You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
“Gender dysphoria” is described in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) of the American Psychiatric Association as a condition in which a person experiences psychological discomfort or distress because there is an incongruence between their biological sex and their gender identity (the individual’s psychological sense of gender). These feelings may arise in early childhood (as defined by the 10th and 11th revisions of the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases [ICD-10 and ICD-11]), but in the broader terms of DSM-5, may appear at any age.
Recent years have seen an escalation in the presentation of what has become known as rapid-onset gender dysphoria, particularly in adolescents and especially, in the UK, among young biological females who wish to transition to male. This has taken place in a context in which the “affirmation model” has tended to dominate, so that gender dysphoria has led to the assumption that the individual expressing this distress is transgender. Consequently, if they so desire, they should transition to the sex reflecting their gender identity. That gender dysphoria necessarily implies transgender and should lead to transition is the affirmative assumption that this book seeks to question.
Both authors worked for many years at the Tavistock Centre, a psychoanalytic treatment and education centre in London that houses several clinics of which the Gender Identity Disorder Service was one. Referrals to this service increased from approximately 100 in 2005 to 2500 within a decade, the demographic changing from 66% males wishing to transition to female to 66% females wishing to transition to male. Serious concerns about this service were raised as early as 2005 but became more urgent from about 2018, when concerns were raised by some parents and staff about the treatment of minors presenting with gender dysphoria. Their particular concern focused on the use of medicalized t