Aging & Wisdom Quote by John Money

"It makes it very exciting don't you think" is doing a lot of social work: it pulls the listener into a shared mood before they’ve had a chance to decide whether the premise is reassuring or alarming. Money’s halting phrasing - "of, of discovery" - reads like someone reaching for a grand narrative in real time, trying to elevate what could otherwise sound like clinical tinkering into the romance of progress. The kicker is "human personality this way": the vagueness is strategic. It implies method, a new toolset, without naming the interventions, the risks, or the bodies involved.

In context, John Money was a central figure in mid-20th-century sexology, pushing the idea that gender identity could be shaped through early socialization and medical management. Framing the era as a "discovery" positions his work as exploratory rather than ideological; it smuggles authority in under the banner of curiosity. Discovery is what scientists do. Discovery is innocent. Discovery also has a history: it’s the language of conquest and experimentation, often used when the "unknown" is another person’s life.

The subtext is confidence dressed as invitation. Money isn’t merely marveling at complexity; he’s selling a worldview in which personality is legible, classifiable, and, crucially, steerable. The excitement isn’t just about understanding people. It’s about gaining leverage over what was previously private, messy, or resistant to categories. That’s why the line lands today with a double charge: it captures modernity’s rush toward naming the self, and it hints at how easily that rush can slide from empathy into control.