ABSTRACT
Invaded bodies are not exclusively female; surgical alteration of children’s ambiguous genitalia was, and partially still is, embedded in medical practice. This chapter examines the dictum “It’s easier to dig a hole than build a pole” in clinical and psychological literature in the second half of the 20th century. Here you’ll find a brief sketch of medical history concerning the development of intersex diagnosis, especially on congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) and treatment recommendation within the first two years of life. In the 1950s, at the center of debate stood the psychologist John Money with his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University who highly influenced discussion in the United States and elsewhere. The published opinions of physicians and psychologists will be foiled, however, by the mindset of a mother whose child with ambiguous genitalia was treated at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland, in the 1950s.
