I wrote this piece to encourage therapists to work with gender dysphoria; parents might find it helpful to share with therapists working with their kids. All thoughtful comments very welcome.
Thank you, Stella, for your continued work in this field, and for sharing your personal experience as a gender-nonconforming child. I, too, was one of the tom girls. I'm grateful I did not grow up in the early 21st century as I would have been vulnerable to the lure of hormones and surgery, and to the excitement and edginess of trans-culture.
I'm interested in the Gender Dysphoria Support Network and the online meetings for parents, but the link in your post does not seem to work, sadly.
Hi thanks for your comment, I've fixed the links so if you refresch you should be able to follow it. Please let me know if you have any other difficulties with links etc
I’m responding to what are possibly non-sequiturs and non-arguments in the above. That Dr Money said gender identity (did he not invent the term ‘gender role’?) relates to gendered social behaviour does not mean, in itself, we have an innate gendered soul. More that our inner experience is reflected in social behaviour and we assume vice versa. Hardly contentious. Tho maybe Dr Money said other things that form the inference, I don’t know – he wrote prolifically. I’d say the problem is, like most ideas, how its extrapolated and misused. its funny how he has become the great satan on all sides of these debates, and unverified claims are widely made about his life and behaviour. I’ve heard other accounts of the Reimer family’s behaviour and possible influences as well. I guess we need someone to blame. And if the Regan administration despised him and his kind, why can’t we?
Also to say the developmental perspective theorizes gender distress as a maladaptive coping mechanism is hardly an explanation of anything. I’d a say a simple hypothesis at best. Nothing wrong with that – and more comprehensible (to people like me) than, say, Bob Wither’s recent writing but, hey, its not at that level a testable theory. And ‘chemical imbalance’… more untestable tautologies!
I’d suggest we have no real idea. Those with a developmental perspective (ie, often not practicing psychologists) have helped us immensely by reminding us of and documenting the common struggles and changes of growing up, and by having a method of curiosity. In theory (maybe not practice) other professions share that value and practice and have the tools to do the same (maybe faster?). eg mindfulness (in between advertising campaigns for lifestyle products) is/was a method of sustained observation of one’s experience in the world as we can perceive it. Exposure therapies are about allowing, not avoiding, whatever it is that won’t hurt you – like your inner experience and confusion about your ‘gendered’ body (or soul, if you have one).
Litman is a legend – bring empirical testable observation to politicized chaos. And you are too Stella for taking this whole big turgid mess into the daylight and helping us to think – always a great place to start when dazed and confused. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Thank you for this, you make fascinating points. I think Dr Money has certainly become an easy target but it seems like there was a whole scene around at the time that he was part of it. Dr Paul McHugh, who worked with him in Johns Hopkins, called him ‘sex addled’ in a recent zoom I had with him.
Some reason -- many reasons -- to argue that pretty much the whole concept of "gender" -- and related permutations and transmogrifications -- is an absolute dog's breakfast of anti-scientific claptrap, hardly better than phrenology and astrology. Reminds me of what some have said about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator System: pseudoscience at best, no better than a Chinese fortune cookie for analyzing different personality types:
ICYMI, you might note what David Geary -- author of "Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences" -- had to say on the topic in a recent conference on sex and gender:
Geary (@ 15:56): "But I agree with Carole. I have no idea what 'gender' means. The definition is too fluid. I mean it's all over the place. .... I have no idea what one author means by [gender] versus another. ...."
No doubt that many "dysphoric" kids are in some difficulties and you're to be commended for making some effort to alleviate their suffering. But kind of think they're being rather badly served by the "current state of the art".
Thank you for taking the time to arm parents with more information to combat the GAC model. We need all the ammo we can get!
Xxx
Thank you, Stella, for your continued work in this field, and for sharing your personal experience as a gender-nonconforming child. I, too, was one of the tom girls. I'm grateful I did not grow up in the early 21st century as I would have been vulnerable to the lure of hormones and surgery, and to the excitement and edginess of trans-culture.
I'm interested in the Gender Dysphoria Support Network and the online meetings for parents, but the link in your post does not seem to work, sadly.
Hi thanks for your comment, I've fixed the links so if you refresch you should be able to follow it. Please let me know if you have any other difficulties with links etc
Thank you. It works fine now.
I’m responding to what are possibly non-sequiturs and non-arguments in the above. That Dr Money said gender identity (did he not invent the term ‘gender role’?) relates to gendered social behaviour does not mean, in itself, we have an innate gendered soul. More that our inner experience is reflected in social behaviour and we assume vice versa. Hardly contentious. Tho maybe Dr Money said other things that form the inference, I don’t know – he wrote prolifically. I’d say the problem is, like most ideas, how its extrapolated and misused. its funny how he has become the great satan on all sides of these debates, and unverified claims are widely made about his life and behaviour. I’ve heard other accounts of the Reimer family’s behaviour and possible influences as well. I guess we need someone to blame. And if the Regan administration despised him and his kind, why can’t we?
Also to say the developmental perspective theorizes gender distress as a maladaptive coping mechanism is hardly an explanation of anything. I’d a say a simple hypothesis at best. Nothing wrong with that – and more comprehensible (to people like me) than, say, Bob Wither’s recent writing but, hey, its not at that level a testable theory. And ‘chemical imbalance’… more untestable tautologies!
I’d suggest we have no real idea. Those with a developmental perspective (ie, often not practicing psychologists) have helped us immensely by reminding us of and documenting the common struggles and changes of growing up, and by having a method of curiosity. In theory (maybe not practice) other professions share that value and practice and have the tools to do the same (maybe faster?). eg mindfulness (in between advertising campaigns for lifestyle products) is/was a method of sustained observation of one’s experience in the world as we can perceive it. Exposure therapies are about allowing, not avoiding, whatever it is that won’t hurt you – like your inner experience and confusion about your ‘gendered’ body (or soul, if you have one).
Litman is a legend – bring empirical testable observation to politicized chaos. And you are too Stella for taking this whole big turgid mess into the daylight and helping us to think – always a great place to start when dazed and confused. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
Thank you for this, you make fascinating points. I think Dr Money has certainly become an easy target but it seems like there was a whole scene around at the time that he was part of it. Dr Paul McHugh, who worked with him in Johns Hopkins, called him ‘sex addled’ in a recent zoom I had with him.
"Akin to the religious concept of a soul, this [gender] identity has no identifiable existence and so it is unverifiable and unfalsifiable."
If that's the case then I wonder why your Glossary would apparently give any credence at all to the idea:
https://genspect.org/resources/glossary/
Some reason -- many reasons -- to argue that pretty much the whole concept of "gender" -- and related permutations and transmogrifications -- is an absolute dog's breakfast of anti-scientific claptrap, hardly better than phrenology and astrology. Reminds me of what some have said about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator System: pseudoscience at best, no better than a Chinese fortune cookie for analyzing different personality types:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator
ICYMI, you might note what David Geary -- author of "Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences" -- had to say on the topic in a recent conference on sex and gender:
Geary (@ 15:56): "But I agree with Carole. I have no idea what 'gender' means. The definition is too fluid. I mean it's all over the place. .... I have no idea what one author means by [gender] versus another. ...."
https://santafeboys.org/recordings-of-the-big-conversation/
https://youtu.be/sRW_II_-iFY?t=722
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C._Geary
No doubt that many "dysphoric" kids are in some difficulties and you're to be commended for making some effort to alleviate their suffering. But kind of think they're being rather badly served by the "current state of the art".