Theorizing Transgender Identity for Clinical Practice
A New Model for Understanding Gender
Published on 21. January 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
240 pages
978-1-78592-765-2 (ISBN)
Description
LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST - Transgender Non-Fiction
Providing new approaches for exploring gender identity and expression, this book is ideal for clinical practice with transgender and gender nonconforming/diverse clients. Importantly, it moves beyond the medical model to advance an understanding of transgender subjectivity as a natural variation of gender in humans.
The book deepens understanding of the developmental trajectory of trans and gender non-conforming individuals over their lifespan, before and beyond transition, by offering new theories on gender. Drawing on theories from a range of different fields including psychoanalysis, philosophy, neuroscience, consciousness studies, trauma therapy, sex therapy, gender theory, disability studies and trans studies, it illustrates how informed clinical practice can recognise the complexity of gender identity and expression. With chapters on the understanding of core gender through the Free Energy Principle, the foundations of gender in consciousness, a gender algorithm, trauma, mirroring, and sexual functioning, this book works to provide a superior method of clinical practice that can better serve trans communities and our understanding of gender across the population.
Providing new approaches for exploring gender identity and expression, this book is ideal for clinical practice with transgender and gender nonconforming/diverse clients. Importantly, it moves beyond the medical model to advance an understanding of transgender subjectivity as a natural variation of gender in humans.
The book deepens understanding of the developmental trajectory of trans and gender non-conforming individuals over their lifespan, before and beyond transition, by offering new theories on gender. Drawing on theories from a range of different fields including psychoanalysis, philosophy, neuroscience, consciousness studies, trauma therapy, sex therapy, gender theory, disability studies and trans studies, it illustrates how informed clinical practice can recognise the complexity of gender identity and expression. With chapters on the understanding of core gender through the Free Energy Principle, the foundations of gender in consciousness, a gender algorithm, trauma, mirroring, and sexual functioning, this book works to provide a superior method of clinical practice that can better serve trans communities and our understanding of gender across the population.
Reviews / Votes
Most literature for therapists about transgender mental health focuses on cultural competency. This book goes beyond "Trans 101," exploring in much more depth the development of the gendered self and the role of gender in consciousness. With roots in both psychoanalytic and academic worlds, Langer provides clinicians with new ways of theorizing gender that both benefit from these traditions and push them forward. -- Laura Erickson-Schroth, MD, MA, LGBTQ psychiatrist and writer (Trans Bodies Trans Selves / "You're in the Wrong Bathroom!" and 20 Other Myths and Misconceptions This book will be essential to both new and seasoned clinicians working with transgender communities. Langer expands our understanding of transgender experience from an interdisciplinary approach. The in-depth chapters of trauma, sex and development are a unique examinations of these clinical issues and their relation to trans experience. The theory and practice in this book contributes to clinical psychology, trans studies, consciousness studies, sex therapy and trans health. -- Dr. Lin Fraser, EdD WPATH Past President Co-Chair- Global Education Initiative S.J. Langer has generated intriguing ideas that will be of immediate interest to the interdisciplinary field of trans* studies. Beyond essentialist trapping and visual policing of identities, he theorizes transgender experience as a synesthetic "surprise" that involves a complex interaction between one's perceptions of internal biophysiology and their responses to social mirroring. -- Chris Straayer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, New York University, author of Deviant Eyes, Deviant BodiesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Illustrations
10 b/w
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
286 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78592-765-2 (9781785927652)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
S.J. Langer
Theorizing Transgender Identity for Clinical Practice
A New Model for Understanding Gender
E-Book
01/2019
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
€35.99
Available for download
Person
S.J. Langer is a writer & psychotherapist in New York City, US where he maintains a private practice. He is on faculty at School of Visual Arts in both the MPS Art Therapy and Humanities & Sciences departments. His article "Trans Bodies and the Failure of Mirrors" was the co-winner of the Symonds Prize in 2016 from the journal Studies in Gender and Sexuality.
Content
Introduction; Preface; 1. Being and knowing; 2. Foundations of Consciousness and Gender; 3. Mirroring Recognition; 4. Gender, Terminable and Interminable; 5. Accommodating for Bodies; 6. Trauma, Trans and Temporality; Epilogue; References; Images