Perv

The surprising science of sexual deviance

An entertaining catalogue of the erotic carnival and a plea for tolerance

It's hard to disagree with Bering's generous liberalism

A whirlwind journey through the kinks of the human personality... In entertaining fashion, this psychologist aims to show that normal is just a number; that many of us have strange quirks so quite the moralising

A delightful, intelligent, and thought-provoking addition to the growing body of our sexual knowledge of self

Jesse Bering is the Hunter S. Thompson of science writing, and he is a delight to read - funny, smart, and madly provocative.

A colourful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture.

A balanced and considered approach to this often inflammatory topic.

A colorful romp through psychology, philosophy and popular culture.

Witty... [Bering] employs examples and analogies that make his arguments seem like common sense rather than the hard-earned scientific insights they really are.

Jesse Bering, PhD, is a frequent contributor to Scientific American and Slate. His writing has also appeared in New York magazine, The Guardian, and The New Republic, among other publications, and has been featured by NPR, Playboy Radio, the BBC, and more. The author of The God Instinct, Bering is the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University, Belfast, and began his career as a professor at the University of Arkansas. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

In this eye-opening book, psychologist Jesse Bering argues that we are all sexual deviants on one level or another. He introduces us to the young woman who falls madly in love with the Eiffel Tower, a young man addicted to seductive sneezes, and a pair of deeply affectionate identical twins, among others. He challenges us to move beyond our attitudes towards ‘deviant’ sex and consider the alternative: what would happen if we rise above our fears and revulsions and accept our true natures? 
 
With his signature wit and irreverent style, Bering pulls back the curtains on the history of perversions, the biological reasons behind our distaste for unusual sexual proclivities and the latest research on desire. Armed with reason, science and an insatiable appetite for knowledge, he humanises deviants while asking some provocative questions about the nature of hypocrisy, prejudice and when sexual desire can lead to harm. 
 
A groundbreaking look at our complex relationship with our carnal urges and the ways in which we disguise, deny and shame the sexual deviant in all of us, Perv brings hidden desires into the spotlight.

Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That?

Everything you ever wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask. Literally.

His writing is witty, crammed with pop-culture references, and he employs examples and analogies that make his arguments seem like common sense rather than the hard-earned scientific insights they really are.

Uses science to unsettle our most embedded assumptions. It is deeply thought-provoking.

This is the kind of fact that brightens any dinner party, and Bering delivers it with exuberance. His style is heavy on rhetorical flourishes, facetious asides and cheap puns, but it is always worth the ride.

Jesse Bering is the Hunter Thompson of science writing, and he is a delight to read - funny, smart, and madly provocative

If David Sedaris were an experimental psychologist, he'd be writing essays very much like these. Bering's unique blend of scientific knowledge, sense of humor, intellectual courage, and pure literary skill is immediately recognizable; no one writes quite the way Bering does. Read this book. You'll learn, laugh, and then learn some more.

Bering has an uncanny way with words, an incisive capacity for logical thinking, and a stunning talent for breathing new life and enthusiasm into science.

Jesse Bering is the intellectual spawn of Helen Fisher and Oliver Sacks, and Why Is the Penis Shaped Like That? is brainy, informative, compassionate - and hilariously naughty.

Why do testicles hang the way they do? Is there an adaptive function to the female orgasm? What does it feel like to want to kill yourself? Does ‘free will’ really exist? And why is the penis shaped like that anyway? 
 
Research psychologist and award-winning columnist Jesse Bering takes readers on a bold and captivating journey through some of the most taboo issues related to evolution and human behaviour. Exploring the history of cannibalism, the neurology of people who are sexually attracted to animals, the evolution of human body fluids, the science of homosexuality and serious questions about life and death, Bering boldly goes where no science writer has gone before. 
 
With his characteristic irreverence and trademark cheekiness, Bering leaves no topic unturned or curiosity unexamined, and he does it all with an audaciously original voice. Whether you’re interested in the psychological history behind the many facets of sexual desire or the evolutionary patterns that have dictated our current phallic physique, Why Is The Penis Shaped Like That? is bound to create lively discussion and debate for years to come.

Jesse Bering

Jesse Bering asks the questions no one else dares, he tells truths that others shy away from, and he writes the books that I wish I had written. To me, he is everything a great scientist and communicator should be. Suicide may be an uncomfortable subject yet the escalating numbers of people who take their lives each year means we must make it’s unravelling our priority. I have no doubt this book will have a profound impact on all who read it, and add considerably to our understanding of that self-willed oblivion, whether it lies palpably just beneath our own skin, or the skins of those we love. But perhaps most importantly of all it will help dispel the stigma and shame that so perniciously clings to all suicides.

A brave and important exploration of a subject we urgently need to demystify. It will change every reader for the better.

Bering's book touches upon some deep questions relevant to all of us. Indeed, it is as much about what makes us uniquely human as it is about suicide. A Very Human Ending transcends its own objectives. It is a fascinating, thoughtful, unflinching meditation on one of the most intriguing and curious aspects of the human condition.

