John Money – manipulating gender boosted his career

John Money, the catalyst for the recent trans furore, who popularized the term ‘gender identity’ and argued that ‘sexual orientation’ is ‘socially constructed’, ended up with a tarnished reputation as his two experimental subjects both committed suicide in adulthood.

  John Money, a NZ sex researcher migrated to the USA, was far from being filled with any Aquarian zeal which had seemed to lie behind the trans ideology. A ruthlessly manipulative Sun, Mars, Pluto in Cancer square Chiron, he experimented with callous disregard on twin boys, one of whom had been previously castrated during a circumcision gone wrong. Obsessed with proving his thesis that babies are born ‘gender-neutral’ and could be ‘streamed’, thanks to hormone injections and surgery, into either gender, he played god with their childhood, including abusing them with predictable results in later life. Money further blotted his copybook by suggesting that paedophile relationships were not damaging.

  I have a fascination for ideas, (manic movements), which grip a culture and the influencers who boost their reputation by injecting their fixation into public consciousness. No one is anything but sympathetic towards the small number of those suffering from genuine gender dysphoria but that never seemed to me to be the main motivation behind the furore fuelling trans activism and the self-identification craze.

   John Money born 8 July 1921 Hamilton, New Zealand, no birth time, in addition to his do-or-die determined Mars, Pluto, Sun in Cancer had an experimental Uranus in trine – and an earthy Jupiter Saturn conjunct in Virgo.  A few individuals with Jupiter Saturn do end up being raised onto pedestals by their society, usually to tumble at some point. Hubris.

  All of these placings could have been used in a different way. Eunice Shriver, JFK’s sister, born two days later, ploughed her ferociously driven energy into doing good works for those with physical and intellectual disabilities, being motivated by her sister Rose who had been tragically lobotomised.

  The fallacy that history means progress has its glaring examples in medicine and especially in the outpourings of sex researchers, who spurred on the sexual revolution. Alfred Kinsey covertly used a paedophile to establish his conclusions about children’s sexual behaviour. Born 23 June 1894, he was another Sun Cancer square Mars with the Neptune Pluto in Gemini of the time square Chiron and trine Saturn. He set in train the sexual liberation era that followed, not all of it with positive outcomes.

  Assuming for the sake of argument that John Money is the father of the trans mania then it may have less to do with the upcoming Pluto in Aquarius era and more to do with tr Pluto in Capricorn square Uranus in Aries of the last decade rattling up the energy of his chart. Which means it will continue to deflate as Pluto edges out of Capricorn.

  Apologies if this seems special pleading on my part. But it makes sense of one of the personalities in the ‘false memory’/ deny child abuse campaign of the 1990s. The late Richard Green, psychiatrist and sex researcher, heavily involved in the ‘false memory’ movement, worked at the London St George’s transgender clinic. He was a protegee of Money, pro-pornography, and allied himself mystifyingly with Tom O’Carroll, convicted ex head of the Paedophile Information Exchange. I could never quite square the transgender connection with the child abuse deniers. Still can’t, but it does seem interconnected in certain quarters.

17 thoughts on “John Money – manipulating gender boosted his career”

  1. Thank you Marjorie. John Money was influenced by, and took from, the earlier work of pioneering sexologists Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868), and Havelock Ellis, 2 February, 1859 (Sun, Moon, Chiron and Asc in Aquarius).
    You write: “A ruthlessly manipulative Sun, Mars, Pluto in Cancer square Chiron,” – and it’s interesting to then look at Magnus Hirschfeld, and his Institute of Sexual Research, which opened on 6th July, 1919 in post WW1 Berlin – then beginning its sexually liberated years under the chaotic Weimar Republic.

    Magnus Hirschfeld has Venus 9 Cancer conjunct Uranus 10 Cancer, square Neptune at 16 Aries. Venus/Uranus are sextile Pluto 15 Taurus. He was an activist as well as a sexologist, campaigning for homosexual rights, which included those he called ‘transvestites’, or cross-dressers. He also asserted that there were 64 ‘sexual intermediates’, or gender identities – an idea that is broadly in circulation in the West today.

    The Institute of Sexual Research, 6th July 1919, has Sun 12 Cancer, Pluto 6 Cancer squaring Chiron 6 of warrior and activist Aries. Those connect with John Money’s Sun, Mercury, Mars and Pluto. Hirschfeld’s own fiery Mars in Aries (24) squares the Institute’s Jupiter, 23 Cancer – and connects with John Money’s Nodal axis at 23 Libra/Aries. So perhaps part of JM saw his life’s work developing from Hirschfeld and his Institute’s research? Hirschfeld’s own Mars is on Money’s South Node though, bringing some kind of mis-read message from the past perhaps as Money’s ambition over-rode his humanity (if he had any).

    Transiting Pluto reached 11 Capricorn in 2013 – which is interesting timing in light of the current trans activism movement’s wider visibility to the general public I think, since it was already challenging John Money’s chart and the Institute’s 12 Cancer Sun. Interesting that all this activity is in the signs associated with ‘mother’ and ‘father’.

    Of interest re Hirschfeld and the Institute is a detailed article about the recent exhibition, ‘To Be Seen: Queer Lives 1900-1950’ in Munich. It’s on artblart.com. I won’t post a link because it always seems to go wrong when I do!

    • Fascinating, Jane, thanks for that broader picture! This story really reinforces to me that people’s gender is deeply ingrained at birth whether we are heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual, etc. etc. We should accept who we are and who other people are and stop judging or trying to change others. God, I hope that comment doesn’t start a war because I’m too busy with other things to fight one! So that is all I am going to say on that!

