ABSTRACT
It is important and timely to be reconsidering the subject of gender identity and sexuality. E. L. Freud's libido theory of sexuality has at its heart a strong argument for enlarging the concept of sexuality to recognize its central significance for all human achievement. The evidence S. Coates presents for a slow and erratic construction of gender identity reiterates the formative influences of early experience and the history of attachment relationships. In Gender Identity Disorder (GID), loss of the emotional availability of the mother has been identified as a prime factor, and this is considered in the context of maternal anxiety or depression. The diagnostic categorizations of GID are in agreement about the significant degree of distress and suffering that is caused in addition to the presenting symptoms of the condition, which has its onset around the point of separation experience and autonomous functioning at age 2–3 years.
