Born gay. The psychobiology of sex orientation (букинист)

Аннотация

Причина уценки: Книга не новая, но в хорошем состоянии

---

Are you gay or straight? Although some people go through a phase of uncertainty, most of us have a fairly clear idea of our own preference. The next question that arises, perhaps especially if we recognize that we are gay, is how we came to be that way. Throughout history there have been many conflicting theories, including perverse choice, seduction by older gays, being raised by smothering mothers and absent or aloof fathers, chance conditioning, traumatic early heterosexual experiences and genetics. There have also been widely varying attitudes, ranging from tolerance and amusement to moral outrage and psychiatric classification as an ‘illness’. Although psychiatry no longer regards homosexuality as a deviation or mental disorder, and equality is enshrined in law in Anglo-American countries, there are many religions around the world that regard gays as stubbornly ‘sinful’ people whose behaviour is an affront to the divine plan.

Searches for the causes of the homosexual orientation began in the era when the behaviour was pathologized (believed to be a disease or mental illness), hence some gay people have been resistant to the idea of science seeking answers to this question. However, since a self-declared gay neuroscientist in San Diego found anatomical brain differences between gay and straight men, the homosexual community has come to realize that science might just as well be used to dispel the idea that gay behaviour is a matter of fickle choice subject to ‘correction’. Scientific work has progressed a great deal since the ground-breaking discovery of Simon LeVay in 1991, and this book is intended to summarize these modern developments.