ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the utility of developing a clinical approach to intersex based on psychoanalytic theory. It suggests that therapeutic emphasis tends to be placed on maintaining a stable gender identity, and clinicians largely accept the designation of gender as defined by the medical team's determination. The chapter then suggests the individual's 'true' sex limits the degree to which individuals with intersex conditions are encouraged to explore other issues. It also suggests that this emphasis on stable gender identity is linked with a valuation of hetero-sexuality over homosexuality. The emphasis on maturation presumes that gender identification which does not correspond to at-birth gender designation, and desire which is not opposite-gender directed, necessarily reflects developmental issues. There is consistent concern in the medical literature that an unstable gender identity precipitates homosexual desire. Freudian psychoanalytic theory offers a cogent theoretical and clinical approach to intersex and its contiguous issues such as gender identity, intimate relationships, family relationships and sexual identity.
