A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis [Hardcover]

David M. Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2001

Whether enemy or ally, demon or god, the source of satisfaction or the root of all earthly troubles, the penis has forced humanity to wrestle with its enduring mysteries. Here, in an enlightening and entertaining cultural study, is a book that gives context to the central role of the penis in Western civilization.

A man can hold his manhood in his hand, but who is really gripping whom? Is the penis the best in man -- or the beast? How is man supposed to use it? And when does that use become abuse? Of all the bodily organs, only the penis forces man to confront such contradictions: something insistent yet reluctant, a tool that creates but also destroys, a part of the body that often seems apart from the body. This is the conundrum that makes the penis both hero and villain in a drama that shapes every man -- and mankind along with it.

In "A Mind of Its Own," David M. Friedman shows that the penis is more than a body part. It is an idea, a conceptual but flesh-and-blood measuring stick of man's place in the world. That men have a penis is a scientific fact; how they think about it, feel about it, and use it is not. It is possible to identify the key moments in Western history when a new idea of the penis addressed the larger mystery of man's relationship with it and changed forever the way that organ was conceived of and put to use. "A Mind of Its Own" brilliantly distills this complex and largely unexamined story.

Deified by the pagan cultures of the ancient world and demonized by the early Roman church, the organ was later secularized by pioneering anatomists such as Leonardo da Vinci. After being measured "scientifically" in an effort to subjugate some races whileelevating others, the organ was psychoanalyzed by Sigmund Freud. As a result, the penis assumed a paradigmatic role in psychology -- whether the patient was equipped with the organ or envied those who were. Now, after being politicized by feminism and exploited in countless ways by pop culture, the penis has been medicalized. As no one has before him, Friedman shows how the arrival of erection industry products such as Viagra is more than a health or business story. It is the latest -- and perhaps final -- chapter in one of the longest sagas in human history: the story of man's relationship with his penis.

"A Mind of Its Own" charts the vicissitudes of that relationship through its often amusing, occasionally alarming, and never boring course. With intellectual rigor and a healthy dose of wry humor, David M. Friedman serves up one of the most thought-provoking, significant, and readable cultural works in years.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David M. Friedman's A Mind of Its Own is a cultural examination of the penis, from ancient Sumer to the present. Friedman convincingly suggests that humankind's various and contradictory attitudes toward the penis have been instrumental in mapping the course of both Western civilization and world history.

Friedman begins with pagan attitudes: ancient Greeks considered the penis a measure of a man's proximity to "divine power," while the Romans, whose generals were known to promote soldiers based on penis size, saw it as an indicator of earthly strength. Thanks to the spread of Christianity, the "sacred staff became the demon rod"--a fearful manifestation of the devil. Theology gave way, grudgingly, to science. In the Renaissance, anatomical discoveries allowed for the possibility that this "agent of death" was, in fact, only a "blameless instrument of reproduction." Subsequent chapters discuss the penis's role as a racial yardstick; its "defining role in human personality" as asserted by Freud; its politicization; and finally, through the likes of Viagra, its objectification as a "thing ... impervious to religious teachings, psychological insights, racial stereotypes and feminist criticism."

Friedman's study of what he calls the "symbolic muscle" is filled with fascinating side trips (castration cults, ancient graffiti, the anti-masturbation "semen-retention movement," aphrodisiacs through the ages, and, to modern eyes, risible medical practices with the likes of monkey glands), as well as a rich cast of characters (Leonardo da Vinci, John Kellogg of cornflake fame, Kate Millet, Clarence Thomas, and Walt Whitman). The book is informal, but well researched (and documented), entertaining but not cute, wide-ranging but not sketchy, and simultaneously irreverent and respectful. --H. O'Billovitch

From Publishers Weekly

"Over time, the penis has been deified, demonized, secularized, racialized, psychoanalyzed, politicized and, finally, medicalized," declares freelance journalist Friedman in a serious yet entertaining book that weaves together an enormous amount of material. In the Greek and Roman worlds, statues of figures with erections were commonplace, he observes, though by the Christian era, the penis had become a source of evil and weakness. Doctors and scientists from da Vinci onward "deflat[ed] the religious rhetoric" and scrutinized the male organ sometimes with untoward results, as when American "semen science" led to the creation of antimasturbation products such as Graham crackers. Western man's fear of the African phallus undergirded colonialism and slavery, and resonates to this day, Friedman argues, as was evident in the case of Clarence Thomas. If some of Freud's case histories might be questioned, Friedman notes how the psychoanalytic interpretation enduringly places the penis and associated anxieties at the fulcrum of society. The rise of feminism put the penis in its place, as The Hite Report pointed out the limits of conventional intercourse in moving women to orgasm, and as Andrea Dworkin exposed penile pathology though the author concludes that male sexuality arises more out of evolutionary strategy than misogyny. His final and liveliest chapter concerns the medicalization of the penis, culminating in Viagra. Even though Friedman quotes a (female) sex therapist on the limits of such drugs, he concludes optimistically that "the erection industry" has performed a paradigm shift, allowing man to impose his will below his belt. The book has a few gaps -- there's little about the gay penis -- but it should reign as the seminal treatment of this topic (and inspire many more puns).

