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Description of  Transsexualism: Illusion and Reality (Disseminations: Psychoanalysis In Contexts)

What is a person's gender? How do we determine whether someone is a man or a woman? Who gets to decide the sex of an individual: the individual, parents, doctors, judges, politicians, God? And how does medical transformation of one's body impact an individual's psychological, social, cultural and biological status? In this fascinating, eminently readable work originally published in France in 1997 and now translated into English for the first time French psychoanalyst Colette Chiland grapples with these questions as she explores the many dimensions of gender and gender discomfort. Transsexualism: Illusion and Reality masterfully combines the insights of psychology, psychoanalysis, history, anthropology, sociology and personal experience to rethink transsexualism within the frames of identity, subjectivity and the wider social-historical world. Chiland's compelling text challenges readers of every sexual identity and orientation to reconsider their notions about the origins, implications and possibilities of gender. Read more