ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a few specific areas of diversity, namely sexual and gender minorities, racialised and classed identities, and disability, exploring assumptions and biases that are contained in the body of psychoanalytic theory as well as more broadly. It looks at how psychotherapists can practice reflectively to be able to work effectively across differences. Times have changed, and psychoanalysis has moved on. In 2011, the British Psychoanalytic Council issued a statement declaring that homosexuality is not a pathology and opposing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Sexuality and sexual identity have always been considered in relation to gender, in particular male and female biology, gender identifications and gender roles, where biological sex is seen to determine gender, and in turn sexuality. In recent years, psychoanalytic conceptualisations of sex and gender have been further challenged by understandings around transgender and gender non-conforming identities.