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (October 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684853205
• ISBN-13: 978-0684853208
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #862,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A humorous but well-documented history of the penis, May 18, 2002

By 

F. Orion Pozo "Orion Pozo" (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis (Hardcover)

It is hard to write a book about the penis without dealing in euphemisms and double entendres. Yet this book uses them well to show the role the penis has played in the development of western culture. The book is a cultural history of the penis, and explores human (mostly men's) thinking about the male reproductive organs.

The first chapter, The Demon Rod, explores the moral view of the penis as it developed from ancient times through Christianized Western European thought. Is the penis a gift of the gods or man's link with the devil? This is the question that is explored in this chapter. From the phallic cults of ancient Sumer, Egypt, Greece and Rome, through the Jewish circumcision pact, to the demonization of the penis by Christian thinkers like Augustine, the role of the penis in the relationship of man to his god is explored.

Chapter Two, The Gear Shift, starts with Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical dissections and examines the early attempts of western science to discover the biological rather than the mythical aspects of the penis. The period covered is the 16th through the 19th century. Most of the science, though well-intentioned, is colored by the moral thinking of the time. Although much is learned, many false theories coexist with newly discovered anatomical facts.

The next chapter is called The Measuring Stick and is a look at the theories surrounding Racism and penis size. It outlines the history of the belief that males of African heritage have greater penile size than any other race. From Noah to Mapplethorp, the fascination and fear associated with this concept and the racial theories that developed along side it are well laid out.

The Cigar is Chapter Four and it explores the influence of the penis on Freud and psychoanalytical thought. Here we move from the physical manifestation of the penis to its effects on the psyche, both in the individual and the culture. With quotes from Freud's writings, we see his development of the theories of the Oedipus Complex and the vaginal orgasm, and their effects on modern society.

Chapter Five, entitled The Battering Ram, is a look at the feminist reaction of the 1960s to the Freudian emphasis on the penis and vaginal orgasm. These feminist thinkers shift the focus to the clitoris as the center of satisfying sexual relationships for women. From Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique to Andrea Dworkin's Pornography, the link between the penis and sexual violence in feminist writings is outlined in wonderful detail.

The final chapter, The Punctureproof Balloon returns to the physiological study of the penis that started in chapter two. However, this chapter picks up with the 19th Century with its quacks and misinformed physicians and takes us up to the present day's modern medical marvels. Here we see urologists taking the study of impotence away from psychoanalysts and developing medical treatments. This is a wonderful historic outline of the creation and cultural impact of Viagra and other pharmaceutical treatments for Erectile Dysfunction.

All in all this is a fascinating popular treatment of a topic that tends to either not be discussed or is discussed so informally as to have little regard for the facts. This book tells it all and backs up the facts with 35 pages of Notes to the bibliographic sources. To help the reader find the facts a 12 page Index ends the book. Eight pages of black and white pictures illustrate some of the topics described in the book. This book is entertaining and informative reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know about this organ and its role in society.

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It really rises to the occasion!, October 31, 2001

By 

Jeff Abell (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis (Hardcover)

Feminists have been bashing "phallocentric" culture for a couple of decades now, but most have not bothered to examine or explicate the central element of such culture, namely the male organ itself. David M. Friedman has written a well-researched, admirably forthright account of Western culture's alternating aversion toward and obsession with the penis. Friedman tracks this evolution from the semen-drenched religious texts of ancient Sumer (where the word for semen is the same as water, and the gods literally bathe the world in sperm) through the ancient Greeks and then how the organ was "demonized" by St. Augustine and the Catholic church. Other chapters consider how racism has centered for centuries on white male fear of macrophallic African men, as well as Freud's attempt to "universalize" penis envy and castration anxiety. While one might quibble with a scholarly detail here and there (notably Friedman's acceptance of Foucault's theories about Greek sexuality, which have been notably contradicted by more recent scholarship), this is such a well-researched and engagingly written study that it deserves to be widely read. Men and women alike will gain a clearer understanding of why we put fig-leaves on statues and why a cigar is not always just a good smoke.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars NOT a sex book, a cultural history, as per the title, January 4, 2002

By 

Alexander M. Moir "Lt. Moir" (Huntington, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis (Hardcover)

Though the store had it filed under pornography, this book is not at all pertinent to that smarmiest of genres. It's a cultural summary of the significance of the male genitals around the world and throughout history. Sometimes anthropological, sometimes psychological, sometimes medical (perhaps to a fault), and often exhibiting wry humor, the book is modest in scope and level of analysis, and certainly a good read.
My personal interests, as an anthropologist, were the sections which discuss the ancient and religious history of the genitals, up through the Middle Ages and into the well-meaning pseudo-science of the nineteenth century. Not so engrossing, I thought, are the later chapters. "The Measuring Stick" goes a bit too far and graphically into homosexual fantasy, and the last chapter was a downright disappointment, as its discussion of modern views on the male genitals becomes a scientific tract on testicular surgery with way too many medical details and terminology.
In the end, the book begins well, ends not so well, and in my opinion, is well-written enough throughout that it remains for the most part pleasing.