ABSTRACT
In this chapter I have the unenviable task of explaining why a paper I presented at a conference on a theme pertaining to the topic of this book cannot be published as planned. The paper was a clinical study of a young patient whom I called Lee. In the course of treatment, Lee shifted from de ning himself as a gay man to de ning herself as a woman. Amidst much anguished soul-searching and complex negotiations with his family, he began the process known as transitioning. My paper described Lee and his history, the course of the treatment and a consideration of whether any process could bridge one of our most ingrained dichotomies: that between male and female. Was Lee fated always to be different from the gender he felt was his, or was he able to become just like a woman? If he became a woman, would she be like or different from other women? What was it like to accompany this very appealing, deeply yearning person on his/her journey?
