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Manhood: The Rise and Fall of the Penis
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Product Description
Review
'[A] lighthearted gambol through the uses and abuses of the penis and its unjustly overlooked companion organs . . . a marvellous read . . . Manhood is an eccentric delight' --The Observer
'The tidbits of information [van Driel] has assembled are really rather wonderful' --Sunday Telegraph
'The tidbits of information [van Driel] has assembled are really rather wonderful' --Sunday Telegraph
Product Description
Why does drinking alcohol increase a woman's sexual desire but reduce a man's ability to perform? Why is the glans not the most sensitive part of the penis? Why is sperm sticky? Can a penis break off? What about all the diseases that torment the hypochondriac? Since 1983 Mels van Driel has come into direct contact with 'tens of thousands of penises and testicles' in his medical practice. He knows his subject intimately. Manhood examines the male sexual organ from medical, psychological and cultural-historical, as well as literary, angles. Van Driel admits that over the years his professional work has produced an 'uneasy balance' between these different viewpoints, which is precisely what prompted him to write this book. Van Driel investigates the penis and its functions, from the scrotum to the glans, from inguinal hernia to infertility, from impotence to the speed of ejaculation. Every man seems to suffer in seeming isolation from some inadequacy or affliction, and the author discusses conditions such as deteriorating sperm, undescended testicles and penile lengthening surgery. Psychological factors that have an impact on sexual experience (wandering thoughts, the madonna-whore complex, castration anxiety) and contemporary phenomena, such as computer sex, are given enlightening treatment along the way. With good humor and a lot of insight, Mels van Driel offers diverse and instructive examples - Elvis Presley's apparent preference for fellatio, Isaac Newton's lifelong failure to perform coitus - exploring all aspects of the pain and the pleasure of every man's 'crown jewels'.
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3 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Minutiae
1 Feb 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A columnist for National Review recommended this book and I haven't been disappointed. Lots of interesting little bits of tid, in particular historical, but also pertaining to health, eroticism, sports etc. It's hard to believe that I knew so little about something of such importance.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Everything you ever wanted to know and were afraid to ask
19 May 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mels Van Driel is a Dutch urologist and sexologist who has obviously not only studied his disciplines well, but who also has the ability to communicate his depth of information with clarity (due in part to the English translation from the Dutch by Paul Vincent), candor, and a fine sense of humor. Though the 'mission' of this book is to explore the male genitalia in anatomic, functional, physiological, and psychological detail, van Driel also has the good sense/sensitivity to include the history of the response to this primary organ from recorded history to the present. And the differences between Greek perception and contemporary understanding are fascinating to ponder.
The author's description of the anatomy, from primitive unisex function in utero to the ultimate adult stage, is concise and thorough and is accompanied by many drawings and images that illustrate the points he makes. And after introducing this completed embryologic and adult transformation of the origin of life organ, he devotes chapters to cultural anomalies in penile perception and function (the section on Russian Skoptsy sect's rituals is enlightening to the extreme!) - tales of bizarre rituals that alone are worth the price of this book.
But van Driel doesn't stop with urological matters or anatomic variations, but instead opens the book to the very contemporary concerns of psychological nature that now have found their way into conversation, the Internet, magazines, and television commercials for Erectile Dysfunction. This is a solid book for those who want to understand the human anatomy, diseases, and emotional and psychological implications surrounding this topic. It is well written and deserves to be taken seriously by both students in medical school and nursing school as well as libraries of all those who want to understand one of the great mysteries of the human body. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, May 10
The author's description of the anatomy, from primitive unisex function in utero to the ultimate adult stage, is concise and thorough and is accompanied by many drawings and images that illustrate the points he makes. And after introducing this completed embryologic and adult transformation of the origin of life organ, he devotes chapters to cultural anomalies in penile perception and function (the section on Russian Skoptsy sect's rituals is enlightening to the extreme!) - tales of bizarre rituals that alone are worth the price of this book.
But van Driel doesn't stop with urological matters or anatomic variations, but instead opens the book to the very contemporary concerns of psychological nature that now have found their way into conversation, the Internet, magazines, and television commercials for Erectile Dysfunction. This is a solid book for those who want to understand the human anatomy, diseases, and emotional and psychological implications surrounding this topic. It is well written and deserves to be taken seriously by both students in medical school and nursing school as well as libraries of all those who want to understand one of the great mysteries of the human body. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, May 10
14 of 19 people found the following review helpful
A slight disappointment...
