Imagine an eight-month old boy whose penis was destroyed in a botched circumcision, and whose parents were then urged by a world-renowned psychologist to raise him as a girl. Imagine that they did so, subjecting him to clinical castration followed by a dozen years of psychological and hormonal treatment designed to make him female.

Imagine further that the psychologist - whom the child detested but was forced to meet with regularly - was a sex pervert who defended pedophilia and incest and whose sexual theories were based, not on scientific evidence, but on his own arbitrary beliefs. Imagine that the many psychiatrists the child saw over the years sided almost unanimously with the psychologist. Imagine tha the child lived in utter misery for fifteen years, because on some level he sensed that he was actually a boy - even as he was being hailed in medical textbooks as an ideal example of successful "gender transformation."

This is not the plot of a Hollywood horror movie; it is a true story - powerfully conveyed in *As Nature Made Him*. As the author explains, the psychologist's theory was that sexual identity has nothing to do with one's biological nature, but is solely a matter of "social conditioning." This theory holds, in effect, that the metaphysically given can be readily replaced by any object of human preference. In philosophical terms, it is a tragic instance of the "primacy of consciousness" - the view that reality is whatever we wish it to be - in action. The psychologist in question had no interest in scientific evidence ("It is like playing a game of science fiction") or even in the child's welfare; he actually hated men ("I wondered if the world might really be a better place for women if not only farm animals but human males also were gelded at birth").

Unsurprisingly, there is an additionally tragic aspect to the story. Although the child outwardly conformed to the female role, and suffered terribly, he did not give in intellectually; he continued to insist to himself that he was in some sense a boy, and even went so far as to defy the psychologist (who wanted him to have a "female" operation) and his own parents. When psychiatrists finally convinced his parents to tell him, at age 15, the truth about what had happened, he immediately chose to reassert his masculinity, to have corrective "male" surgery and to live as a man. After additional terrible struggles, he suicided.

At once an indictment of psychological and medical malpractice and a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, this is a book that will both horrify and inspire. ( )

John Colapinto, a writer for Rolling Stone has been given the exclusive right to author the tale of David Reimer, who, a victim of a botched circumcision, had his sex reassigned at age two and lived the next twelve years as a girl. David is the victim of several doctors: the one who originally performed poorly at his circumcision; Dr. John Money, who used his considerable influence to convince David's parents to agree to the gender reassignment (and still to this day insists his treatment was a success); and later psychiatrists who, cowed by Money's prestige and influence, persisted in pushing him towards femininity. However, David has overcome. He is a happily married man, a father and a provider who, although still haunted by his unusual past, has come to terms with it and speaks out against the practice of gender reassignment to infants with damaged penises. Unfortunately, it has only been recently that other victims of this practice, members of ISNA (Intersex Society of North America) have been heard by the physicians and psychiatrists responsible for its continuation even today. I was also impressed with the depth of research done by the author, who, as an entertainment writer, was probably unprepared for the difficulty he would face in addressing this rather sensitive subject both with David's friends and family members and with members of the Sex Research community who still insist David's reassignment as Brenda was successful and that the author and his subject sensationalized this book for the money and film rights.
This is an important book for any medical, psychiatry, or psychology student to read.
Edit: I was not aware of David Reimer's eventual suicide until after I wrote this review, and wish to alter my assertion that David is 'happy' and has 'overcome.' Although the book ends on this note, several years later the situation is different. ( )

This was a very strong and very interesting book. While it's heavy with excerpts from research and interviews, I would have liked for it to have included a list of the references from which this material had been drawn from.

Colapinto also wrote a follow-up article as a response to David Reimer's suicide, four years after the publication of this book. ( )

This book was amazing. Such a sad story. I saw a follow-up documentary about him on tv. So sad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Re... ( )

Though I've listed this in my glbt collection under T(ransgender), the subject isn't technically transgender or intersex, but rather is a biological male forced to lives 'as a girl' from the age of 2 to 15. The book attempts to make score a point for 'nature' in the nature vs. nurture debate as to which contributes the most to gender identity (and sexual orientation). However, it loses points in my book for furthering the gender role dichotomy ('proving' that the gender role imposition wasn't working because the child was aggressive, dominant, likes trucks & guns, etc.).