Customer Reviews

Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality

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This book is a very mixed bag. It is based on two different concepts: psychoanalysis (Freud) and evolution (Darwin).

For the author, psychoanalysis is not a pseudo-science, but a real method for scientific research. All 'psycho' experiments can in all circumstances be corroborated. This is plain nonsense. Psychoanalysis is not a science, but that doesn't mean that it is without substance, as literature is not without substance.
Lynn Margulis accepts nearly all parts of Freud's theory, and cites without criticism the post-Freudians Lacan (for him, Freud is much more important than Darwin!) and Derrida. Their ridiculous semiotic open (!) texts are a magisterial example of what Jean Fourastie called 'conceptual deliriums', e.g. Lacan's definition of one of the basic elements of his theory, the phallus. One must read it, to believe the plain nonsense of his concepts.
For a severe criticism of Freud, I recommend 'The Memory Wars' by Frederick Crews.

The evolutionary part is better, although it contains a lot of 'ifs' and is more or less a compilation of and comments on citations of others, like S.J. Gould, D. Morris and G.C. Williams.
I prefer the works of Robin Baker, G.C. Williams, or even the 'Darwinian' part of Steven Pinker's 'How the mind works'.

A plus point is the humoristic style (e.g., how God made a lot of mistakes when he created man in his own image) and the popular treatment of a long time taboo subject.
Newcomers will still learn a lot about sex and penises.

This book is about evenly split between good science (both facts and speculation) regarding the origins and evolution of sex and what is frankly dreadful psychoanalytical speculation and storytelling.

Margulis is possibly the best we have regarding bacteria and the origins of sex and protists and the origins of meiosis. It is a shame that when it comes to human sexuality the authors get lost in a need to wax lyrical which undermines what is otherwise level-headed thinking. This reaches its worst with their inclusion of mother and phallic stories and obsessions of Freud, Lacan, Klein etc. The incongruity truly grates on the nerves!

But this book has to have at least three stars because of the evolutionary science. The authors' 'Origins of Sex' is far better than 'Mystery Dance' (though it too gets a little too lyrical and 'fluffy'). It is hard to believe that the authors can put together such good and bad subjects and thinking within the same book and it very nearly undermines their scientific authority.