Sex and Gender: On the Development of Masculinity and Femininity

TLDR

The book defines “sex” as biological sex and “gender” as self‑concept, drawing on the author’s decade of psychoanalytic experience treating patients with congenital sexual anomalies and gender dysphoria, including transvestites and transexuals seeking surgical change. It investigates the relationship between biological sex and gender identity, focusing on their disconnection. Clinical evidence indicates that psychological sex is largely independent of biological sex, and early parental influences—interpreted through Freudian theory—are deemed decisive in shaping gender identity.

Abstract

"Sex" in this title refers to biological sex, "gender" to the concept that people have of themselves as male or female. How sex relates to gender—or, more precisely, fails to relate—is the subject of the book. The author is a psychoanalyst with ten year's experience of treating patients with congenital sexual anomalies and those of normal biological endowment whose "genders" are awry. The latter consist mainly of individuals who dress like the opposite sex (transvestities) and those who ardently desire to be the opposite sex (transexuals), even to the point of seeking surgical manipulation to that end. Stoller marshals an impressive array of clinical evidence to indicate that psychological sex is largely independent of biological sex—at least in humans. Early parental influences are held to be the decisive factor in molding gender identity, and the author, true to his professional background, explains these influences largely in freudian terms, with a