Kinsey, History, and Fiction

Review of The Inner Circle by T. Coraghessan Boyle (see record 2005-02344-000). One does not have to accept the postmodern leveling of all knowledge to turn to the novel, not only as a source of enjoyment but also as another method of advancing understanding about Kinsey. Indeed, one can feel more comfortable with The Inner Circle than with the movie because the novel is so clearly fiction. Boyle presents it as a memoir by Kinsey's first research assistant, who dictated it as he was awaiting Kinsey's funeral. In an era of evolutionary psychology, The Inner Circle is a cautionary tale about reducing the human psychological and interpersonal experience to animal functions. The isolation of sexual acts from relationships and love, like so many pen strokes on a cumulative recorder, ultimately does not fit with the lived-in contrast to tallied-experience. Like Sigmund Freud, Kinsey was another biologically trained researcher trying to understand human experience. Freud had little psychology to draw on and so created his own way of dealing with the forces of the genetic, the cultural, and the person. Kinsey rejected the psychology and sociology of his day and proclaimed, more radically than Freud, that biology is destiny, that what is dictates what should be. The Inner Circle captures more chillingly than the biographies the power of a pioneer whose narcissism and dominance are perhaps more important factors to initial fame and success than the research's accuracy or value. This novel is a counterpoint to the worshipful movie and imaginatively provides the life missing from the biographies and documentary. Like other well-researched historical novels, it helps readers better understand the far different time and place in which behavioral science made its advances. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)