The word 'transsexualism' was coined in 1953 and although transsexuals and intersexed people had existed for much longer, surgery to reassign one's sex is a relatively recent phenomenon. Transsexuals feel that the opposite sex to their biological one is their true identity - their true body and self. The idea of 'hormonal and surgical sex reassi
Introduction -- Transsexualism: what's new? -- From the intersexed to transsexuals -- The psychoanalyst and the transsexual -- Treatment -- How the transsexual's mind works -- Masculinity and femininity -- The development of gender identity -- A testing time for us -- Conclusion
Colette Chiland is Professor Emeritus at Rene Descartes University of Paris; Psychiatrist-in-chief at the Alfred Binet Center and a Training Analyst of the Paris Psychoanalytical Society. She is also an Honorary President of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP). She has written numerous books and contributed papers to various journals. Colette read philosophy and psychology, then medicine and psychiatry at the University of Paris. She taught clinical psychology at La Sorbonne, then at Universite Paris Descartes, and is training analyst at the Paris Psychoanalytical Society.
