Living With Our Genes (Hardcover)

by Dean H. Hamer (Author), Peter Copeland (Author) "Charles O'Rourke walked into the room like he owned the place..." (more)
Key Phrases: serotonin signaling, harm avoidance, novelty seekers, United States, Robert Cloninger, National Institutes of Health (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
How many of our faults are in our genetic stars, and how many in ourselves? Human geneticist Dean Hamer, whose research team found the popularly termed "gay gene," surveys what is currently known about the inheritance of human behavior and personality. Hamer and science writer Peter Copeland take a calm, broad-minded look at hot-button topics such as sex, drugs (especially tobacco and alcohol), and violence, as well as anxiety, intelligence, and eating habits. Their conclusions are solidly on the side of both nature and nurture: "A DNA map offers possibilities and predictions but not certainty.... Free will is alive and well, and probably genetic."

From Publishers Weekly
In a light, breezy style, Hamer, a biologist at the National Cancer Institute, and Copeland attempt to explain the extent to which our genes control our lives. In their second collaboration (following The Science of Desire), the authors devote chapters to the most compelling of human behaviors and conditions: sex, worry, anger, thrill-seeking, addiction, intelligence, eating and aging. They explore the biochemistry underlying the characteristics in question, and ask how much of that biochemistry is under genetic control. Along the way, a great number of fascinating pieces of information are related?e.g., that some researchers have proposed "that the brain has a set point for happiness just as the body has a set point for weight," and that "men with the high-anxiety form of the serotonin transporter gene had sex more often than those with the low-anxiety form." While the authors go to great lengths to remind readers that "predisposition is not predestination"?that genes may well play a role regarding complex behaviors but not necessarily a determinative one?in some instances, they seem to make claims not fully warranted by available data (e.g., "men are programmed to seek more partners and sexual novelty.... women want emotional attachment and financial security"), and they provide scant citations to the original literature. Nevertheless, from "Looking for Gay Genes" to "Making Brighter Babies," this thought-provoking book's explanations of how our genes "express" themselves is sure to capture the imaginations of readers. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385485832
• ISBN-13: 978-0385485838
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #700,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but there's better to be found, July 13, 2000

By	Christopher M. Adams (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Living with Our Genes: Why They Matter More Than You Think (Paperback)

This book makes a decent attempt to describe the relationship between genes and behavior. Its cover describes this book as "groundbreaking", but it's not. In fact, it's really quite light. In a fashion typical of psychologist, it tells many quaint stories about people that the authors seem to believe makes their discussion more interesting, but really just insults the readers' intelligence.

It's a good place to start. But it reads like it were written for first-year college students, and merely restates things that are much better stated elsewhere. If you want a book that does a MUCH better job, and is much better written, try Matt Ridley's excellent book "Genome", or his more dense "The Red Queen". And for serious books that truely are groundbreaking, try E.O. Wilson's "On Human Nature" or Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene". Each of those books are significantly better than "Living With Our Genes."

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding synopsis of our biological roots, March 1, 2001

By	Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Living with Our Genes: Why They Matter More Than You Think (Paperback)

The refutation of Dean Hamer's finding the gene for homosexuality mustn't deter readers from this important work. Ever since E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology, the biological role of behaviour is being earnestly scrutinized. Calamity howlers may regret that the concept of "free will" isn't as absolute as they might like, but there is clearly some link between our chemistry and our actions. Hamer and Copeland have brought together a summary of the most recent research in this field.

Selecting a group of major behaviour areas, they relate how studies have shown correlations between genetics and personality. The focus is on comparative and correlated actions in twins. With increasing numbers of studies of twin behaviour in different environments being conducted around the world, the presentation is more than a little convincing. Most significantly, this book confronts us with questions that must be addressed. Hamer and Copeland don't attempt to claim that this book provides any final answers to the relationship of genes with our habits. They do ask us to review our thinking about the issue. It's vital work in the effort to find out who we are.

Hamer and Copeland remind us that we're biological creatures, not minds being carried around by bodies. For decades zoologists described animal activity as "instincts, secure in the belief that animals could be trained, but not taught. Genetic research has shown this outlook is misleading. Living With Our Genes is the flip side of that view in showing human activity has strong biological roots. They accomplish this without adopting the absolutist view exhibited by earlier researchers.

Going beyond simple statistics of behaviour patterns, they delve into the findings of geneticists who've identified specific gene expressions in the body. That our cells produce numerous chemical compounds is old news. A wide spectrum of pharmaceuticals is available to counteract or enhance a number of these chemical signals. What is only now coming to light, as Hamer and Copeland point out, is how these compounds work on the body and why.

In their chapter on worry they discuss the research on serotonin, the "genetic Prozac". It turns out that in one segment of our DNA, there are more or less copies of the serotonin transporter gene. Such genes are naturally inheritable, giving a segment of the population a trend toward anxiety. Anger, and its expression in violence is another area of common concern. The authors provide an extensive description of various forms of anger expression. They stress that anger can be controlled - genetic expression is important, but not an absolute. As with anxiety, serotonin and its by-products provided an important clue in the study of violence.

Molecular genetics has accomplished an incredible amount in the fifty years since the structure of DNA was revealed. Hamer's extensive bibliography is an indication of how much work has been achieved. Today the research is expanding into a new field called behavioural genetics. As one of the first understandable accounts of what's been and what needs to be done, it should be placed on your shelf alongside Matt Ridley's Genome.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but often not in-depth enough, May 26, 1998

By	J. Ladinsky (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Overall, I liked the content matter of the book but I often felt the writing was uneven. In some parts, the writing seemed to be geared toward a very uneducated audience, almost to the point of being insulting; at other times, some advanced terms were not explained at all and glossed over. It almost seems as if the authors wrote this book in haste, without adequate revision, as I found many spelling and grammar errors.

Nonetheless, the content was intriguing and thought-provoking and what I liked was that the authors provided a balanced mix of research from various science fields, rather than just from genetics.

However, I often felt like I wanted a lot more from this book in evidence and research than it gave and couldn't help but feel that it was too "pop". For comparison, I recommend reading Stephen Jay Gould who has a knack for writing about science in an engaging way and yet without either glossing over the details or confusing you with too many technical terms.