Hormones and Brain Differentiation

Hormones and Brain Differentiation
Cover
Author Günter Dörner
Country Netherlands
Language English
Subjects Homosexuality
Transsexualism
Publisher Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company
Publication date
 1976
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 272
ISBN 978-0444414779

Hormones and Brain Differentiation is a 1976 book about homosexuality and transsexualism by Günter Dörner, in which the author advocates manipulating the sex hormone levels of pregnant women to prevent their children from becoming homosexual, and, based on experiments on rats, proposes brain surgery as a method of altering the sexual orientation of adult homosexuals. The book formed part of a 1970s campaign by Dörner to prevent homosexuality, and like other parts of his work has been controversial.

Summary

Dörner discusses the endocrine system and the effects of castration.[1] According to Dörner, research on animals shows that "the direction of sex drive can be changed, at least in part, by intrahypothalamic sex hormone implantations or hypothalamic lesions." He argues that "an important preventative therapy of sexual differentiation disturbances" could be achieved through "administration of androgens in gonosomal male foetuses with androgen deficiency during the critical differentiation periods of genital organs and, in particular, of the brain." Dörner notes that there are possible arguments against a program to prevent homosexuality, including the fact that "numerous prominent personalities" of the past were homosexuals, including some who were "outstanding poets, painters, or composers." However, he defends his proposal on the grounds that 25% of homosexuals attempt suicide and that "a great number of males and females with inborn sexual deviations are suffering from psychosexual pressure." Dörner writes that he had received letters from unhappy transsexuals and homosexuals, and that in his view the medical profession has a responsibility to ease their suffering.[2]

Publication history

Hormones and Brain Differentiation was first published in 1976 by Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company.[3]

Reception

The psychologist Alan P. Bell and the sociologists Martin S. Weinberg and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith, writing in Sexual Preference (1981), cited Dörner's book as evidence that homosexuality is linked to "the levels of male and female hormones in a person's system."[4] The psychologist Charles Silverstein, writing in the anthology Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy (1991), stated that Hormones and Brain Differentiation, like other parts of Dörner's work, aroused great controversy.[5] The neuroscientist Simon LeVay, writing in Queer Science (1996), described Dörner's book as part of his 1970s campaign for a public-health program for the elimination of homosexuality, which would involve "the measurement of sex hormone levels in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women and the correction of those levels in those cases where homosexuality seemed a likely outcome." LeVay wrote that Dörner's proposal to use brain surgery to alter the sexual orientation of homosexuals was based on experiments Dörner and his colleagues performed on rats in the 1960s and 1970s, in which allegedly homosexual rats (which in some cases had been castrated early in life) were converted to heterosexuality.[6]

The philosopher Timothy F. Murphy, writing in Gay Science (1997), identified Hormones and Brain Differentiation as part of a large body of "commentary linking the latest findings in sexual orientation research with techniques by which parents might control the erotic lives of their own children." Murphy observed that since Dörner "believes that homoeroticism is a tragedy ending in millions of suicides, it is not surprising that he believes fetuses at risk for homosexuality should be identified through amniocentesis and that abortion would be desirable for those fetuses unable to benefit from androgen therapy."[7] The psychologist Jim McKnight, writing in Straight Science? (1997), argued that "homosexuality is intermediate between heterosexual men and women" and that Dörner was correct to predict that, "Hormonal assays, stress responses, maternal recollections, anatomical and encephalographic differences all lie...somewhere between what is recognisably male and female heterosexual behavior."[8]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Dörner 1976, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Dörner 1976, pp. 228–229.
  3. ↑ Dörner 1976, p. iv.
  4. ↑ Bell, Weinberg & Hammersmith 1981, p. 230.
  5. ↑ Silverstein 1991, p. 108.
  6. ↑ LeVay 1996, pp. 118–119, 134–135.
  7. ↑ Murphy 1997, pp. 103–104.
  8. ↑ McKnight 1997, p. 63.

Bibliography

Books

  • Bell, Alan P.; Weinberg, Martin S.; Hammersmith, Sue Kiefer (1981). Sexual Preference: Its Development in Men and Women. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-16673-X.
  • Dörner, Günter (1976). Hormones and brain differentiation. Amsterdam: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company. ISBN 0-444-414770.
  • LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-12199-9.
  • McKnight, Jim (1997). Straight Science? Homosexuality, Evolution and Adaptation. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15773-0.
  • Murphy, Timothy F. (1997). Gay Science: The Ethics of Sexual Orientation Research. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10849-4.
  • Silverstein, Charles; Gonsiorek, John C., Editor; Weinrich, James D., Editor (1991). Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. ISBN 0-8039-3764-4.
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