Gender Dysphoria by Susan Evans

Gender Dysphoria by Susan Evans

A thoughtful exploration of gender dysphoria, aimed primarily at clinicians to provide a model for understanding, assessing, and treating trans identifying individuals which may also be of interest to other professionals, parents and the gender dysphoric person. Contains a foreword from Stephen B. Levine and a preface from David Bell.

In this timely, necessary book, Susan and Marcus Evans provide key insights into what adequate psychotherapeutic explorations of gender dysphoria should look like […] This book is a must-read not only for those working with gender dysphoria but also those who wish to expand their thinking on this cutting-edge work when dealing with the unbearableness of catastrophic anxiety

-- Hessel Willemsen, International Journal of Forensic Psychotherapy, 4:2

This book is as thoughtful as it is necessary. Every responsible clinician and therapist who treats children and adolescents must read it – and read it carefully.

-- Abigail Shrier, journalist and author of ‘Irreversible Damage: Teenage Girls and the Transgender Craze’

I highly recommend this sensitive and timely book to laypersons and professionals who are interested in learning about the complex, controversial, and contemporary subject of gender dysphoria. The authors, Susan and Marcus Evans, are open, compassionate, non-judgemental, and able to tolerate uncertainty in their understanding of those who experience gender dysphoria, are transitioning, or detransitioning. Their psychoanalytically oriented therapeutic model takes into account the individual’s development, family, culture, and political environment. I think the reader will especially appreciate the additional attention paid to the response of adolescents, emotionally unstable personality disordered people, and suicidal individuals to gender dysphoria.

-- Donald Campbell, past President of the British Psychoanalytical Society and former Secretary General of the International Psychoanalytical Association

Gender dysphoria is increasingly being seen as a part of the spectrum of human diversity. This has resulted in a profoundly reductionistic and decontextualised clinical approach to gender distress. The authors draw on their extensive clinical experience to illustrate how gender dysphoria cannot be understood without understanding the developmental and relational contexts within which it arises. Their detailed case examples document the unique psychic landscapes of people suffering gender dysphoria, illuminating how the ubiquitous “born in the wrong body” conceptualisation can leave vast areas of historical and current lived experience unaddressed. The authors utilise a psychoanalytic lens to understand the experience of both patient and therapist in therapeutic work with gender dysphoria, in a way that is both accessible and insightful. This will be an invaluable reference for those seeking to go beyond the surface to work at depth with gender dysphoria. This work is remarkable for its bravery in presenting a perspective on gender dysphoria that is increasingly being excluded from social and clinical discourse.

-- Roberto D’Angelo, Training and Supervising Analyst, Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles and President of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine

This clear, excellent, clinically based account is very timely. It will help those who want to find their way through the confusing and often contentious writings on the subject of gender identity. It is well founded on experience of helping and working with people who do not feel at home in their bodies, particularly in regard to their sexual identity. They bring to the subject an unusual amount of clinical experience of this specialised psychological area. I strongly recommend it to those in the psychological, medical, and social fields, as well as to anyone who wants an informed account of a confused and confusing subject.

-- Dr Ronald Britton, FRCPsych, Distinguished Fellow, British Psychoanalytical Society

Gender Dysphoria is a thoughtful and timely contribution to the current controversy around gender dysphoria, how it is thought about and how it is treated when help is sought. […] The book would clearly be of interest to anyone working with this client group, but I also found it a valuable resource in terms of thinking about the adolescent state of mind. […] Gender Dysphoria is an important book and a valuable contribution to the current debate. The book would grace the shelf of any trainee or practising therapist.

-- Helen Lowe, registered member of BACP – BACP Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal Jan 2022

'What distinguishes the transgender from the gender dysphoric? Research in this area is not as advanced as we would like, and there is a dearth of good data. While this book does not reflect on gender dysphoric individuals for whom transition may be the right decision and have a positive outcome, it does add a great deal to the argument that careful thought is vital in the process of considering such a move. Transition may, or may not, be in the best interests of the individual. But maintaining a position of neutrality and enquiring curiosity, neither pro- nor anti-transition but pro-thought, is a point repeatedly made by the authors.'

-- Alan Colam, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2023, (104)(6):1139-1142

Susan Evans is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist trained at the former Lincoln Centre for Psychotherapy. Retired after nearly 40 years in the NHS, she now has a private practice in South East London. She is a member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation, the London Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Service, and is registered with the British Psychoanalytic Council (BCP). She trained as a State Registered Nurse in 1977, then trained as an RMN and worked within many mental health specialist services including addictions, eating disorders, and in a specialist mother and baby service, which won the Sir Graham Day Award for NHS service development (1999).

As a psychotherapist she worked for 12 years at the Tavistock and Portman NHSFT in the Adult Department and also in the Gender Identity Development Service for Children. She was responsible as Course Organiser for the development and delivery as senior clinical lecturer of several training programmes at the Tavistock and a Senior Fellow at University of East London.

Marcus Evans is a psychoanalyst and was an adult psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust with 40 years’ experience in mental health, originally training as a psychiatric nurse. After qualifying as a psychotherapist at the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust, he took up a post as head of the nursing discipline. Marcus was Associate Clinical Director of the Adult & Adolescent departments between 2011 and 2015. Marcus has designed, developed, and taught outreach courses for front line staff in various settings for the last 25 years. He was also one of the founding members of the Fitzjohn’s Service for the treatment of patients with severe and enduring mental health conditions and/or personality disorder in the adult department. He has written and taught extensively and is author of Making Room for Madness in Mental Health: The Psychoanalytic Understanding of Psychotic Communications, published by Karnac in the Tavistock Clinic series.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781912691784
ISBN 10	1912691787
Title	Gender Dysphoria
Author	Susan Evans
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Karnac Books
Year published	2021-05-20
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.