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The Sexual Brain
Cover of the first edition
AuthorSimon LeVay
Cover artistJean Wilcox
LanguageEnglish
SubjectsHuman brain
Human sexuality
PublisherMIT Press
Publication date1993
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages168
ISBN978-0585002996

The Sexual Brain is a 1993 book about brain mechanisms involved in sexual behavior and feelings, and related topics such as sexual orientation, by the neuroscientist Simon LeVay. The book was praised as a well-written work on science. However, some reviewers pointed out factual errors, and noted that LeVay failed to prove that homosexuality has a biological basis.

Summary

LeVay writes that his aim is to focus "on the brain mechanisms that are responsible for sexual behavior and feelings"; he discusses sexual orientation among other topics such as the evolutionary basis of sex, sexual development, the organization and development of the brain, the neural mechanisms associated with sexual intercourse, gender differences, and gender identity. LeVay expresses skepticism about the work of Sigmund Freud, writing that while he once accepted the Freudian view that "a young child's relations with his or her parents play a decisive role" in the development of sexual orientation, he rejected it after he came to know large numbers of gay men and lesbian women. LeVay writes that he doubts that there is anything scientific about Freud's ideas.

He describes the functions of the hypothalamus, which plays a key role in, "sex, feeding, drinking, cardiovascular performance, control of body temperature, stress, emotional responses, growth, and many other functions". LeVay notes that his INAH 3 study was his only publication on sex to that date, and that most of his previous research had been on the visual areas of the cerebral cortex. LeVay compares homosexuality to the disease sickle cell anemia, arguing that it may have persisted through a similar genetic mechanism.

Publication history

The Sexual Brain was first published in 1993 by MIT Press.

Reception

Mainstream media

The Sexual Brain received positive reviews from the journalist Peter Gorner in the Chicago Tribune, Kenneth McLeish in The Independent, the psychiatrist Avodah K. Offit in the Los Angeles Times, and the psychologist Richard Gregory in The Times Literary Supplement. The book received mixed reviews from Richard Horton in The New York Review of Books and from Publishers Weekly. Other reviews included those by Marian Annett in the Times Higher Education Supplement, the critic Michael Warner in The Village Voice, and the historian of science Daniel Kevles in The New Yorker. The Sexual Brain received two reviews in New Statesman and Society, one from Peter Tallack and the other from David Fernbach.

Gorner considered the book well-written, and credited LeVay with merging "evolutionary theory, endocrinology, molecular genetics and cognitive psychology into a synthesis that is brilliant and entertaining." McLeish praised LeVay for his criticism of Freud, and for outlining the "current state of knowledge and research on the neurobiology of sexuality" in a "lucid, friendly and comprehensible" style. However, he also wrote that LeVay's arguments about homosexuality "become a touch obsessive." Offit called the book "elegant" and described it as "engaging and professional--a work of stunning scientific scholarship enhanced by gracious style and modesty." However, he noted that LeVay was not "able to prove the biological basis of homosexuality", and that LeVay's findings on INAH 3 could "set us back as a society" by suggesting that homosexuality is abnormal. Gregory wrote that the book was "very carefully written, with clear logical threads" and "the statement of a first-rate scientist on issues of personal and social importance".

Horton described the book as persuasive and credited LeVay, along with other researchers, with helping make a strong but not definitive case that biological influences play an important or even decisive role in "determining sexual preference among males", and with "taking a "broad philosophical perspective in his discussion of human sexuality by placing his research in the context of animal evolution." He wrote that LeVay supported his contentious view that there are separate centers in the hypothalamus responsible for generating "male-typical and female-typical sexual behavior and feelings" with a wide range of sources, notably that concerning women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia. Though noting that LeVay acknowledged the limitations of his research, he criticized LeVay for having an unsubtle view of the meaning of "biologial influence" on sexual orientation that ignores the question of how genes produce an "unpredictable interplay of behavioral impulses", and engaging in "overstretched speculations" about "why a gene for homosexuality still exists when it apparently has little apparent survival value in evolutionary terms." He concluded that while LeVay's work "presents technical and conceptual difficulties" and his "preliminary findings obviously need replication or refutation" it "represents a genuine epistemological break away from the past's rigid and withered conceptions of sexual preference."

The Publishers Weekly review described the book as an "expert, drily written, often technical account of the biological basis of human sexual behavior and orientation" and predicted that it would be equally as controversial as LeVay's "1991 Science article describing a difference in the hypothalamic brain structure of homosexual and heterosexual men."

Kirkus Reviews wrote in 2010 that The Sexual Brain was "well received, but soon out of date" because of subsequent scientific research.

Gay media

The Sexual Brain was reviewed by the physician Lawrence D. Mass in The Advocate. Mass subsequently commented that his review strained his relations with some of his colleagues, and that The Advocate's editors "severely truncated" the review, turning it from a "skeptical critique" into "a blurblike endorsement ... used to advertise the book."

Scientific and academic journals

The Sexual Brain received a positive review from Robert Friar in the Journal of Sex Research and mixed reviews from the biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling in BioScience and Michael J. Baum in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. The book was also reviewed by Katherine Livingston in Science and the psychologist Leonore Tiefer in Psychology of Women Quarterly, and discussed by the philosopher Michael Ruse in the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science and the psychologist Elizabeth A. Wilson in SubStance.

