Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From the Struggle for Dignity [Paperback]

Kelley Winters Ph.D. (Author), Dan Karasic MD (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 16, 2009

More than three decades after the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove the classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder, those who do not conform to their assigned birth-sex, either by inner identity or outer social expression, are labeled mentally ill in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) with grave consequences to their human dignity, civil liberties and, for transsexual individuals, access to medical transition procedures. Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays from the Struggle for Dignity provides an overview of the literature and attitudes behind the current diagnostic nomenclature and a historical snapshot of the issues and challenges faced by gender transcendent people on the eve of publication of the Fifth Edition of the DSM.

Editorial Reviews

Review

There is no one who has written more thoughtfully than Kelley Winters about the damage inflicted on transsexual and transgender people by pseudo-scientific psychiatric nomenclature and professional arrogance. In this book, she lucidly lays out the conflicts and some potential solutions for resolving the power struggle between some psychiatrists and psychologists, who are supposedly objective authorities, and trans people themselves, who are seeking autonomy, dignity and integrity. In the battle over DSM-V, this book provides some desperately needed understanding. --Jamison Green, MFA, author of Becoming a Visible Man

As long as our identities are regarded as a disorder we will never attain equality. Our rights and our lives depend on overturning this misogynistic idea. Kelley has been fighting for years to undo the damage this slanderous and dehumanizing diagnosis has caused.We all need to join this battle. --Denise Leclair, Executive Director, International Foundation for Gender Education

Review

As long as our identities are regarded as a disorder we will never attain equality. Our rights and our lives depend on overturning this misogynistic idea. Kelley has been fighting for years to undo the damage this slanderous and dehumanizing diagnosis has caused.We all need to join this battle.

Kelley Winters has compiled a remarkable collection of short essays examining the diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder [GID] in the DSM and the role it has played in creating mental health problems for transgender people. Dr. Winters has long been a leader in deconstructing the psychiatric labeling of people with atypical gender expressions, and this book brings the discussion up-to-date, with a front row examination of the APA Committee formed to determine the fate of the GID diagnosis.

Gender Madness in American Psychiatry examines a broad array of issues from how the GID diagnosis is used to justify reparative therapy for gender-variant children and the historical context for psychiatrically labeling of sexual minorities. Dr. Winters critiques the half-baked diagnoses of transvestic fetishism and autognyephila with a sharp scalpel, presenting lucid evidence for the lack of scientific data to justify these gender-related diagnoses. Most importantly, Dr. Winters outlines the damage caused to transgender, transsexual, and other gender nonconforming people who are labeled with a mental illness.

Dr. Winters examines the current membership of the APA committee who will determine the inclusion and language used in the revision of the DSM. She outlines the lack of diverse viewpoints represented on this committee and the varied responses of the transgender community to address these shortcomings. Dr. Winters challenges the APA committee to address ten specific issues with the GID diagnosis, a challenge that will not be easy to ignore. Gender Madness in American Psychiatry is a well-written, well-reasoned argument for the reform of Gender Identity diagnoses in the psychiatric nomenclature, offering powerful proof that labeling someone "mad," may make them mad enough to fight back.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 220 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing; 1 edition (January 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439223882
• ISBN-13: 978-1439223888
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #875,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, February 5, 2009

By 

W. Torres "Torrwad" (Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From the Struggle for Dignity (Paperback)

What some sort of psychiatrists and psychologists are doing nowadays, as others did in the past against people that have an unexpected self-perception of gender, considering pathological all that is not "expected" by old concepts, is a so big problem, for those who suffer all their lives due to these old concepts.

Winters shows that madness. The madness of these "fake gender experts".

A special book for psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and sexologists, also for parents, teachers, for authorities, for all that are in power to manipulate the lives of others.

An essential work.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars **This book is incredible, please note that Hontas Farmer has close professional ties with those whom Kelley Winters exposes, February 5, 2009

By 

Mindwalker - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From the Struggle for Dignity (Paperback)

The negative reviewer below, Hontas Farmer, has a personal vested interest in trashing this book due to ties with "gender mad" psychiatrists whom Kelley Winters exposes and critiques in this book. This reviewer has behaved in threatening and intimidating ways to various activists in the past and a simple google search should reveal all you need to know about his conflicts of interest in reviewing this book. Having read parts of this book, I would urge you to read this amazing book for yourself and do not consider the negative review from Hontas as objective or accurate. It is precisely because this book provides a searingly incisive exposé of psychiatric violations of genital autonomy and the rights of trans and intersex people (some of whom have been manipulated into serving as collaborators in their own oppression) that the subjects of this critique have attempted to suppress its dissemination. Read and judge for yourself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could it be that the DSM-IV is unfairly biased against transgender people?, February 22, 2009

By 

Joanne Herman "trans author and blogger" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From the Struggle for Dignity (Paperback)

Could it be that: 1) The diagnoses that label trans people as mentally ill are based largely upon the opinion of a handful of psychiatrists imposing their view of what is socially acceptable behavior? 2) These psychiatrists base their opinion almost entirely on studies of their own patients without considering the large number of transgender people leading well-adjusted lives who don't feel the need to see a psychiatrist? 3) These psychiatrists are suspiciously relentless in challenging the credibility of anyone who seeks to challenge their opinion? 4) Their opinion ignores significant studies by other professionals showing that most individuals who transition genders have positive outcomes? 5) The diagnoses are written in a way that removes the mental illness label for a patient who undergoes reparative therapy (which claims to make an individual not trans) but not for a patient who transitions genders, even if the outcome is positive. And 6) Some of these same psychiatrists happen to specialize in reparative therapy and therefore have a vested interest in labeling trans people as mentally ill?

You'll be hard-pressed to see these statements as anything but true after reading Winters' painstakingly researched book. Winters documents how the DSM-IV diagnoses of the American Psychiatric Association came to be and why reform is needed. She carefully shows that the diagnoses are based more upon difference from societal norms than distress or impairment caused by gender dysphoria, thereby labeling all gender non-conforming individuals as mentally ill - even those not experiencing distress.

Winters demonstrates how this "official" word of the APA is then used to justify job terminations, lack of insurance coverage and other types of discrimination. Even the HRC Corporate Equality Index, which aims in part to end transgender discrimination in the workplace, inadvertently causes it according to Winters. The CEI allows a corporation to score 100% by offering mental health counseling as its only transgender health benefit, and corporations overwhelmingly chose this benefit over four others, Winters asserts, because the DSM-IV recommends reparative therapy for those who seek counseling.

Gender Madness is a must-read for those concerned that some of the psychiatrists who helped develop the DSM-IV diagnoses, and who have a vested interest in maintaining them, have lead roles in the development of the DSM-V to be released in 2012.