Publication | Closed Access
Transvestism and transsexualism
128
Citations
0
References
1953
Year
Queer PoliticsHomosexualityQueer TheoryNew YorkPsychologySocial SciencesReproductive EndocrinologySexual CulturesGender IdentityGender StudiesDr. BarkerTransgender StudyParaphiliaTransfeminismDisorders Of Sex DevelopmentTransgender MedicineDr. HastingsTransgender NarrativeSex DifferenceTrans StudiesCultureSexual Development (Clinical Endocrinology)Sexuality StudiesGender TransitionMedicineSexual OrientationSexual Development (Developmental Psychology)
The author reports extensive clinical experience with over 300 transvestites and transsexuals, ongoing research funded by the Erickson Educational Foundation, and literature indicating that transvestism can be a symptom of transsexualism, a psychopathological condition. The first medical book on the topic, *The Transsexual Phenomenon*, has been published, and animal studies suggest a neuro‑endocrine prenatal origin for transsexualism with transvestism as its most common symptom.
To the Editor:— I have seen and examined more than 300 transvestites and transsexuals during the past 14 years, and am at present engaged in active research on this problem with a number of collaborators, under a grant from the Erickson Educational Foundation. I have just published the first medical book on the subject, The Transsexual Phenomenon (Julian Press, New York). Dr. Hastings has given a clear and comprehensive summary, especially as to the management of transsexualism ( 197 :599, 1966). Dr. Barker is right in differentiating transvestism from transsexualism ( 198 :488, 1966), but he did not emphasize the fact that transvestism can be merely a symptom of transsexualism, which is a psychopathological condition, based on a disturbance of gender role orientation. According to recent animal experiments by Seymour Levine and Roger Gorski, transsexualism may indeed have a neuro-endocrine, prenatal origin, with transvestism as its most frequent symptom in later life.