King Kong & Goldilocks: Imagining Transmasculinities Through the Trans–Trans Dyad

Abstract

Abstract Transgender subjectivities are becoming an increasingly popular area of inquiry for relational psychoanalysis. Postmodern feminist analysts, perhaps especially, grapple with the seemingly contradictory position that the trans subject embraces both binary and multiple, both essentialist and constructivist, modes of being sexed and gendered. Using a composite clinical example, this paper explores some of the dynamics between a transmale psychoanalytic psychotherapist and his transmale patients. Through a close-up lens on the trans–trans analytic dyad, and with an emphasis on metaphors and experiences of the body in both flesh and fantasy, this paper illustrates a model of transmasculine subjectivity in which the language of material substance carries interpretive power. It is suggested that a post-postmodern theory of gender and sex is needed to fully articulate transgender subjectivities. Acknowledgments Cisgender is the adjective used mostly in the trans communities, but increasingly in academic circles, to refer to people who are not trans, that is, who experience their sex and gender as mostly congruent. The prefix comes from the Latin, meaning "on the same side," versus trans, meaning "on the other side." The cis/trans nomenclature is used in organic chemistry to describe the orientations of molecules. Both cis and trans are adjectival. Additional informationNotes on contributorsGriffin Hansbury Griffin Hansbury, M.A., L.C.S.W., is a psychotherapist and psychoanalytic candidate in private practice in New York City. A specialist and supervisor in working with trans patients, his writing has appeared in journals such as Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalytic Social Work.