The Last Time I Wore a Dress [Hardcover]

Daphne Scholinski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1997

In 1981, at the age of 15, Daphne Scholinski was put in a mental hospital for what her psychiatrist called "failure to identify as a sexual female." Though the facts are truly frightening, The Last Time I Wore a Dress is an expose of a shameful medical sham that destroyed countless childhoods.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This terrifying memoir recounts author Daphne Scholinski's three years spent in mental institutions for, among other things, Gender Identity Disorder. Daphne came from a busted home: Mom left to go to college and become a feminist and an artist; Dad stayed home with two daughters, the elder of whom, Daphne, he often beat. When Daphne started acting up at school, her shrinks decided to put her away. Her family, not knowing how to handle her, agreed. Because she was a tomboy who wore jeans and T-shirts and didn't act enough like a girl, her treatment, in addition to talk therapy, isolation, and drugs, required her to wear makeup, walk with a swing in her hips, and pretend to be obsessed with boys. This sounds awful enough, but when you realize that the confinement and treatment took place from 1981 to 1984, it's absolutely chilling. This book is both a powerful indictment of Gender Identity Disorder treatment and an inspiring testament of one person's survival.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 211 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (October 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573220779
• ISBN-13: 978-1573220774
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,893,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An an examination of an era in America mental health treatment, February 17, 2008

By 

Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Time I Wore A Dress (Paperback)

Daphne Scholinski wore the label of "inappropriate female" for much of her life. As a tomboy youth, she was often mistaken for male. On one grocery trip, a clerk caught the "boy" for using the women's restroom. When the clerk confronted Daphne's father, instead of correcting the clerk, her weary father slapped her hand: "Bad boy. I told you to stop doing that."

In 1981, at odds with her raging father and abandoned by her free-thinking mother, 15-year-old Daphne was committed to a psychiatric hospital, at which a treatment plan was designed to help her identify as a "sexual female." Over one million dollars (you read that right) of insurance money was spent on three years of make-up lessons, encouragement of flirtation with males, and points for hugging male staff members. Daphne was indirectly blamed for all her family's troubles and told that her depression and confusion were symptoms of her improper gender identification. Desperate for a mothering relationship, she latched onto nurses, begging to be adopted by the most compassionate one, and attempting suicide when her efforts were rebuffed.

In a series of institutions, Daphne busied herself working the system to earn more privileges. To entertain themselves, she and other patients competed to shock the staff and get unusual diagnoses added to their charts. Their every movement was already analyzed and reduced into psychobabble, so why not? Daphne often embellished alcohol and drug abuse to make her case more interesting, but she realized she was out her league when she was transferred to rehab. All the while, a host of therapists and staff failed to identify sexual assault in Daphne's life, both before and *after* entering treatment. At age 18, when Daphne's father's insurance money ran out, she was discharged as no more "appropriate" a female than when she entered, but without a traditional high school experience or preparation for the world, and a few more years of victimhood under her belt.

Daphne Scholinski survived institutionalization with her intelligence, sense of humor, and sassy rebellious spirit. Every time she was transferred, she felt hope few her new situation. She writes that she knows she was lucky to be middle-class and be offered treatment, instead of being kicked onto the streets. As an adult, Daphne channeled her traumatic past into an artistic career, and now lives as Dylan Scholinski in the San Francisco area (Dylan's identification as male occurred after the 1997 publication of this memoir). I only discovered Scholinski's gender identity when I started composing my review, and in many ways, Daphne's "actual" gender identity is irrelevant to this story of the failure of the mental health system to help a depressed youth and her family.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcending A Living Nightmare, October 12, 2004

By 

Ace (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Last Time I Wore A Dress (Paperback)

Having come from an abusive home, I can relate to what Daphne/Dylan must have felt and how he behaved while trying to cope with his Gender-Identity and the far-from-sympathetic world around him in the 1980's. I came out as gay in 1970 and then as Transgendered in 1993, after having wrestled with "my self-knowledge - vs - what other people tried to make me act like" for MANY years prior -- it was a rocky hellish road at times, but (despite the abuse!) my parents accepted me (grudgingly at times) for who/what I was. I have nothing but kind words for those Tansgendered friends of mine, who like Dylan, persevered through their own private torment, and who accepted me for who I was and for how I identified myself.

I applaud Dylan for having the inner strength to keep going - keep going, no matter the present torment, no matter how horrible the present situation is - keep going forward with your own goal in mind, no matter how clear-cut or nebulous it is. This book has and will inspire others out there who "think they are the only ones" going through this.

We may have come far but in too many parts of this country, children and young adults -- who are trying to reconcile their birth gender with their personal gender identity -- are still being put thru a living nightmare; parents abusing, insulting dismissing them from their households, with no nurturance, no desire to understand their own offspring; even their classmates, teachers, strangers, even friends turning against them. It takes HUGE inner strength to rise above all that and to keep going, keep going forward.

This book will shock, inspire and galvanize. I hope it also EDUCATES those who harbor any prejudices against transgendered individuals, ESPECIALLY those who treat patients with Gender Identity "Disorder".. Since the beginning of time,the spectrum of Masculine and Feminine has run through ALL genders in varying degrees, and not necessarily always corresponding to the individual's birth gender.

In today's civilized and educated society, it is abut time that young people like Dylan are raised with compassion and understanding instead of with psychodramatic brutality. It is my hope that this book also reaches out to those in Child Protective Services as well as those professionals in the fields of Therapy.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Hand, April 11, 2005

By 

Ms Meaghan "MsPatchGrrl" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Time I Wore A Dress (Paperback)

it disturbs me when people read memoirs, especially those geared at or focused in psychology, and take it upon themselves to diagnose the writer. that is not dylan's(daphne's) intent (dylan is fTm and is currently living in washington dc). this is a memoir, most importantly...a first-hand creatively written perspective and critique.

having met and visited with dylan at his studio in washington dc, i know that the reality of a tormented past is ever-present. his art reflects this. not only does dylan wrestle with demons of his past, he still must fight against the close-minded bigotry that some people have portrayed in these reviews. my understanding of psychology has always been that of a people-science...a science committed to helping people live good lives. it is not a science of manipulation and judgments, such as the reality that dylan had to face.

my only hope is that you read this book and realize that it is neither fact nor fiction, but one person's perspective on his reality. we cannot fault him for that...only applaud him for sharing his voice.