Gender Identity DisorderGender Identity DisorderBy

Julie Harmon

Gender Identity Disorder

• Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is “a disorder in which a person persistently feels extremely uncomfortable about his or her assigned sex and strongly wishes to be a member of the opposite sex. Also known as transsexualism.” (Comer, 2007, p. 405)

Psychoanalytical Approach

• Freud believed that an individuals personality is affected by repressed sexual desires and therefore, an individual with GID may not have properly moved through the psychosexual stages of development.

Trait Approach

Acceptance• Recognize, approve,

acknowledge, allow, admit, believe.

Confusion• Embarrassment,

discomfort, distress, mystification.

Trait and Biological Cartoons

Biological Approach

• According to the Biological approach GID

could be a heritable disorder or one in which a biological trait can be

found.

Humanistic Approach• According to the Humanistic

approach GID can be viewed one of two ways.– A person diagnosed with GID is

either not present in the here and now and afraid of becoming true to their gendered body.

– A person diagnosed with GID is fully present and accepting of the person that they would like to become and therefore they are taking the appropriate steps to be fully engaged in their view of self-actualization.

Behavioral and Social Learning

Behavior and social theorists believe that GID is a learned behavior that can later be un-learned.

Cognitive Approach

Possible Selves– Struggling with GID is a

vision that an individual has that describes the person they wish to become.

DSM-IV-TR Definition A strong and persistent cross-gender identification (not merely a desire for any perceived

cultural advantages of being the other sex). In children, the disturbance is manifested by four (or more) of the following:– repeatedly stated desire to be, or insistence that he or she is, the other sex– in boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; in girls, insistence on

wearing only stereotypical masculine clothing– strong and persistent preferences for cross-sex roles in make-believe play or persistent

fantasies of being the other sex– intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex– strong preference for playmates of the other sex

Persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex.

C. The disturbance is not concurrent with a physical intersex condition. D. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational,

or other important areas of functioning.

References• Burger, J. M. (2008). Personality (Eighth ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Cenage

Learning.• Cohen-Kettenis, P., Delemarre-van de Waal, H., & Gooren, L. (2008). The

Treatment of Adolescent Transsexuals: Changing Insights. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 5(8), 1892-1897. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00870.x.

• Comer, R. J. (2007). Abnormal Psychology (Sixth ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.

• Coolidge, F., Thede, L., & Young, S. (2002). The Heritability of Gender Identity Disorder in a Child and Adolescent Twin Sample. Behavior Genetics, 32(4), 251. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.

• Di Ceglie, D. (2009). Engaging young people with atypical gender identity development in therapeutic work: a developmental approach. Journal of Child Psychotherapy, 35(1), 3-12. doi:10.1080/00754170902764868.

• Gizewski, E., Krause, E., Schlamann, M., Happich, F., Ladd, M., Forsting, M., et al. (2009). Specific Cerebral Activation due to Visual Erotic Stimuli in Male-to-Female Transsexuals Compared with Male and Female Controls: An fMRI Study. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 6(2), 440-448. doi:10.1111/j.1743-6109.2008.00981.x.

• Kameya, Y., & Narita, Y. (2000). A Clinical and Psycho-Sociological Case Study on Gender Identity Disorder in Japan. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 26(4), 345-350. doi:10.1080/009262300438751.

• McAdams, D. (2005). Sexual Lives: The Development of Traits, Adaptations, and Stories. Human Development (0018716X),48(5), 298-302. doi:10.1159/000086874.

• Psychiatric News. (July, 2003). DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic criteria for Gender Identity Disorder. Retrieved June 5, 2010. From http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/38/14/32.full

• Ross, C. (2009). Ethics of Gender Identity Disorder. Ethical Human Psychology & Psychiatry, 11(3), 165-170. doi:10.1891/1559-4343.11.3.165.