Lisa’s interview about her writing with Richard Marshall for the online philosophy magazine 3am has been published here, to coincide with the “official” publication date of The Subject of Murder.

Lisa has signed a contract with the University of Chicago Press for a co-authored book with Iain Morland and Nikki Sullivan to appear in 2014. The book is entitled Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts.

The book consists of six single-authored chapters, a co-authored Introduction, and a Critical Conclusion. Lisa’s chapters reflect her career-long interest in the sexological concept of “perversion” or “paraphilia”, about which John Money wrote widely in the 1980s and ’90s. The book is the outcome of several years of individual and collaborative research on the controversial New Zealand-born, US-based sexologist.

John Money (1921-2006) is best remembered for his role in the case of David Reimer, a boy who, on Money’s advice, was brought up as a girl following the accidental destruction of his penis during a routine operation at the age of 8 months. For many years, the experiment was thought to have been a success, but it was revealed in 1997 that Reimer had always felt that he was not a girl, and had sought sex-reassignment in adulthood. He later committed suicide in 2002.

While dividing medical and public opinion, Money was undoubtedly a pioneer. He was responsible for introducing the concept of “gender” as it pertains to human identity; for formulating protocols for the treatment of “transsexualism” and intersex conditions; and for developing antiandrogen treatment for sex offenders and “paraphiliacs”. This major publication will be the first book written from a theoretical humanities perspective to evaluate both the influences that shaped Money’s writing and practice, and the enduring effects of Money’s legacy on subsequent medical and cultural understandings of sexuality and gender.

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