A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis

Friedman begins with pagan attitudes: ancient Greeks considered the penis a measure of a man's proximity to "divine power," while the Romans, whose generals were known to promote soldiers based on penis size, saw it as an indicator of earthly strength. Thanks to the spread of Christianity, the "sacred staff became the demon rod"--a fearful manifestation of the devil. Theology gave way, grudgingly, to science. In the Renaissance, anatomical discoveries allowed for the possibility that this "agent of death" was, in fact, only a "blameless instrument of reproduction." Subsequent chapters discuss the penis's role as a racial yardstick; its "defining role in human personality" as asserted by Freud; its politicization; and finally, through the likes of Viagra, its objectification as a "thing ... impervious to religious teachings, psychological insights, racial stereotypes and feminist criticism."

Friedman's study of what he calls the "symbolic muscle" is filled with fascinating side trips (castration cults, ancient graffiti, the anti-masturbation "semen-retention movement," aphrodisiacs through the ages, and, to modern eyes, risible medical practices with the likes of monkey glands), as well as a rich cast of characters (Leonardo da Vinci, John Kellogg of cornflake fame, Kate Millet, Clarence Thomas, and Walt Whitman). The book is informal, but well researched (and documented), entertaining but not cute, wide-ranging but not sketchy, and simultaneously irreverent and respectful. --H. O'Billovitch

Product Description
Setting out to "make intellectual and emotional sense of a man's relationship with his defining organ," David Friedman moves from highbrow to lowbrow in this lighthearted but substantive cultural history. Successively viewed as a life source, a symbol of a sacred covenant with God, an emblem of shame, an instrument of domination, a mere prop for the pharmaceutical companies, and finally, as simply a means of penetration-the penis has always been at the core of Western man's (and woman's) cultural evolution. With such luminaries as Leonardo da Vinci, Sigmund Freud, Walt Whitman, and Norman Mailer marking their territory on the subject, A Mind of Its Own is an intelligent and often hilarious account of man's complicated bond with his closest friend.

The first chapter, The Demon Rod, explores the moral view of the penis as it developed from ancient times through Christianized Western European thought. Is the penis a gift of the gods or man's link with the devil? This is the question that is explored in this chapter. From the phallic cults of ancient Sumer, Egypt, Greece and Rome, through the Jewish circumcision pact, to the demonization of the penis by Christian thinkers like Augustine, the role of the penis in the relationship of man to his god is explored.

Chapter Two, The Gear Shift, starts with Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical dissections and examines the early attempts of western science to discover the biological rather than the mythical aspects of the penis. The period covered is the 16th through the 19th century. Most of the science, though well-intentioned, is colored by the moral thinking of the time. Although much is learned, many false theories coexist with newly discovered anatomical facts.

The next chapter is called The Measuring Stick and is a look at the theories surrounding Racism and penis size. It outlines the history of the belief that males of African heritage have greater penile size than any other race. From Noah to Mapplethorp, the fascination and fear associated with this concept and the racial theories that developed along side it are well laid out.

The Cigar is Chapter Four and it explores the influence of the penis on Freud and psychoanalytical thought. Here we move from the physical manifestation of the penis to its effects on the psyche, both in the individual and the culture. With quotes from Freud's writings, we see his development of the theories of the Oedipus Complex and the vaginal orgasm, and their effects on modern society.

Chapter Five, entitled The Battering Ram, is a look at the feminist reaction of the 1960s to the Freudian emphasis on the penis and vaginal orgasm. These feminist thinkers shift the focus to the clitoris as the center of satisfying sexual relationships for women. From Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique to Andrea Dworkin's Pornography, the link between the penis and sexual violence in feminist writings is outlined in wonderful detail.

The final chapter, The Punctureproof Balloon returns to the physiological study of the penis that started in chapter two. However, this chapter picks up with the 19th Century with its quacks and misinformed physicians and takes us up to the present day's modern medical marvels. Here we see urologists taking the study of impotence away from psychoanalysts and developing medical treatments. This is a wonderful historic outline of the creation and cultural impact of Viagra and other pharmaceutical treatments for Erectile Dysfunction.

All in all this is a fascinating popular treatment of a topic that tends to either not be discussed or is discussed so informally as to have little regard for the facts. This book tells it all and backs up the facts with 35 pages of Notes to the bibliographic sources. To help the reader find the facts a 12 page Index ends the book. Eight pages of black and white pictures illustrate some of the topics described in the book. This book is entertaining and informative reading for anyone who has ever wanted to know about this organ and its role in society.


It really rises to the occasion!   October 31, 2001
Jeff Abell (Chicago, IL USA)
42 out of 45 found this review helpful

Feminists have been bashing "phallocentric" culture for a couple of decades now, but most have not bothered to examine or explicate the central element of such culture, namely the male organ itself. David M. Friedman has written a well-researched, admirably forthright account of Western culture's alternating aversion toward and obsession with the penis. Friedman tracks this evolution from the semen-drenched religious texts of ancient Sumer (where the word for semen is the same as water, and the gods literally bathe the world in sperm) through the ancient Greeks and then how the organ was "demonized" by St. Augustine and the Catholic church. Other chapters consider how racism has centered for centuries on white male fear of macrophallic African men, as well as Freud's attempt to "universalize" penis envy and castration anxiety. While one might quibble with a scholarly detail here and there (notably Friedman's acceptance of Foucault's theories about Greek sexuality, which have been notably contradicted by more recent scholarship), this is such a well-researched and engagingly written study that it deserves to be widely read. Men and women alike will gain a clearer understanding of why we put fig-leaves on statues and why a cigar is not always just a good smoke.


