Nurture Vs. Nature

I saw the documentary about the John/Joan nurture vs. nature case years ago, which triggered more of an interest in psychology for me.

John Money was a psychologist at John's Hopkins University, one of a few hospitals in the U.S. that actually do sexual reassignment surgeries.

He referred to his famous "John/Joan" case as a huge success, therefore there were many sexual reassignments done in confidence of his one "successful" case. He lied. It was nothing but a failure and a horribly unforgivable crime. There would be a12-year program of social, mental and hormonal conditioning to make the transformation take hold in his psyche. The case was reported as an unqualified success, and he became one of the most famous (though anonymous) patients of modern medicine.

David Reimer was an identical twin, his brother Brian had no defects after his circumcision, though his life was a tragedy as well.

He convinced David Reimer's parents to put their son in an experiment. David Reimer was given a botched circumcision when he was 8 months old, which consequently destroyed his penis. Doctor Money convinced David's parents that it would be the best possible answer for young David.

Dr. Money was named "one of the greatest sex researchers of the century." He was credited for a lie. 
He claimed that your sexual identity was purely an environmental aspect, nurture not nature. He believed that babies were born neutral and you could essentially change their gender without any consequences.

In school, kindergarden the kids, even the teachers didn't treat him like the others. He was not feminine whatsoever. He wanted to play with tinkertoys with his twin brother and act like a rough n tough boy. (Not liking barbies does not mean you should be a boy, I hated barbies and make up and brushing my hair. Haha) He associated with being a boy much more than a girl. “It was like brainwashing,” he claimed. “I’d give just about anything to go to a hypnotist to black out my whole past. Because it’s torture. What they did to you in the body is sometimes not near as bad as what they did to you in the mind – with the psychological warfare in your head.” 

This all could have been put to a stop had their parents done something about it and let David be a boy as he wished, as he was supposed to be, as he was. You don't mess with nature. And you can't just choose your children's fate and sexual identity. It's just completely wrong.

I hate that these boys went through so much.

David's twin brother, Brian committed suicide when he was 36 years old. He had suffered from schizophrenia..
David did as well when he was 38 years old. His wife was going to leave him..



Dr. Money reportedly told Paidika, a Dutch journal of pedophilia, “If I were to see the case of a boy aged 10 or 12 who’s intensely attracted toward a man in his 20s or 30s, if the relationship is totally mutual, and the bonding is genuinely totally mutual, then I would not call it pathological in any way.”

This doctor was a sick and evil person that tortured this children psychologically.

This was a serious tragedy and deeply heart aching that some people can be so cruel to defenseless human beings.