Most adults do not question the fact that they are male or female. However, a very small minority faces a discrepancy between their subjective experience as being a man or a woman and their biological sex. They are individuals with gender identity problems. In others, discrepancies exist between their genetic, gonadal, hormonal, or genital sex. These individuals suffer from various inter-sex conditions. In this volume, the authors provide an overview of the research, clinical insights, and ethical dilemmas facing clinicians who work with these children, adolescents, and their families.
Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Ph.D., is Professor of gender development and psychopathology at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Utrecht. She was a pre- and postgraduate student in developmental and clinical psychology at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. She was trained to become a registered clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the Utrecht Institute for Multidisciplinary Psychotherapy. After completing her Ph.D. thesis, she worked at the Department of Clinical Psychology of the Utrecht University. There, she conducted a study evaluating sex reassignment, promoted by the advice of a committee of the Health Council, the medical advisory board of the Ministry of Public Health. The outcome of this study would also be the groundwork for a new law allowing transsexuals to adjust their birth certificates. In 1987, she started the first outpatient clinic in Europe for children and adolescents with gender problems and intersex conditions. In September 2002, she will become Professor of Medical Psychology at the Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam. There, she will be the head of a gender clinic for children, adolescents, and adults. Her main areas of research are gender identity problems and gender-related psychopathology. Friedemann Pfafflin, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Psychotherapy and head of the Forensic Psychotherapy Unit at Ulm University, Germany. Trained as a psychiatrist at Hamburg University, he first engaged in transgender clinical work in the mid-1970s when he visited the Psychohormonal Research Unit and the Gender Identity Clinic at The Johns Hopkins University Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. From 1978 to 1992, he worked at the Institute of Sex Research at Hamburg University, Germany, and continued the work with transsexuals after moving to Ulm University in 1992. His main areas of research are transsexualism, transgenderism, psychotherapy process research, forensic psychiatry and psychotherapy, and history of psychiatry. From 1995 to 1997, he was President of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. Together with Eli Coleman, he founded The International Journal of Transgenderism in 1997.
Series Editor's Introduction - Alan E. Kazdin Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Typical Sexual Differentiation General Terminology Sexual Differentiation Development of Gender Identity and Gender Role 2. Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence Benefit of Historical and Cross-Cultural Data for Clinical Practice Cross-Cultural and Historical References (Adults) Cross-Cultural and Historical References (Children and Adolescents) 3. Atypical Sexual Differentiation Introduction Chromosomal/Gonadal Conditions Female Pseudohermaphroditism Male Pseudohermaphroditism Other Conditions 4. Atypical Development of Gender Identity and Gender Role Specific Terminology Clinical Picture Correspondence Between Childhood Gender Identity Disorder and Transsexualism Prevalence and Sex Ratio of GID Theories About Atypical Gender Development 5. Clinical Management of Intersex Conditions Importance of Parent Counseling Importance of Child Counseling Neonatal Approach Information and Support Criticism of Clinical Policy 6. Clinical Management of Gender Problems in Children Introduction Diagnosis Interventions 7. Clinical Management of Gender Problems in Adolescents Diagnosis Interventions Effects of Sex Reassignment 8. Legal Issues of Intersexuality and Transsexualism Legal Sex Assignment of Intersexes Legal Implications of Transsexualism in Adults Legal Issues of GID in Childhood and Adolescence References Name Index Subject Index About the Authors