Friar credited LeVay with "superb writing skills" and "comprehensive knowledge of neurobiology", and called his book "concise, thoughtful, informative" and "interesting". However, he criticized LeVay for giving insufficient attention to lesbianism, for the lack of illustrations in his book, and for using references sparingly. Fausto-Sterling described The Sexual Brain as well-written and "potentially appropriate for classroom use." However, she also described LeVay's views on gender differences as being part of a "standard litany", and found that LeVay's accounts of reproductive physiology and the brain became weaker as he moved further away from neurobiology. She considered LeVay's account of "the embryonic development of gonads and genitalia" an example of this weakness, describing it as "extremely unsophisticated", and accusing LeVay of making inaccurate claims. She criticized LeVay for repeating the widespread belief "that female development is passive and preprogrammed ... and male development active", and for failing to cite critiques of that viewpoint. She gave LeVay credit for bringing "a wider range of evidence to bear in examining the interactions among hormones, the brain, and behavior" and citing less well-known work on this topic, and praised LeVay for "declaring his own gay identity", and called his treatment of the relevance of biology to homosexuality "appropriately cautious".

Baum described The Sexual Brain as engaging and readable, and ideal for educated laypeople. However, he criticized LeVay for being unaware of some relevant research, and making a number of factual errors, such as that orgasm is caused by the neurotransmitter oxytocin, that female rats fail to display maternal behavior after hypophysectomy, that lesions of the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus reduce presentational behavior displayed by female monkeys, that antiandrogenic drugs block the masculinization of the sexually dimorphic subdivision of the medial preoptic area in male rats, and that vaginal olfactory cues are the primary determinants of masculine sexual arousal in male primates.

Ruse described the book as a scientifically well known work.

Evaluations in books

The queer theorist Robert McRuer, writing in The Queer Renaissance (1997), compared The Sexual Brain to the political scientist Charles Murray and the psychologist Richard Herrnstein's The Bell Curve (1994), arguing that just as Murray and Herrnstein presented inequality as inevitable rather than the consequence of economic institutions that could be changed, LeVay failed to question the institution of heterosexuality. The philosopher Timothy F. Murphy, writing in Gay Science (1997), maintained that LeVay failed to show conclusively that the differences in brain structure he found between gay men and straight men were not due to AIDS. The biologist Steven Rose, writing in Lifelines (1997), criticized the publicity that surrounded the publication of LeVay's book, arguing that LeVay over-stated the importance of his findings, behavior which Rose considered similar to that of researchers such as the geneticist Dean Hamer. Rose noted that the sexual orientation of the men in LeVay's hypothalamus study was presumed rather than demonstrated.

The classicist Bruce Thornton, writing in Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality (1997), questioned the value of LeVay's work, writing that while LeVay asserted that the future would bring progress in understanding the development of sexuality, this begs "the question of just how much good this knowledge will bring us when we are storm-tossed on the sea of eros." The psychiatrist and medical historian Vernon Rosario, writing in his anthology Science and Homosexualities (1997), criticized LeVay for his biological determinism and reductionism. The philosopher Edward Stein, writing in The Mismeasure of Desire (1999), criticized LeVay for failing to discuss social constructionism despite its relevance to his topic. The anthropologist Melvin Konner, writing in The Tangled Wing (2002), described LeVay's book as a good introduction to the biology of gender and a useful guide for understanding the neuroscience of sexual arousal and associated behaviors. Louis A. Berman, writing in The Puzzle: Exploring the Evolutionary Puzzle of Male Homosexuality (2003), criticized LeVay for minimizing the role of experience in becoming an effective male partner in heterosexual intercourse.

See also

References

  1. LeVay 1993, pp. xi–xv.
  2. LeVay 1993, p. 39.
  3. LeVay 1993, p. xiii.
  4. LeVay 1993, p. 129.
  5. LeVay 1993, p. iv.
  6. ^ Gorner 1993.
  7. ^ McLeish 1993.
  8. ^ Offit 1993.
  9. ^ Gregory 1994, p. 5.
  10. ^ Horton 1995, pp. 36–40.
  11. ^ Publishers Weekly 1993, p. 60.
  12. Annett 1993, p. 24.
  13. Warner 1994, p. 74.
  14. Kevles 1995, p. 85.
  15. Tallack 1993, p. 27. sfn error: no target: CITEREFTallack1993 (help)
  16. Fernbach 1993, p. 40.
  17. Kirkus Reviews 2010, p. 7.
  18. Mass 1993, p. 74.
  19. Mass 1996, p. 14. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMass1996 (help)
  20. ^ Friar 1993, pp. 340–341.
  21. ^ Fausto-Sterling 1994, pp. 102–104.
  22. ^ Baum 1995, pp. 670–673.
  23. Livingston 1993, p. 370.
  24. Tiefer 1994, p. 440.
  25. ^ Ruse 2000, p. 489.
  26. Wilson 2000, pp. 22–38.
  27. McRuer 1997, p. 210.
  28. Murphy 1997, pp. 26–27.
  29. Rose 1997, p. 277.
  30. Thornton 1997, p. 217.
  31. Rosario 1997, p. 5. sfn error: no target: CITEREFRosario1997 (help)
  32. Stein 1999, p. 350.
  33. Konner 2002, pp. 502, 506.
  34. Berman 2003, p. 27.

Bibliography

Books
Journals
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