ABSTRACT
Transgender identity has become an inclusive concept incorporating all gender variance and a wide range of sexual preferences. Transgender nevertheless remains controversial within the psychoanalytic and public consciousness. There is a lack of consensus about whether transgender is a psychological/psychiatric problem or a normal variation of gender expression. Transgender is understood as a collective category of identity that encompasses a very diverse array of male and female bodied gender variant people and sexualities. Some transgender individuals only seek partial social and/or physical transitioning whilst others feel the need to fully surgically align their body with their self-identified gender. Heterogeneity at the level of presentation and phenomenology has been accompanied by a steep rise in referrals, specifically of young people, to gender identity services.
