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''Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why: The science of sexual orientation'' is a 2010 book about the development of sexual orientation by Simon LeVay,〔Blum 2010〕 who reviews many scientific studies and argues that sexual orientation is an aspect of gender that emerges from the prenatal sexual differentiation of the brain. The book received a mixture of positive and negative reviews. ==Summary== LeVay writes that his goal is to provide an up to date account of scientific research on sexual orientation.〔LeVay 2012. p. x.〕 He details the findings of more than 650 studies that have been conducted since his 1991 study of the hypothalamus,〔Staples 2010.〕 and attempts to draw this evidence together into a coherent theory of sexual orientation. He argues that in general, and with rare exceptions, only people's sexual feelings should be taken into account in assessing their sexual orientation: he rejects Alfred Kinsey's view that sexual behavior should also be considered.〔LeVay 2012. pp. XVII, 2.〕 He argues that sexual orientation is an aspect of gender that emerges from the prenatal sexual differentiation of the brain, determined by a combination of sex hormones, genes, and the womb environment, including factors such as stress during pregnancy. The influence of genes and hormones continues over the life span rather than stopping at birth.〔 Concerning conversion therapy, LeVay writes that while the majority view is that it is unlikely to be effective and has the potential to cause harm, a study by psychiatrist Robert Spitzer identified two hundred people who claimed that it helped them to make a significant shift from homosexuality to heterosexuality. LeVay interprets Spitzer's study as showing that, "at least a few highly motivated gay people can be helped to engage in and derive some degree of pleasure from heterosexual relationships, and to pay less attention to their homosexual feelings."〔LeVay 2012. pp. 12-3.〕 In his discussion of genetic influences, LeVay evaluates the work of economist Edward M. Miller, who proposes that several "feminizing" genes contribute to the development of male homosexuality. LeVay writes that in Miller's view the inheritance of a limited number of such genes might make males more attractive to females by giving them increased empathy and kindness, or rendering them less aggressive, and that this in turn would make them more successful in reproductive terms. Male homosexuality might result from the inheritance of a larger number of feminizing genes. LeVay writes that a study by a group led by Brendan Zietsch has provided evidence supporting Miller's hypothesis, but that its findings need to be replicated and extended.〔LeVay 2012. pp. 187-9.〕 Discussing Freudian theories of homosexuality, LeVay, citing Alan P. Bell, Martin S. Weinberg and Sue Kiefer Hammersmith's ''Sexual Preference'' (1981), states that statistical studies of large numbers of subjects support Sigmund Freud's view that on average gay men are more likely than straight men to describe their relationships with their mothers as close and their relationships with their fathers as distant or hostile. However, he is skeptical that the behavior of parents influences the future sexual orientation of their children, writing that while psychoanalytic theories about homosexuality have not been proven wrong they are no more plausible than the idea that unidentified flying objects are alien spacecraft. Citing the work of psychoanalyst Richard Isay, LeVay suggests that boys who become gay differ from boys who become straight in ways that influence the behavior of parents and that Freudian theories reverse the direction of causation. LeVay rejects the behaviorist idea that the sex of a person's first sex partner influences their sexual orientation, arguing that it is contradicted by cross-cultural evidence, including anthropologist Gilbert Herdt's work on the Sambia, and studies of British boarding schools.〔LeVay 2012. pp. 30–31, 33, 35.〕 Reviewing his work on the hypothalamus, LeVay defends his 1991 study from the criticism that the differences in brain structure between gay and straight men which it found were simply a side-effect of AIDS, which all the gay men in the study had died from. LeVay observes that there was no obvious pathology in the specimens he studied and that he was subsequently able to study a gay man who died of factors unrelated to AIDS and found that his INAH 3 was the same size as those of the gay men in his study. LeVay notes that one attempt has been made to replicate his study. Psychiatrist and neuroscientist William Byne found a difference in INAH 3 size between gay and straight men, but the difference was not quite statistically significant by the criteria Byne used.〔LeVay 2012. pp. 198–199.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gay, Straight, and the Reason Why」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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