ABSTRACT
The history of science covers thousands of years, and every moment of our conscious existence is enriched by the scientific advances made by those who preceded us. I am honored beyond words to be asked to present my autobiography as a scientist along with the many distinguished colleagues who are also contributing to this volume. But the question prior to sitting down to write became, how can an autobiography help to build a science? Autobiographies are fraught with biases. Skepticism is pervasive regarding the credibility of autobiographies. In the history of science, skepticism about science has been both encouraged and somewhat dissipated by the perspective of famous philosophers of science like Paul Feyerabend (1975, as cited by Schick) in his writings on the end of science. Feyerabend suggested that science is much closer to a myth than a scientific philosophy. He goes on to suggest that science can be viewed as a religion because it rests on certain dogmas that cannot be rationally justified. Accepting science requires a leap of faith. So please read the work that follows with the knowledge that my science of the psycho- and neurobiology of stress and development and my role in this field may be based on partial myths. But most of the history of my research requires only one major assumption dating back to the 19th-century thinking that testosterone and other hormones really do have transformative effects on a person's behavior and emotions.
