Hormones and Brain Differentiation
 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Günter Dörner |
|---|---|
| Country | Netherlands |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Homosexuality, transsexualism |
| Published | 1976 (Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 978-0444414779 |
Hormones and Brain Differentiation is a 1976 book about homosexuality and transsexualism by Günter Dörner,[1] in which Dörner advocates manipulating the sex hormone levels of pregnant women to prevent their offspring from becoming homosexual, and, based on experiments on rats, proposes brain surgery as a method of altering the sexual orientation of adult homosexuals. Hormones and Brain Differentiation formed part of a campaign to prevent homosexuality Dörner conducted in the 1970s, and like other parts of his work has aroused great controversy.
Summary
Dörner writes that 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." Quoting the author C. Hamburger, Dörner writes that he has received letters from unhappy transsexuals and homosexuals, and that he believes the medical profession has a responsibility to ease their suffering.[2]
Reception
Hormones and Brain Differentiation, like other parts of Dörner's work, has aroused great controversy.[3] According to neuroscientist Simon LeVay, the book forms part of Dörner's 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 writes 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.[4]
In Sexual Preference (1981), psychologist Alan P. Bell and sociologists Martin S. Weinberg and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith cite Dörner's book as evidence that homosexuality is linked to "the levels of male and female hormones in a person's system."[5] Philosopher Timothy F. Murphy identifies 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 observes 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."[6] Psychologist Jim McKnight, arguing that "homosexuality is intermediate between heterosexual men and women", writes 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."[7]
See also
References
Footnotes
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. ISBN 0-444-414770.
- LeVay, Simon (1996). Queer Science: The Use and Abuse of Research into Homosexuality. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The 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 (1991). Gonsiorek, John C.; Weinrich, James D., eds. Homosexuality: Research Implications for Public Policy. Newbury Park: Sage Publications. ISBN 0-8039-3764-4.