  4. There was such strangeness in psychology and psychiatry during the seventies (I trained as a nurse in that era) they are not the best people for the younger generations to look to for guidance. Child sex abuse was still hidden.

    • The history of Psychosurgery is absolutely littered with horror stories from frontal lobotomy to brutal forms of electro convulsive therapy, clitorectomies carried out on young women who were considered by their times as overly sexual and hormone and aversion therapy for homosexuality. Then there are the multiple ways in which barbaric psychiatric theories and treatments are used by tyrannies, the Soviets used ECT on dissidents for example. It’s not a practice that has a particularly good record historically speaking.

  5. I admit I had never heard of this story before even though the twin boys were Canadian. I’ve just been doing a bit of reading up including this old BBC article from 2010: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11814300. Wiki gives the birthdate for the twins as August 22, 1965 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Depending on the time of birth this likely gave the boys an anaretic Sun at 29° Leo (29°24′ Leo at noon) which seems appropriate given the emphasis on sexuality and self-expression in their lives. Uranus and Pluto are conjunct in mid Virgo within 1°16′ and oppose Saturn within 33′ and 43′ of arc respectively. Off the top of my head, to me this seems to represent the coercion (Pluto) and emotional deprivation (Saturn in Pisces) visited on these children in the name of science (Uranus). Mercury was square Neptune within 1° and clearly the boys were disoriented by the ‘therapy’ involving ‘sexual rehearsal’ which from what I’ve read was sexually and emotionally abusive. The Mercury-Neptune square also seems to reflect the confusion about sexual identity for Bruce/Brenda/David, the child who lost his penis and was raised as a girl. What struck me is that Mercury which is linked with hermaphrodites went stationary direct 2.9 days after the boys were born. It’s all frightfully appalling and sad that both men killed themselves at the ages of 36 and 38. It sounds like Money was never held accountable for the damage he did. Thank you, Marjorie, for bringing forward this heartbreaking story.

    • It is heartbreaking, and horrifying in equal measure. I noticed that the Twins’ Uranus/Pluto conjunction opposition Saturn in Pisces you highlight is also opposing their Chiron at 21 Pisces, potentially describing not the ‘wounded healer’ but a symbolic older, “wounding” doctor? Chilling to see Money’s natal Jupiter 14 Virgo, and Saturn 19 Virgo, opposing the Twins’ Saturn and Chiron, conjunct their Uranus and Pluto. And all in the signs of ‘victim/saviour’, health care, and sacrifice. And with Virgo, the devil really was in the detail wasn’t it?

      • Yes, Money’s Jupiter which represents physicians right on the twin’s Uranus almost to the minute seems to describe his unorthodox views and treatment of the twins. I was wondering if Money’s 8 Cancer Pluto might also be on the twins’ Moons depending on their time of birth. I didn’t mention the Chiron but later wished I had and I think in this case it symbolizes a wound that never heals. I tried to find a date for the circumcision operation which went so awry but all I could find online was that it occurred when David was 7 months old. Saturn was exactly conjunct the twin’s Chiron 7 months later on March 21, 1966 while it was trine Neptune and square Jupiter. It would only make the one exact conjunction. Pluto and Uranus were approaching one of their three exact conjunctions on April 4, 1966 while retrograde. This has really gotten me thinking about the impersonal and amoral nature of Pluto and Uranus working together. Their conjunction in the 60s has been heralded as a time of great social and scientific progress, but at what cost? I don’t want to start another complex threat on that topic but I am going to think about that more. If anyone knows the date of the accident when David lost his penis, it would be morbidly interesting to see how close the date was to that Saturn-Chiron conjunction. Thank you, Jane!

  6. Just a slight correction. The twin boy was not castrated during a circumcision – he lost his penis. He was later castrated and then raised as a girl at Money’s suggestion and direction with disastrous results. It is a tragic story for which Money was never held to account.

  7. “Money’s work was creepy, cruel and amoral – and left a trail of misery, pain and suicide in its wake.”

    Eerie parallels between his treatment of the Reiner twins and some of the experiments conducted by Dr Josef Mengele in Auschwitz. One can just imagine what the likes of Money would have done if a totalitarian regime gave him carte blanche to operate in any manner he felt fit.

    • The horrifying truth is we are living through exactly what you describe, with rampant and seemingly unquestioned experimental “gender affirming care” of children.

      Jazz Jennings being the most infamous example. Having his puberty suppressed, put on artificial hormones and then surgery, all while a minor.

      Sweden, Norway, Finland and the UK have put a halt to these ghastly practices but it’s full steam ahead in places like Canada and much of the USA.

      LGB activism = Your kids are fine just the way they are. You don’t have to be concerned if they’re gender non-conforming.

      LGBTQ activism = Your children are defective & we’re here to correct their abnormalities with drugs and multiple surgeries.

      There tidal wave of these kids “detransitioning” has just begun.

      The Detransition Subreddit now has 48,000 + members.

      It’s sobering reading.

    • Fascinating, Martha, except I am seeing Sag on the 10th, ruled by Jupiter in the 7th, which would be a good position for someone in counselling/psychotherapy, along with the Moon and Saturn there too. Food for thought, thank you.

  11. ‘I could never quite square the transgender connection with the child abuse deniers. Still can’t, but it does seem interconnected in certain quarters.’

    I was just thinking how this connection with these ‘fathers’ seems to stands out for me. Predators preying on a segment of society in turmoil and vulnerable about their identity – ripe for the picking

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