Transsexualism : illusion and reality /

This excellent but controversial volume appears in the "Disseminations" series, which is devoted to psychoanalysis in context. Chiland, a French psychoanalyst specializing in sex differences in psychopathology, begins with a critical history of the psychiatric and medical-surgical treatment of transsexuals since the 1950s. She follows this with an overview of the literature on sex change in different societies and periods and goes on to discuss the difficulties in defining the essence of what constitutes the masculine and the feminine. Chiland argues that there is no such essence. Succeeding chapters cover children who reject their biological sex, bodily changes at puberty, males and females who request a sex change, and what happens after surgery. She emphasizes the lack of follow-up studies and the ambiguous conclusions of those that have been reported. The final chapters cover legal issues in changing one's sex and the author's conclusions about transsexual surgery, which she clearly opposes. In fact, Chiland believes transsexualism is a psychopathology that should be dealt with by psychoanalysis or other psychiatric therapies, and that those professionals participating in bringing about surgical changes are imprisoning their patients in their crazy dreams and closing the path of wisdom. The bibliography is excellent. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. V. L. Bullough University of Southern California