I'm not surprised that a book on suicide would be very personal, but I didn’t expect it to be so damn funny. It's also engaging, thoughtful, and sensitive – although Bering is certainly irreverent, there is a real appreciation of how painful and difficult this topic can be. This is a book for scholars and for a general audience, but it is also entirely suitable for people whose lives have been touched by the suicide of someone they loved.

Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology at Yale University and author of Against Empathy

I have yet to come away from reading [Bering’s] work and not feel considerably better informed than I was just minutes before

A coherent, relevant look at the psychological secrets of suicide... a fascinating study featuring some startling real-time facts and perspectives on a sadly enduring phenomenon. For such a fiercely complex subject with varying nuances, viewpoints, and interpretations, Bering imparts accessible information through an affable, conversational tone. This important book arms readers with contemporary insight to help "short-circuit the powerful impetus to die when things look calamitous." Bering illuminates a murky, misunderstood human quandary with compassion, confessional honesty, and academic perception.

Compelling... This isn't just a mix of statistics, academic arguments and moving case studies. Bering also writes from the inside as one who, since his teenage years, has at times felt the "call to oblivion". Bering's remit is broad and he builds towards his conclusions on a solid basis of research that throws up some arresting statistics. He labours not just to size up what remains an epidemic shrouded in silence and shame, but also to suggest ways forward.

Sadly, the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, our minds forever pulling us into dark forests. But there are numerous stages at which we can step off that path before it's too late. Drawing on research evidence and the world around us, Bering signposts and, we can hope, saves.

Suicide is one of the toughest subjects to write about, and psychologist Jesse Bering does it with candor, scientific integrity and genuine empathy. A Very Human Ending is a vital book - informative, engaging and enlightening despite its dark subject matter.

Highly enlightening... Bering carefully balances his avid curiosity with deep compassion in this look at how suicidal urges work. Throughout, Bering treats his sources with unvarying respect, as well as a spirit of affiliation. Readers who have experienced the anguish of suicidal impulses will find his work both heartening and deeply illuminating.

Why do more than a million people a year kill themselves? To answer this question we need a brilliant research scientist, an insightful psychologist, and a sensitive but powerful writer who has seriously contemplated taking their own life. Jesse Bering fits all three criteria and this book is a deeply moving narrative that cuts to the heart of the ultimate question any of us could ever ask: why should I live? Given what’s at stake in the topic, A Very Human Ending may very well be the most important book you will ever read.

Michael Shermer, monthly columnist for Scientific American and author of The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc and Heavens on Earth

Jesse Bering explores one of the most essential questions we all face: Why keep living? He doesn't claim to have found any easy answers, but his exploration is surprising, funny, touching, and deeply personal. A Very Human Ending feels like a gift, and reading it reminded me that encounters with great books are reason enough, for now, to keep going.

Christopher Ryan, author of Tangentially Reading and Sex at Dawn

Jesse Bering is the best science writer at work today.

A necessary contribution to the demystification of a subject still under discussed, Bering’s book is wise, warm and sure to encourage conversation

How suicide haunts our species

'I have yet to come away from reading [Bering's] work and not feel considerably better informed than I was minutes before' (Forbes) 
__________________ 
 
This penetrating analysis aims to demystify a subject that knows no cultural or demographic boundaries. 
 
Why do people want to kill themselves? 
 
Despite the prevalence of suicide in the developed world, it's a question most of us fail to ask. On hearing news of a suicide we are devastated, but overwhelmingly we feel disbelief. 
 
In A Very Human Ending, research psychologist Jesse Bering lifts the lid on this taboo subject, examining the suicidal mindset from the inside out to reveal the subtle tricks the mind can play when we're easy emotional prey. In raising challenging questions Bering tests our contradictory superstitions about the act itself. 
 
Combining cutting-edge research with investigative journalism and first-person testimony, Bering also addresses the history of suicide and its evolutionary inheritance to offer a personal, accessible, yet scientifically sound examination of why we are the only species on earth that deliberately ends its own life.

Jesse Bering

Praise for A Very Human Ending

Jesse Bering asks the questions no one else dares, he tells truths that others shy away from, and he writes the books that I wish I had written. To me, he is everything a great scientist and communicator should b ...

A brave and important exploration of a subject we urgently need to demystify. It will change every reader for the better.

Bering's book touches upon some deep questions relevant to all of us. Indeed, it is as much about what makes us uniquely human as it is about suicide. A Very Human Ending transcends its own objectives. ...

Jesse Bering asks the questions no one else dares, he tells truths that others shy away from, and he writes the books that I wish I had written. To me, he is everything a great scientist and communicator should b ...

A brave and important exploration of a subject we urgently need to demystify. It will change every reader for the better.

Bering's book touches upon some deep questions relevant to all of us. Indeed, it is as much about what makes us uniquely human as it is about suicide. A Very Human Ending transcends its own objectives. ...

Jesse Bering asks the questions no one else dares, he tells truths that others shy away from, and he writes the books that I wish I had written. To me, he is everything a great scientist and communicator should b ...

A brave and important exploration of a subject we urgently need to demystify. It will change every reader for the better.

Bering's book touches upon some deep questions relevant to all of us. Indeed, it is as much about what makes us uniquely human as it is about suicide. A Very Human Ending transcends its own objectives. ...

Books by Jesse Bering

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