807 (English).

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gunter Schmidt : John Money (1921-2006) In: Volkmar Sigusch , Günter Grau (Ed.): Personenlexikon der Sexualforschung , Campus Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-39049-9 , p. 521.
  2. ^ Anke A. Ehrhardt: Preface . In: Eli Coleman (Ed.): John Money. A tribute . Haworth Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-12-839950-3 , pp. xiv (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  3. ↑ Eli Coleman (Ed.): John Money. A tribute . Haworth Press, New York 1991, ISBN 0-12-839950-3 , pp. xiii (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  4. ↑ Anke A. Ehrhardt: John Money, Ph.D . In: The Journal of Sex Research . tape 44 , no. 3 , 2007, p. 223-224 , doi : 10.1080 / 00224490701580741 .
  5. ↑ Volker Zastrow : The small difference . In: FAZ . September 7, 2006 ( online [accessed January 6, 2018]).
  6. ↑ Alice Schwarzer : The small difference and its big consequences. Women about themselves; Beginning of a liberation . 1st edition. S. Fischer , Frankfurt a. M. 1975, ISBN 3-10-076301-7 , pp. 192 f .
  7. ↑ Judith Butler : The power of gender norms and the limits of the human . Suhrkamp , Frankfurt a. M. 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-58505-4 (American English: Undoing Gender . Translated by Karin Wördemann and Martin Stempfhuber).
  8. ↑ Terry Goldie: The Man Who Invented Gender. Engaging the Ideas of John Money . UBC Press, Vancouver 2014, ISBN 978-0-7748-2792-8 , What Wild Extacy, pp. 151 ff . (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).
  9. ^ Benedict Carey: John William Money, 84, Sexual Identity Researcher, Dies. New York Times , July 11, 2006.
  10. ↑ Jesse Walker : The Death of David Reimer: A tale of sex, science, and abuse. Reason, May 24, 2004.
  11. ↑ Who was David Reimer (also, sadly, known as "John / Joan")? Intersex Society of North America , accessed July 18, 2018.
  12. ↑ Hubert Rehm: Dangerous Ideology? This book is sure to spark controversy: The "woman-equal-man heresy" disfigures the meaning of key terms such as sex and gender, criticizes the evolutionary biologist Ulrich Kutschera. Spektrum.de, June 24, 2016.
  13. ↑ Michael Klonovsky: “Gender is nonsense!” Interview with Ulrich Kutschera. FOCUS Magazin 38, September 12, 2015.
  14. ↑ Ulrich Kutschera : The gender paradox . Man and woman as evolved human types (= Science and Religion. 13). LIT, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-13297-0

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Money, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Money, John William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and sexologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Morrinsville , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 2006
Place of death Towson , Maryland