International handbook of transsexuality and mental health. - "Principles for psychoanalytic work with trans clients."
Sheila Cavanagh
Chapter in Edited Book, 2018
Cavanagh, S. L. (2018b). Principles for psychoanalytic work with trans clients. In O. Gozlan (Ed.), International handbook of transsexuality and mental health. Routledge.
Historically, conversations about gender have been steeped in language supporting assumptions that were accepted as valid on their face (Hyde et al. 2018). For many years, gender has been viewed as binary, fixed, and biologically determined. Gender was conflated with biological sex. Once declared at birth based on external appearance of genitalia it could never change. There was no other alternative – one’s personal feelings about their gender were irrelevant. Anyone challenging these assumptions was ostracized; anyone refusing to conform to behavioral roles consistent with their assigned gender was an anomaly at best or deviant at worst.