The Genious of Penious   December 10, 2001
19 out of 21 found this review helpful

The other night I was telling a friend of mine ...--to go along with an omniverous intellect and particular interests in the sciences--why he would like this book. I explained that the author had done a remarkable job of synthesizing medical information and cultural ideas of various disciplines from throughout Western civilization (from the Greeks to the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, right though the modern era) as they pertain to what turns out to be the fantastically rich vehicle of the male organ. It's the kind of book you want to read passages of aloud to a friend, because they're edifying and illuminating ("testify" comes from testes), not to mention off-handedly hilarious. More than simply a good read, "A Mind of Its Own" is thought-provoking; we live in an era of incurable sexually transmitted diseases and a headlong commitment to creating the bulletproof penis. Friedman's book limns this penile paradox, and their precedents over the last couple of millennia. I'll be giving this book as a Christmas gift to friends who will get a kick out of the topic, and appreciate the serious and witty way it is handled.


Restructuring the masculine mystique....   November 30, 2001
Dianne Foster (USA)
45 out of 59 found this review helpful

David Friedman's book A MIND OF ITS OWN: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE PENIS is excellent -- well researched and footnoted; parsimonious but amazingly thorough; humorous and frightening; enlightened and enlightening; and one of the most readable and well written books I've read in a while. I don't ordinarily read the publications Friedman writes for (GQ, Esquire, Village Voice, Rolling Stone) but I found his investigative reporter style smooth as silk and reminiscent of that of Andrew Sullivan whom I admire.

I would not have read this book except for it's intriguing cover and my ongoing interest in the subject of fertility (I wrote my Master's Thesis on the nexus between female fertility and labor force participation). Following my reading of Clara Pinto Correra's OVARY OF EVE, and McElvaine's EVE'S SEED, this book seemed a natural fit, and Friedman has filled in some important remaining gaps in my education. I had no idea men took their penises so seriously. I recomend this book to sociologists, demographers, psychologists, urologists, and just about anyone who is interested in the penis or contemplating taking Viagra.

Gosh, I must be naive, but I had no idea men had suffered so much. I knew women had suffered and are still suffering all over the world (particularly in Muslim countries) but whereas women have suffered from the pain inflicted upon them (by men), men inflict pain -- on themselves, young boys, women, young girls and animals -- all for the sake of an erection it would seem. Reading this book requires a strong stomach.

Freidman has covered every possible angle from which the penis can be examined -- war, mythology, politics, physiology, poetry and literature, psychology, medicine, religion. He begins his book with an exploration into the perspectives of the ancients towards the penis -- Egypt and the Osirus myth (he lost his penis); Greece and the cult of male love (homo); Roman manhood (hetero and homo but only if one is the penetrator not the penatratee); the Bible (forget it), circumcision (ouch), Gilgamesh (off with it), the Jews (dead giveaway). Next comes the CHURCH from Augustine (forget it) and Julian the Orthodox (I wish I had been raised Orthodox); Thomas Aquinis and later the Protestants including those heads of the English Catholic Church -- Henry the VIII and James I (conflicted to say the least). Friedman then tackles science and medicine. He summarizes the work of Correra Pinto and other excellent sources who have written extensively on the history of human fertility research. He discusses the anatomical work of Leonardo da Vinci (is there anything he did not take apart??); He covers the Freudians (introspection and cocaine) including Stekel and other psychoanalysts who studied male frigidity; He summarizes the machinations of a raft of medical quacks, simpletons, sex-crazed misfits and other degenerates who did BAD things to unsuspecting males and females in the name of medicine and medical research.

The last part of the book, pure investigative journalism, is a succinct and well written summary of the search for a medical cure for impotence. He describes the involvement of academe and physicians with the drug industry; stock investors like Bill Gates and Ross Perot (and you thought it was a military-industrial complex!); the Viagra trials (yes, this drug is still being "tried" -- no one knows the long-term effects); and many other contemporary angles and issues including the feminsts perspectives on the topic of male penises.

I enjoyed the book and I'm glad I read it, but it left me a bit sad. I really hope and still believe that there are men who don't think the one-eyed-jack is the most important thing in the world -- a world where females and children are destitute, starving, in bondage, overworked and abused.


a wonderful and wonderfully thorough book   August 15, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

it's not often i pick up a non-fiction book as engrossing and entertaining as this one. it was like a novel i didn't want to put down until i finished it. friedman presents a wonderfully detailed overview of, as the title promises, the cultural history of the penis. this includes the place of the penis in religious history, freudian psychoanalysis, feminist theory, racism, and psychopharmacology. the author provides enough background and context that it's like reading a well-constructued primer on each of those subject areas. most highly recommended!