The Body One Is: The Best Form of Containment or The Crying Game Redux

Abstract

By and large, the gender binary holds internationally. There are long-standing pressures in the psychoanalytic world not only to see gender development in a linear trajectory, but to attempt to peer backward to discern normal or abnormal trajectories. The emphasis is on categorization, rather than curiosity. This article examines hostile readings of, and reactions to, gender ambiguity that can result in psychoanalytic policing behaviors and bring transgender people into contact with psychic violence for not being readable at a glance.

Notes

¹ Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) is more currently known as gender-affirming surgery.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aisha Abbasi

Aisha Abbasi, M.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, and faculty member of the departments of psychiatry at Wayne State University Medical School and Henry Ford Health System.

Susan McNamara, M.D., is a candidate at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies-National Training Program.

Susan McNamara

Aisha Abbasi, M.D., is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute, and faculty member of the departments of psychiatry at Wayne State University Medical School and Henry Ford Health System.

Susan McNamara, M.D., is a candidate at the National Institute for the Psychotherapies-National Training Program.