Sad news to report: The suicide of David Reimer, famous victim of John Money, noted sexologist who advocated nurture over nature when, as an infant, Reimer tragically lost his penis during a botched circumcision. Money's plan: Raise "Bruce" (his birthname) as "Brenda."
His sexual reassignment was then widely reported as a success and proof that children are not by nature feminine or masculine but through nurture are socialized to become girls or boys. David's identical twin brother, Brian, offered researchers a matched control subject.Unsurprisingly, this experiment was a failure, and when Brenda discovered the truth as a teenager, she became David, and began living life as a male.
Sadly, his adult life was not much happier than his childhood. You can read more about him in this engrossing story from Rolling Stone. He was also featured on Nova in a program called Sex: Unknown.
Sources say that David had been suffering from depression following the death of his brother (which may have also been suicide) and the dissolution of his marriage.
good links, albeit sad ones.
Posted by: fishfucker at May 12, 2004 06:45 AMI just read that harrowing Rolling Stone account. Jesus. What an awful, awful tale.
Thanks for the link.
Posted by: brittney at May 12, 2004 12:39 PMUnbelievable...today's Guardian article about this just chilled me to the bone. And the most outrageous part is that John Money is still a professor at JHU.
Posted by: Emma at May 12, 2004 01:34 PMI only read the news in the paper this morning and it was like a punch in the gut. What a tragic end to a horribly awful story. Reimer managed to make the most of himself, actually, but what may have finally led to suicide was the fact that he'd lost nearly his entire savings (~$65K) after investing in a fraudulent scheme that an acquaintance had convinced him was legit. His wife hired a lawyer to try to recoup the losses, to no avail.
The Rolling Stone article is a good precis, though John Colapinto goes into even more detail with his book, AS NATURE MADE HIM. Definitely a must-read.
Posted by: Sarah at May 12, 2004 10:32 PM