John Money, Ph.D

John Money died on July 7, 2006, one day before his 85th birthday. His death was considered by many as a great loss of not only a leader, but also of a truly original thinker who had shaped the field for more than 50 years with his ideas, research, and prolific writing.

John Money was born on July 8, 1921, in Morrinsville, New Zealand. He completed high school early at the age of 16 and graduated with a double master's degree at the end of 1944 at Victoria University in Wellington. After his appointment as a Junior Lecturer at the University of Otago in Dunedin, he emigrated in 1947 to the United States. He initially spent a year as a clinical psychologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in a psychiatric clinic and was subsequently accepted to a Ph.D. program of the Department of Social Relations at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1952 with a dissertation called "Hermaphroditism: An Inquiry into the Nature of a Human Paradox."

Even before he graduated with his Ph.D., he already had joined Lawson Wilkins, M.D., one of the founders of Pediatric Endocrinology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and ultimately established his independent Psychohormonal Research Unit affiliated with both the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. He spent his entire career at Johns Hopkins and continued his scientific and scholarly writing until shortly before his death.

John Money was unusually productive and published close to 2,000 scientific articles, books, chapters and reviews (see Selected Publications). His writing was translated into many languages and he received at least 65 world-wide honors, awards, lectureships, and degrees.

John Money was a pioneer in the true sense. He committed himself to an area of research which previously had not existed-the field of psychoendocrinology. His studies with patients with genital anomalies and his research into the foundations of sexuality and gender were supported by continuous grants over decades from The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development until shortly before his death. John Money never left Johns Hopkins, in part because of his unique longitudinal studies of patients suffering from unusual endocrine syndromes or exhibiting exceptional sexual histories. From the early 1950s to shortly before his death, John followed many of his patients for many years. He had a perspective on the relative importance of hormonal, chromosomal, or other prenatal or postnatal factors on a person's behavioral development that is unequalled.

From the middle 1950s on, John Money argued his well-known theory that sex is dependent on many variables rather than on one overriding marker such as, for instance, the chromosomes, and that postnatal variables are as important as those prenatal factors that enact the chain of events of a person's sexual differentiation. John Money introduced the terms "gender identity" and "gender role" as concepts liberated from biological determinism of sex on the one hand and separate from sexual functioning on the other. The theory by John Money and his colleagues that the determination of sex depends on a number of variables, like links in a chain, led to major changes in assigning the sex of rearing for intersex babies.

Throughout his career, John Money struggled with terminology and introduced several new words that have had far-reaching consequences in terms of conceptualizations. "Perversions" became "paraphilias" in DSM-III, a term, Money argued, that was less prejudicial and judgmental when describing people with unusual sexual behavior problems. "Sexual preference" has to be "sexual orientation," John reasoned, because our attractions are not completely voluntary nor simply matters of free choice or taste.

John Money's thinking always remained interdisciplinary, spanning an unusually wide range, from animal experimental data to cultural, anthropological, and historical observations. Thus, it was possible for him to assess the role of sex hormones on behavior without losing perspective on the importance of cultural variability. John Money's broad-based theorizing in his research made him the target of criticism from both sides-from people who stress that all human behavior is environmentally determined and any consideration of factors like sex hormones means biological determinism, and from those who are permanently locked into a "main effect model," which attributes ultimate importance to a biological truth.

This criticism increased to the point of broad rejection of his work and expressions of hate against him as a person over the last decade. Fueled by a newly formed movement of patient activism, new advances of endocrine and genetic discoveries, and additionally, a justified call for wider support of systematic psycho-endocrine research, a debate ensued and culminated in questioning Money's theories and his clinical management guidelines for persons with intersex problems. A healthy debate in an established field can often be seen as positive because it leads to a reactivation of programs, revisiting paradigms, and input by next generations. It was, however, regrettable that John Money's work was often globally criticized and rejected and that he as a person was unjustly scapegoated.

I had many conversations with John about this issue over the last several years. He was deeply affected by this attack and largely withdrew from the public debate on this issue. At the same time, it never stopped him to continue his research, clinical work and scientific productivity. When we talked about the attacks, I tried to reassure him that he would share the fate of many truly pioneering giants in science, namely, that we were experiencing a swinging of a pendulum that ultimately would swing back and that his work would find the proper place in history. Indeed, the pendulum has already started to swing back to give John Money the proper credit for his extraordinary contribution to the field of psychoendocrinology and sex research.

Another aspect of John Money was his political astuteness. He predicted long before many others that there would be a wave of conservatism that often would be profoundly antisexual and repressive. Already in the 1980s, John's writings became more political, expressing a deep concern about antisexual attitudes in U.S. society, for example, his books The Destroying Angel or Venuses Penuses. This wave of conservatism that John predicted, indeed, has shaped recent public policy, resulting in opposition to comprehensive sex education for young people and tragically hampering effective prevention of HIV infection around the world.

A tribute to John Money would fall short if I did not mention his passionate commitment to the rights of the individual and the freedom of sexual behavior expression. John has always been a defender of a patient's right to make his or her own choices-from patients with sex organ anomalies, to adult transsexuals, to adolescents struggling with school and parental authorities for the rights to information and sexual expression.

John=' nonjudgmental attitude was reflected in his clinical skill and management of many patients from all around the world until his death. His deep empathy and passionate caring for patients with anomalies of their sex organs, their sexuality and gender remained a haven for many people for decades. Many felt that he was unique in his understanding, expertise and knowledge, and tolerance and counseling. He will be profoundly missed in this respect, now that he is no longer among us.

Indeed, John Money's death will leave a large void for all of us. Sexuality and gender scholars are indebted to him for his brilliance, his scientific contributions, and his passionate commitment to research and clinical care.

Selected Publications

Green, R. & Money, J. (Eds.). (1969). Transsexualism and sex reassignment. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press.

Money, J. (1985). The destroying angel." Sex, fitness and food in the legacy of degeneracy theory, Graham crackers, Kellogg's corn flakes, and American health history. Buffalo: Prometheus Books.

Money, J. (1986). Venuses penuses: Sexology, sexosophy, and exigency theory. Buffalo: Prometheus Books.

Money, J. (1988). Gay, straight and in-between: The sexology of erotic orientation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Money, J. (1998). Sin, science and the sex police. Essays on sexology and sexosophy. Buffalo: Prometheus Books.

Money, J. (2002). A first person history of pediatric psychoendocrinology. New York, London: Kluwer Academic, Plenum Publishers.

Money, J., Hampson, J. G., & Hampson, J. L. (1955). An examination of some basic sexual concepts: The evidence of human hermaphroditism. Bulletin of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 97, 301-319.

Money, J., Hampson, J. G., & Hampson, J. L. (1955). Hermaphroditism: Recommendations concerning assignment of sex, change of sex and psychologic management. Bulletin of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, 97, 284-300.

Money, J. (1968). Sex errors of the body. Dilemmas, edueation, counseling. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. (1994). Sex errors of the body and related syndromes. A guide to counseling children, adolescents, and their families. Baltimore: P.H. Brookes.

Money, J. & Ehrhardt, A. A. (1972). Man and woman, boy and girl." The differentiation and dimorphism of gender identity from conception to maturity. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Anke A. Ehrhardt Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University