Citation

Devor H. J. Psychol. Human Sex. 1994; 6(3): 49-72.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1994, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J056v06n03_04

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Forty-five self-defined female-to-male transsexuals were interviewed as part of a wide ranging sociological field study about female-to-male transsexuals. The data in this study are unusual in that they were obtained outside of any clinical settings. Questions were asked about childhood experiences of physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Sixty percent reported one or more types of severe child abuse. In the course of discussing other issues, participants also reported having experienced many of the commonly cited initial and long-term effects of child abuse, including fear, anxiety and depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, excessive aggression, and suicide ideation and attempts. It was not possible to determine to what extent the sources of these complaints lay in child abuse, in gender dysphoria, in some combination of the two, or elsewhere. While no information was solicited about dissociative responses to child abuse, I have speculated, as have some of the participants themselves, that, in some cases, transsexualism may be an adaptive extreme dissociative survival response to severe child abuse. © 1994 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

Language: en