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Nature Vs. Nurture Case Study

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At 8 months of age, Bruce and his twin Brian went for a routine circumcision. Bruce's penis was accidentally destroyed during his operation. John Money was a well-known psychologist and a sexologist at the time. Money suggested that Bruce should have a sex change, as plastic surgery was not advanced enough. Unknown to Bruce's parents, Money had an ulterior motive. Money had been working on a theory - that any boy could be raised as a girl. He believed that Nurture was more important than Nature when it came to gender roles. The Reimer twins provided Money with a perfect sample, two twin boys raised by the same people in the same way. This allowed Money to experiment on Bruce while using Brian as a control. Bruce underwent surgery and was raised as Brenda, a girl. Brenda behaved exactly as a little girl; playing with dolls, baking cookies, wearing dresses etc. Money published his works, stating that he had evidence to …show more content…

In an attempt to stop this, Money tried to force Brenda to realise that she was female, and in some cases he was even accused of acting in a paedophilic way towards her and her brother. Around the age of 13, Brenda began to look and act incredibly masculine, rejecting the femininity that had been forced upon her. Brenda's parents eventually told her the truth when she was 14. David later had surgery to reconstruct a penis and went on to have a wife and children.Aged 38 he committed suicide, 2 years after his twin also killed himself. It is believed that they both committed suicide because of the methodology used by Money and his impact on their life Money's reputation was ruined after he reported successes on a flawed experiment. David and his twin brother alleged that Dr Money had taken numerous naked photos of the twins during their treatment and had even forced them to engage in "Sexual play" at age 7. As a psychologist, Money should have sought to protect the twins as they wereso

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