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The Adam Principle: Genes, Genitals, Hormones, & Gender : Selected Readings in Sexology

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John Money
The Adam Principle:
Genes, Genitals, Hormones, & Gender:
Selected Readings in Sexology

(Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993) 364 pages

This is a collection of scientific papers
from the second half of John Money's career
as an investigator of unusual phenomena related to sex.
Each paper has a new introduction and abstract,
which often draw on new discoveries since the original publication.
These articles lay the foundations for much future sexology.
Many questions remain unanswered,
but this book should help to formulate the questions more clearly.
Some major themes: female, male, & in-between;
sex-changes; transsexualism; tranvestism; sexual orientation;
& a few paraphilias (masochism, amputee, ants).

Future sexologists might well begin with the reports in this volume.
The phenomena are here displayed;
next we need well-formulated hypotheses,
followed by careful research to see how well these conjectures hold up.

Here are three specific variations of sex and gender
that Money deals with in this volume:

(I) ambiguity of biological sex caused by unusual chromosomes
and various syndromes caused by unusual hormone-mixes and insensitivities
that lead to unusual sexual morphology and perhaps psychology.
Some children born intersexed were raised as girls, others as boys,
demonstrating the power of sex-assignment and rearing.
These individuals who were born between the sexes
were followed with respect to the following behaviors: fantasy, dating,
sexual behavior, marriage, & reproduction or parenthood by adoption.

(II) transsexualism, the impact of sexual birth defects
on the male/female self-designation of the individuals
and their later requests for sex-changes.

(V) sexual orientation: Is adult heterosexuality,
homosexuality, or bisexuality affected by the following factors?
sexual birth-defects; a period of uncertainty about one's sex;
pre-natal hormones; being the sex-partner of a pedophile;
situational homosexuality in prison?

(VI) Transvestism is discussed mainly
in the chapter on gynemimesis--men imitating women.

John Money has laid the groundwork
for at least the next generation of sexology.

If you would like to read other books in sexology,
search the Internet for this bibliography:
"SEXOLOGY---BEST BOOKS".

Another review of this book appears here on the Internet:
"VARIATIONS OF SEX & GENDER BIBLIOGRAPHY".


James Leonard Park, author of:
Imprinted Sexual Fantasies: A New Key for Sexology.
AND
Variations of Sex & Gender: Six Phenomena Frequently Confused.

A previous reviewer has left a number of one-star ratings on Dr. Money's books, without reading any of them, based soley on reading a heavy-handed and largely innacurate description of Dr. Money's activities in a book called 'As Nature Made Him.' Dr. Money is a renowned sexologist and worthy of better consideration than this.