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Identity and the Foundational Myth: Psychoanalytic Insights into Gender Distress

Author(s) : Marcus Evans

Reviews and Endorsements

This is a moving and in-depth book of a psychoanalytical pioneer in the exploration of identity problems which accompany the individual over a lifetime. It is based on the author’s sound clinical experience and empirical knowledge and gives testimony of his courageous and unprejudiced journey with his patients throughout their crisis. At the same time, it goes to the heart of psychoanalytical ethics and the painful task to acknowledge some “basic facts of life” which we all would rather like to distort or omnipotently deny.
Professor Heinz Weiß, Head of the Medical Department, Sigmund-Freud-Institute, Frankfurt am Main; Chair of the Education Section, International Journal of Psychoanalysis

Clear, compassionate, and comprehensive, Marcus Evans’ book is a substantial contribution to the literature on working psychodynamically with young people experiencing gender distress. A psychoanalytic approach to gender dysphoria allows the unique and complex stories of individuals to emerge, as can be seen in the extensive case material discussed in this volume.
Lisa Marchiano, LCSW, NCPsyA, Writer, Jungian Analyst, Podcaster

Over the last two decades, psychoanalysts have been challenged to respond in a meaningful way to the growing presence of transgender identities in our consulting rooms and social worlds. Radical revisions of theory and new clinical formulations have been proposed, along with increasing scepticism and rejection of existing psychoanalytic theories. In this volume, Marcus Evans convincingly demonstrates the relevance of Kleinian and object relations theories for transgender identities and the power of these theories to illuminate the intrapsychic worlds of young people experiencing gender distress. His work cautions us not to discard established psychoanalytic theorising in our zeal to rid psychoanalysis of limiting, heteronormative formulations.
Dr Roberto D’Angelo, PsyD FRANZCP, MMed (Psychotherapy), MBBS, Member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst

The psychoanalytic community has struggled in recent years to apply the rigors of our thinking to the area of gender dysphoria, leaving services and clinicians without a framework for understanding and working with young people presenting in this way. Marcus Evans has been pioneering in applying established psychoanalytic thinking to this area, helping us to consider why the incidence of this presentation may have risen so dramatically and why we, as health professionals, have struggled to adequately respond. This book takes a compassionate approach in both formulation and treatment of gender dysphoria, and will contribute greatly to these young people receiving respectful, ethical care.
Rachel Acheson, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy