My pick for quote of the day comes from Paul McHugh, formerly chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital:
At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. “Sex change” is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.
Folks like to think that human sexuality is a straightforward affair, however, see Androgen insensitivity syndrome.
In another lifetime, I edited medical books. One book I worked on dealt with human sexuality. One of the cases described in the book concerned twin girls who presented with a lack of menses (they were 16 at the time). They were beautiful young girls who thought and acted like the young girls they were. It just so happened they were genetic males.
Human sexuality is a spectrum.
While I agree that there are more alternatives than just two, I don’t think it’s a spectrum, sam. More to the point I don’t think that intention is sufficient to determine sexuality or, more importantly, the related issue of gender.
And from whence comes intention?
So, if you have problems with your lot in life and you start making shallow cuts on your arms, you have a mental disorder. If you have problems with your lot in life and get massive injections of hormones your body doesn’t make (at least not in the quantities you’re ingesting), and have your body horribly mutilated by a surgeon, you’re perfectly sane, and anyone that questions you should clearly have their life ruined and be sent to re-education camps.
Got it!
(And anyone that doesn’t think the massive doses of hormones aren’t a type of chemical mutilation should really look at what has happened to people that have taken them. The story of Andreas Krieger is perhaps the most striking example, but one can look at lots of athletes for examples of all kinds of deleterious side effects.)
And from whence comes intention?
That’s an interesting question. Also interesting is why that particular type of intention should be humored when others aren’t.
Whence comes the intention for a girl that’s anorexic to believe she’s still fat even when she’s already dangerously underweight and malnourished? The treatment in that case isn’t to give her diet pills to help her lose weight, is it?
Or the muscle bound steroid user who’s arms are so large he can’t put them down, whose intention is to have even larger arms. Should we give him horse steroids and HGH until his arms explode?
Or the depressive. Whence comes the intention of seeing the world in various shades of black? Should the depressive just being given a loaded pistol and a secure room to finish things?
Giving in to the intentions of those who are disturbed is not the usual course of treatment.
And, as noted in the linked op-ed, that was exactly what Johns Hopkins Hospital found and why they stopped performing sex reassignment surgeries.
@sam, if someone who feels an attraction to the same gender wants to be straight, should he/she be afforded treatment and/or medication to assist their process of being who they want to be? Or are they denying their natural state?
That’s a serious question here in Illinois. The state’s legislature is in the process of banning the practice (for young people).
@Dave, yes, and that bill has passed both houses and expressly mentions the American Psychiatric Ass’n’s statement that “Psychoanalytic technique does not encompass purposeful attempts to ‘convert’, ‘repair’, change or shift an individual’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.” But the bill will only prohibits therapy to modify sexual orientation. There are some normative assumptions here.
I can’t really get interested in the topic except to note how depressing it is that Jenner receives so much media coverage given everything else that’s going on in this country and on this planet. If Jenner or anyone else wants to be a woman (or man), who am I to complain as long as I don’t have to pay for it.
On the other hand gender dysphoria is still in the DSM-5.
@Andy, I don’t know if you googled the article Dave linked to, but there are some disturbing things going on this area. Parents, who appear to be hypersensitized to issues of gender ambiguity, are medicating their children to delay puberty and improve the quality of sex-change surgery at a later date, with serious health consequences. The parents are serious and not to be taken as uncaring — many take their children to camps where they can dress-up and try different gender roles in an experimental environment to see if this next step should be taken. Early medical intervention would mean they will look the part, instead of men w/boobs in drag.
I place the whole thing in the category of when should Christian Scientists be allowed to deny healthcare for their children or hippies allowed to deny children the small pox vaccination. If the science is as bad or inconclusive as is suggested in the article, this is a horror.
@Dave, I forgot that gender dysphoria was still in the DSM.
If I understand correctly, Vanilla Ice is really a black man trapped in a white man’s body, and even though he was a white boy from the suburbs, he identified as a poor black youth from the inner city slums.
Do furries identify as their critter, and if so, would it be murder killing a furry deer who got lost in the woods during deer season? Would not killing them be discrimination?