25 Feb 2010
Format:Hardcover
The book is indeed quite informed and well researched. Mels Van Driel seems to cover every ailment to the penis imaginable, from ED to prostate cancer. It covers misconceptions, current, as well as historical, about the penis and its ailments.
There is however, one bone of contentment (pardon the pun) that I have with Mels Van Driel, and that is his hesitance to discuss the foreskin, which is quite a substantial, healthy, and normal part of basic male anatomy. While other parts of the penis are given their proper respect, some even getting their own heading, the foreskin, it seems, is only mentioned as it pertains to possible illness and its treatment. For example, he only mentions the foreskin as it pertains to the accumulation of smegma, or the development of the rare, but real problem of phimosis. This is unfair, as one never begins to talk about toes, for example, as being susceptible to fungus and ingrown toe-nails. One never begins to talk about a woman's breasts as organs that are susceptible to breast cancer. The fact that the female vulva can accumulate smegma is not the first thing talked about when presenting female anatomy.
Van Driel does correctly state that phimosis is quite rare, and that the foreskin does not usually retract until later years. He further elaborates on the fact that circumcision is not medically necessary, and that it is for the most part, performed as a matter of custom or religious conviction. He gives a brief, but accurate account of the history of the medicalization of circumcision from the Victorian Era to today, but does not challenge some of the latest assertions, i.e, that it works as an HIV preventative; he merely ends on the note that that is the direction in which the pendulum of "health circumcision" is swinging, without challenging the "studies" beign used to promote it that way, and who wrote them (ie, that they were written by Robert Bailey, long-time advocate of infant circumcision, and Jewish researcher Daniel Halperin, who's particular religious affiliation presents a conflict of interest.)
Furthermore, most pictures or diagrams in the book do not present male anatomy as it occurs in nature; most, if not all diagrams, portray the penis without the foreskin, as if that is the way it is found in nature. The female vulva is never shown without labia and/or the clitoris in diagrams. Lo, the only picture of the anatomically correct penis is that of the statue of Michelangelo's David on the front cover, though, even this rendition of the male penis has undergone the knife, according to Van Driel.
Well versed, but overall, this book is a bit of a disappointment, coming from a European source, who, one would assume, would be far better versed on the human prepuce than his American counterparts. I've yet to come across a publication or textbook that gives the foreskin, a normal, natural part of basic male anatomy, its due respect. Van Driel has failed to deliver.
There is however, one bone of contentment (pardon the pun) that I have with Mels Van Driel, and that is his hesitance to discuss the foreskin, which is quite a substantial, healthy, and normal part of basic male anatomy. While other parts of the penis are given their proper respect, some even getting their own heading, the foreskin, it seems, is only mentioned as it pertains to possible illness and its treatment. For example, he only mentions the foreskin as it pertains to the accumulation of smegma, or the development of the rare, but real problem of phimosis. This is unfair, as one never begins to talk about toes, for example, as being susceptible to fungus and ingrown toe-nails. One never begins to talk about a woman's breasts as organs that are susceptible to breast cancer. The fact that the female vulva can accumulate smegma is not the first thing talked about when presenting female anatomy.
Van Driel does correctly state that phimosis is quite rare, and that the foreskin does not usually retract until later years. He further elaborates on the fact that circumcision is not medically necessary, and that it is for the most part, performed as a matter of custom or religious conviction. He gives a brief, but accurate account of the history of the medicalization of circumcision from the Victorian Era to today, but does not challenge some of the latest assertions, i.e, that it works as an HIV preventative; he merely ends on the note that that is the direction in which the pendulum of "health circumcision" is swinging, without challenging the "studies" beign used to promote it that way, and who wrote them (ie, that they were written by Robert Bailey, long-time advocate of infant circumcision, and Jewish researcher Daniel Halperin, who's particular religious affiliation presents a conflict of interest.)
Furthermore, most pictures or diagrams in the book do not present male anatomy as it occurs in nature; most, if not all diagrams, portray the penis without the foreskin, as if that is the way it is found in nature. The female vulva is never shown without labia and/or the clitoris in diagrams. Lo, the only picture of the anatomically correct penis is that of the statue of Michelangelo's David on the front cover, though, even this rendition of the male penis has undergone the knife, according to Van Driel.
Well versed, but overall, this book is a bit of a disappointment, coming from a European source, who, one would assume, would be far better versed on the human prepuce than his American counterparts. I've yet to come across a publication or textbook that gives the foreskin, a normal, natural part of basic male anatomy, its due respect. Van Driel has failed to deliver.
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