Jul 21, 2006  |  By: KATHERINE VOLIN  | COMMENTS     

Psychologist John Money, whose work in gender and sex research was both groundbreaking and controversial, died on July 7 at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson, Md. He was one day shy of turning 85.

According to his niece, Sally Hopkins, Money died of complications from Parkinson’s disease.

Money was born on July 8, 1921, in New Zealand and immigrated to the United States in 1947. He spent 50 years as a researcher at Johns Hopkins University, where he was a professor of medical psychology.

Money’s research on gender identity, a term he created, focused on the importance of environment on gender determination.

“He really developed that entire field of study,” said Dr. Gregory K. Lehne, a Money colleague and an assistant professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins. “Without him, that whole field of study might not have existed.”

Money advised parents of intersex children, those born with ambiguous or otherwise atypical sexual anatomy, to choose one gender for their child, perform gender reassignment surgery if necessary and raise the child according to the chosen gender.

Although examining gender that way was pioneering, its implications for intersex people were negative, some say.

“He provided a framework to create a model we call the ‘concealment model’ in which they believe that intersex is so shameful and so freakish that no one could ever stand to be intersex,” says Cheryl Chase, executive director of the Intersex Society of North America, an organization working to end unwanted gender assignment.

John/John case: troubled legacy

Money’s most famous gender reassignment case was one known later as the John/Joan case. After a botched circumcision left David Raimer with a seared penis, Money recommended the family surgically reassign him with female genitalia and raise him as a girl.

Money counted the case as a success, but in 1997 a study revealed that Raimer had discovered the truth about his gender at the age of 15 and immediately stopped hormone treatments and reverted to living as a male. Raimer committed suicide in 2004.

Lehne said Money did not talk publicly about the case and Hopkins said her uncle did so out of respect for the family.

“He had total sympathy and distress over the situation the family was in,” she said.

Chase attributed Money’s silence to pride.

“He wasn’t able to admit [his] error,” Chase said. “John Money was never willing to speak up. John Money would never speak about that case or acknowledge that he made a mistake.”

Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, a transgender group, said that Money’s personal beliefs may have interfered with his research conclusions on whether to reassign gender.

“It certainly goes against the understanding of most researchers nowadays and goes against most peoples’ understanding of his own research,” Chase said.

Leclair said Money’s legacy would be mixed. “He’s a bit of a paradox,” Leclair said. “He wasn’t afraid to explore issues that society considers taboo.”

Chase called Money’s reputation among the intersex “pretty poor,” but said that his accomplishments were still notable and crucial to understanding gender.

“I think that he was this flamboyant kind of character who really took some glee in breaking down sexual taboos and he was in favor of more sexual openness and more sexual freedom,” Chase said. “So it’s really ironic that the thing that he’s going to be most remembered for and is most of his legacy is this model of medical intervention on people who are born with unusual sex anatomy.”

Associated Press contributed to this story