The imposition of gender: Psychoanalytic encounters with genital atypicality.

Abstract

The experience of intersexed people has been explored in only a handful of psychoanalytic reports, none of which examine the effects of the medical treatment that is central to their early history. This article presents the case of a woman who feared she was intersexed. The dynamics, transference, and countertransference configurations reenact the empathic failure implicit in her medical treatment and her family life, namely a caretaker's preoccupation with the patient's unusual anatomy, rather than her trauma.Intersex conditions-the term refers to a range of anomalies of the reproductive system-are not especially rare; estimates are that 1 in 100 babies are born with genitals, genetics, or hormones that differ from standard male or female anatomy (Blackless et al., 2000;Dreger, 1998). Physicians and parents faced with the birth of such a child must choose a treatment strategy that promises the best outcome given the current understanding of the complex genetic, hormonal, psychological, and social factors that form an individual's sense of gender identity (Reiner, 1996).Although this seems an inarguably sensible approach, a consider-

A values-driven and evidence-based health care psychology for diverse sex development

“…Interviews with adults have identified medical sexing and related scenarios as 'degrading and shaming' (Preves, 1998). Psychological therapists have drawn attention to the incapacity in some adults to express their overwhelming distress that previous paediatric encounters have given rise to (Williams, 2002). Genital surgery for ambiguous genitalia is intended to normalise children.…”

Gender experience and satisfaction with gender allocation in adults with diverse intersex conditions (divergences of sex development, DSD)

“…With regard to its conception of early and unconscious body experience, the latter could make a valuable contribution towards a better understanding of psychosexual development in individuals with DSD (cf. Aron, 1994;Benjamin, 1994;Stoller, 1968;Williams, 2002). The bringing together of different hermeneutic approaches with empirical methods and experiences from research with other sexual minorities (see Mair, 2010;Roen, 2011) could further develop research on identities of people with DSD.…”

What Happens When an Intersex Baby Happens

“…Other important contributions to the ever expanding study of intersex include Butler (1990), Dreger (1998, 1999), Fausto-Sterling (2000, Feder (2014), Foucault (1980), and Kessler (2000). Among the few psychoanalytic writings on intersex patients and intersexuality are Drescher (2007), Oppenheimer (1995), and Williams (2002), the first and last of which provide useful reviews of the analytic literature on the subject. all intersex people, proclaims: Do not take me for a spectacle, one that requires dangerous acts of surgical alteration; no, love me for who I am and in doing so protect the body of your unique child.…”