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.
Twenty years ago, the French sociologist Éric Fassin (2003) changed the direction of research on homosexuality. Instead of considering how psychoanalysis and other branches of the humanities theorized homosexuality, he focused on how this manner of desiring and relating to others challenged our theories. The French-based authors of this special issue of The Psychoanalytic Review follow a similar approach regarding trans* (this term meant to be all encompassing; see a full discussion below in the section “Transsexual, Transgender, Trans*”). Accordingly, they do not view trans* as an object of analysis but rather explore the effects of transness and gender-creative narratives on psychoanalysis. More specifically, this issue delves into the countertransference agitation stirred by trans* subjects in both theory and the clinic. Following Michel Neyraut (1974), let me stress that countertransference not only arouses infantile drives and anxieties, but also entails the introjection of concepts, methods, techniques, and psychopathological references that shape the analyst's listening. Hence, free-floating attention in the analytic space and metapsychological constructions, eloquently termed “free-floating theorizations”1 by Piera Aulagnier (1984, p. 13), are intrinsically linked. To put it simply, countertransference is simultaneously clinical and theoretical.
A review of French and international psychoanalytic literature reveals complex countertransference reactions toward gender-nonconforming analysands. These reactions have been denounced as normative, even transphobic, by trans* activists and researchers (Califia, 2003; Espineira, 2015; Preciado, 2021) and some psychoanalysts (Ayouch, 2015; Barkai, 2017; Hansbury, 2017). Most authors of this special issue have chosen to extricate themselves from the arguably more comfortable position of criticizing other clinicians, preferring to focus on their own difficulties working with gender-variant patient