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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Media studies
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Born That Way - Genes, Behavior, Personality (Paperback)
Loot Price: R1,307
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Born That Way - Genes, Behavior, Personality (Paperback)
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An enthusiastic, informative account of the young field of
behavioral genetics that could use less of the reporter and more of
the subject. Wright (The Von Bulow Affair, 1983; Lillian Hellman,
1986; etc.) acknowledges himself a nonscientist who "roots" for the
growing view that human behavior is heavily influenced by genes, as
against the traditional social science perspective that environment
alone is responsible. Though this admission of journalistic bias is
refreshing, Wright overdoes it: His repeated attacks on
"genophobes" begin to sound bullying. To dismiss psychoanalysis by
speaking of a "Freudian-analytic Anschluss" is not only overstated
but unkind, given that Freud was a refugee from the actual
Anschluss. Wright is better at expounding the thinking of
behavioral geneticists, particularly their complex view of the
interaction of environment and heredity, though his account of
their research is lopsided. Most of the book's first third is
devoted to an engrossing, detailed account of Thomas Bouchard's
studies of reared-apart twins. The middle third too hurriedly
covers other top researchers - such as Dean Hamer, whose recent
Living with Our Genes (p. 171) is less contentious and better at
detailing specific gene-behavior links. The last third gives a
polemical account of the historical shift from eugenics to
environmentalism to behavioral genetics. Wright's criticisms of
intellectually dishonest "antigene screeds" are well taken, but the
constant jabbing takes up space that could have been filled with
more data. In a concluding chapter on the implications of
gene-behavior links, he unconvincingly theorizes that knowledge of
these links can make people more tolerant. Maybe, but also more
patronizing: In a discussion of abortion, Wright characterizes the
pro-choice position as rational and high-minded, the pro-life
position as a benighted one driven by genes. The book leaves one
wishing to hear less from polemicists rooting for or against genes
and more from scientists striving to find out exactly what genes
do. (Kirkus Reviews)
A stimulating and highly readable account of the world of genetic research and molecular biology and its findings over the last half-century. Challenges common assumptions and theories of what determines our personality and behaviour.
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