ABSTRACT
Most psychoanalysts have viewed transgender expressions as an indicator of underlying “pathology”; be it a precursor of narcissistic disorders (Oppenheimer, Chiland), transvestism or homosexuality (Limentani), borderline disorders (Green), or psychosis (Socarides). Understandably, feeling relegated to the realm of pathology and abjection, trans people rejected psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis, however, has played a crucial part in the history of transsexualism. It is time both to historicize and theorize this loaded connection. This chapter assesses the controversial yet central role of sex-change theory for psychoanalysis. Based on my experience as a clinician, I argue for the depathologization of transgenderism. My clinical experience working with gender-variant analysands has shown me that often those compelled to change gender do it because they are confronting matters of life and death. Challenging the pathologization of transgenderism historically enforced by psychoanalysis, I propose a new ethics of desire capable of fundamentally rethinking sexuality and of taking seriously the issue of death. I also argue for a productive confrontation between psychoanalysis and transgender discourses claiming that transgender people are actually changing the clinical praxis, advancing new ideas for the clinic that can be expanded to social and intellectual contexts.
