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Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From the Struggle for Dignity Paperback – January 16, 2009

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

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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.
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Editorial Reviews

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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.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ BookSurge Publishing; 1st edition (January 16, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 220 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1439223882
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1439223888
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.1 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2009
    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.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2016
    Such an important topic, so much insight from both research and qualitative data -- lived experience of those on the receiving end of what too often is incompetent "care." Highly recommended reading for anyone who attempts to give care to transgender clients, consumers, patients -- particularly those leaning far too heavily on "qualitative" research based on a handful of transgender people without awareness of the diversity of the community and the prevalence of misdiagnosis and malpractice experienced by so many..
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2015
    Pre-dates the DSM 5 and makes an excellent argument as to replacing Gender Identity Disorder with Gender Identity Dysphoria which is not the correct diagnosis. Calls out discreted Dr. Kennith Zuck & Blanchard for their invention of damaging conversion therapy. It's a fairly quick read for the astute reader.
  • Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2009
    Discredited crackpots and narcissistic rage

    Dr. Winters is the last person I know whom I would consider either narcissistic or rageful. Her book is well thought out, and flows in spite of being built from a number of blog posts (as if that would discredit the facts and analysis within). Her blog posts generated feedback which she used to create a more holistic work, one which puts the lie to the canards of the Toronto/Northwestern axis of transphobia.

    Yes, Ms. Farmer, brain sex is important, even though Dr. Winters doesn't delve into that field. The medical profession, which five years ago scoffed at the concept of gender identity, now recognizes gender variance as part of the human condition. The work of Dr. Reiner in the NEJM, preceded by the research of Drs. Diamond, Zhou, Kruijver and others, has proven that our gender identity is seated in our brains. Where else, pray tell? Our genitals? That humanity thought that was true until recently is quite telling, but we do have the capacity to learn. Now that we've lifted the veil of secrecy, the cone of pediatric emergency from the births of intersexed babies, we can acknowledge the remarkable sexual and gender diversity of our species. Transsexual men and women are part of that diversity, whatever the etiology - be it toxic, chromosomal, genetic, epigenetic, hormonal or idiopathic.

    Unfortunately the medical profession is a seriously conservative profession, and psychiatry even more, so discredited crackpots can and are left in positions of power. Dr. Zucker has done a great deal of research, so he is rightfully accorded the respect due his prodigious labors. It is up to the rest of us to expose the bias in that labor, to unmask the prejudice behind terms such as "homosexual transsexual," and to demand the follow-ups, such as those provided by Hannah Rosin the recent issue of "The Atlantic," that showcase the failure and cruelty of his reparative therapy. That therapy will be joining the gay reparative therapy of the NARTH crowd in the dustbin of history, and soon Dr. Zucker's ideology will be seen in the same light Dr. Money's was ten short years ago.

    Worse is the work of Ray Blanchard, with its pseudo-Freudian methodology and romantic constructs such as autogynephilia. That a profession such as psychiatry, which is moving inexorably into the 21st century based on science, as longed for by Freud himself, would even consider a concept such as autogynephilia, is a disgrace. I believe the profession will refuse to grant this nonsense the time of day when the time comes to consider the update for the DSM V. It will be even more unlikely after President Obama signs into law a "gender identity and expression" - inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act next year.
    3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Jessica Bourgeois
    5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Winters is a true professional
    Reviewed in Canada on January 27, 2020
    This book clearly and explicitly details the flaws, prejudice, and outright corruption in professional psychiatric circles dealing with the transgender community. Dr. Winters is knowledgeable and a very powerful writer. She has missed nothing and i would recommend this book to any lay person who wishes to be educated on these things and especially to all professional persons in the field because sadly, most are vastly ignorant on what they need to know.
  • Dr. Z. Davy
    5.0 out of 5 stars DSM as a controlling force
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2013
    Winters provides an exemplary array of critiques of the gender ideologies underpinning the DSM diagnosis of GID. She reveals the paradoxes, incessant power games and rather strange obsession of psychiatrist`s insistence on, when utilizing criteria for diagnosing trans people