Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices

Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Friedemann Pfäfflin

SAGE Publications, Feb 14, 2003 - Psychology - 248 pages

There is little doubt that children with gender problems suffer psychologically. But when clinicians are confronted with such cases, they often make controversial choices without the benefit of a substantial knowledge base.

Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices presents an overview of the research, clinical insights, and ethical dilemmas relevant to clinicians who treat intersex youth and their families. Exploring gender development from a cross-cultural perspective, esteemed scholar Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis and experienced practitioner Friedemann Pfäfflin focus on assessment, diagnosis, and treatment issues. To bridge research and practical application, they include numerous case studies, definitions of relevant terminology, and salient chapter summaries.

Clinically oriented, this comprehensive volume examines

• Gender development, identity, and segregation in sexual and psychosexual differentiation
• Subtypes and multiple theories of atypical gender development
• Evaluation, diagnosis, and intervention techniques for gender identity disorders
• Eligibility issues for reversible, partially reversible, and irreversible sex reassignment intervention
• Legal and ethical guidelines for the clinical management of gender problems in children and adolescents

Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices offers an authoritative examination of sexual, psychosexual, and gender differentiation in children and adolescents. Combining empirical knowledge and in-depth research, the authors supply practitioners with the tools to effectively treat intersex, gender dysphoric, and gender variant youth.

An indispensable resource for mental health, medical, and educational professionals who work with children and adolescents, Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices is also an excellent supplementary text for advanced undergraduate, graduate, and credential students in developmental and clinical psychology, pediatric psychiatry, pediatric nursing, and gender studies courses.

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User Review  - kathiea - Overstock.com

As a clinician in the mental health field with occassional gender variant clients I was looking for a concise up to date book with a nonpathologizing supportive point of view. I did not find this book ...

Contents

• 1 TYPICAL SEXUAL AND PSYCHOSEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION: 1
• A Cultural Blank Space: 17
• 3 ATYPICAL SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION: 23
• 4 ATYPICAL DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER IDENTITY AND GENDER ROLE: 51
• 5 CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF INTERSEX CONDITIONS: 85
• 6 CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF GENDER PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN: 105
• 7 CLINICAL MANAGEMENT OF GENDER PROBLEMS IN ADOLESCENTS: 131
• 8 LEGAL ISSUES OF INTERSEXUALITY AND TRANSSEXUALISM: 155
• REFERENCES: 181
• NAME INDEX: 210
• SUBJECT INDEX: 222
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS: 231

About the author

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Transgenderism and Intersexuality in Childhood and Adolescence: Making Choices; Developmental Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry
• Authors: Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Friedemann Pfäfflin
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, 2003
• ISBN: 1452267154, 9781452267159
• Length: 248 pages
• Subjects: Medical / Psychiatry / General; Psychology / Clinical Psychology; Social Science / Human Services