David Reimer was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in 1965 along with his twin brother, Brian. When the two boys were about seven months old, they were both diagnosed with Phimosis, which is defined as "the inability to retract the [foreskin] covering the head of an [uncircumcised] penis" (UCSF). David (who's birth name was Bruce), and his brother were referred by a urologist for circumcision. Bruce's penis was burnt beyond surgical repair in an accident during the cauterization procedure; a method of circumcision where a hot knife is used to remove the foreskin from the penis (this method is no longer used today). The doctors opted not to operate on Brian after the accident.
It was decided by his parents after watching an interview with Dr. John Money and a transgender woman on television that the best way to raise David was to raise him as a woman. After a personal meeting with Dr. Money, where he explained to the Reimers how raising one of their twins as a boy and the other as a girl would be perfect to prove his hypothesis of "nurture over nature" when it comes to gender identity. Mr. and Mrs. Reimer changed Bruce's name to Brenda and began the process of raising him to be a woman
As time went on, Brenda began to show signs of abnormal gender expression. She was more aggressive than other girls her age, and acted in a much more masculine manner, which led to her becoming a social outcast among her peers. This, along with Dr. Money's interrogation of Brenda and her brother (which included pedophilia and aggressive, forceful behavior towards the Both Brenda and Brian) led to confusion and depression with Brenda. Eventually, when she was a teenager, her parents admitted to her and Brian the entire true story of why she was different from all of the other girls she knew. Brenda immediately told them that she wanted to change back into a boy, have a penis surgically reconstructed. He changed his name a second time to David.
David's depression developed and continued until he eventually committed suicide at age 38.
The fact that David did not have the sex characteristics to match the way he was being raised negatively effected his gender identity. Dr. Money's hypothesis was rejected, and the study showed that nature is more important than nurture when it comes to a person's gender. Throughout his childhood of being raised as a girl, David, or Brenda's, gender expression did not match society's expectations for women. According to Dr. Money and the Boy with no Penis, this was at the fault of Dr. Money for being aggressive and abusive towards him. I think that if David's parents had waited any longer to let David know the truth about his sex, he would have gone through even deeper troubles throughout and beyond his teenage years including confusion on his sexual orientation, and considering coming out and admitting that he is naturally attracted to females sexually. I can understand why an intersex individual might have many different issues psychologically.
References
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf
http://documentarystorm.com/dr-money-and-the-boy-with-no-penis/
http://www.shb-info.org/reimer3.html
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf
http://documentarystorm.com/dr-money-and-the-boy-with-no-penis/
http://www.shb-info.org/reimer3.html