The Traumatic Foundation of Gender Dysphoria
(www.crisismagazine.com)https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/the-traumatic-foundation-of-gender-dysphoria We live in a culture that says you can become—and, in fact, are— whatever you think you are, so few people dare question the transgender person’s idea of reality.
Of course, it’s possible that nature may in some rare instances “cross-wire” a male by feminizing his brain before birth so he feels more like a woman. However, there is no way, at this time, to test that theory. In fact, psychoanalysts discovered the primary reason for transgenderism many years ago. But today’s political environment has buried that knowledge. We believe that for many—and probably most—men who feel trapped in an opposite-sex body, the origins of their conflict trace back to early childhood.
Therefore, no psychotherapist should simply accept at face value the man’s experience of himself as female, and recommend that he have mutilating surgery which will only make him into a crude caricature of a woman. Nature has previously settled the issue through his DNA: chemical castration and surgery will never make him truly female.
When we investigate the childhood of the man who believes he is a woman, we often see what attachment theorists call an “intense but insecure maternal attachment.” Mothers of gender-disturbed children usually report high levels of stress during the child’s earliest years. When the mother is alternately deeply involved in the boy’s life, and then unexpectedly disengaged, her erratic and unpredictable emotional engagement leaves the child feeling profoundly insecure.
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https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/the-traumatic-foundation-of-gender-dysphoria 
