THE MALE: From Infancy to Old Age

by ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1981

An educational review of the male as genital being: heavy on the biology angle, but not so scholarly as to be beyond reach of the average reader. Silber is a urologist, the author of How to Get Pregnant (1980), and something of a believer in behavioral-therapy approaches to such common problems as early ejaculation or (in boys) bed-wetting. One of his more interesting solutions to a practical problem is to advise impotent men to take the ""Stamp Test"": a man tapes stamps to his penis at night, and if the stamps tear at the perforations, it means the member has become erect during sleep, and erection is therefore physically possible. Silber claims that some men get so psyched up by seeing the torn stamps--proof that their problem is only psycho-logical--that their mental barriers come tumbling down as well; and impotence is cured. Silber tends to be conservative in the more important ways: he doesn't seem fond of hormone injection and the like, except in the case of sex offenders, where he believes some judiciously applied female hormone can counteract the testosterone levels which (though normal) drive these particularly sensitive individuals to sexual rages. But some men may not like his insistence on the ""gradual deterioration"" of sexual drive in men over 30, despite the logical explanations put forth. For every person anxious to know the pros and cons of circumcising a newborn baby, or the different forms of VD, there will be others simply curious to learn the facts about the more exotic subjects: hermaphroditism, transsexualism, etc. So, then, something for everybody within its chosen narrow limits.

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1981

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1981

Categories: NONFICTION