| "Standards Of Care For Gender Identity Disorders", The Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association, January 1990 4.7.4 |
| 4.7.4: | A plethora of theories exist regarding the aetiology of gender dysphoria and the purposes or goals of hormonal and/or surgical sex reassignment such that the clinical behavioural scientist making the decision to recommend such reassignment for a patient does not enjoy the comfort or security of knowing that his or her decision would be supported by the majority of his or her peers |
| Michael Ross, William Walters, "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment", Oxford University Press, 1986 p147 |
| p147: | While some medical authorities express complete opposition to surgery for treatment of transsexualism, other workers in the field are of the opinion that surgery is still the best means of coping with a select group of transsexuals. |
| p129: | From within the medical profession a not uncommon view has been expressed that gender reassignment is ethically unacceptable in that it is a form of psychosurgery. while gender reassignment surgery does not involve brain surgery, it could be construed as a form of psychosurgery in that it is a surgical treatment for what appears to be primarily a psychological problem. |
| James Morgan, "Psychotherapy for Transsexual Candidates Screened out of Surgery", Archives of Sexual Behavior, 7:4 1978, p. 273 |
| | If medical technology should shortly devise a way to change black into white, I believe we would be deluged with "transracial candidates" who would come in and say "I want the transracial procedure because I am really a white person, locked in a black body. I have always known this since I was a child. After the procedure, I want to have my birth certificate changed to say 'white'; I want to marry a white spouse, and settle down in the suburbs like 'every body else'." They will say "my core racial identity is white." Will black activists oppose this procedure? Will the candidates be forced to go to Denmark or Argentian to have it done? AT least at first? Will the public take the clear stand that it's better to be black than white, or will the prevailing sentiment be the other way around? Will psychologists devise instruments to measure "core racial identity?" This vignette and others like it can be used to gain perspective on the transsexual phenomenon. |
| Lawrence Newman, "Treatment for the Parents of Feminine Boys", Am J Psychiatry, 133:6 June 1976 |
| | Is it right to attempt to alter the behavior of the very feminine boy? Some who do not view homosexuality or even transvestism and transsexualism as illnesses argue that it is wrong to intervene. Others may argue that treatment for very feminine boys, although perhaps successful in replacing femininity with masculinity, does not necessarily alter future choice of sexual objects. The very feminine boy may not become a transsexual (as some do without treatment) but may instead be homosexual. Is one clinical state better than the other? |
| Claude Friedmann, Martha Kirkpatrick, "Treatment of Requests for Sex-Change Surgery with Psychotherapy", Am J Psychiatry, 133:10 October 1976 |
| | Quick external cures have always been preferred to the slow, uncertain internal growth of psychotherapy. |
| "Change of Sex and Collaboration with the Psychosis", Am J Psychiatry, 124:2 August 1967 |
| | The project of sex-reassignment has been launched with all the paraphernalia and fanfare of "scientism". It has a euphemistic name and a multidisciplinary team approach, complete with lab, X rays, and psychotests. But it also represents an unfortunate denial of the wealth of psychiatric insights into the intricate suicidal psychodynamics of those who refuse to accept their gender and themselves. |
| | What about our medical responsibility and ethics? Do we have to collaborate with the sexual delusions of our patients? Are we not rendering them a sad disservice? |
| | The reports say that the treatment team of surgeons is concerned with the total health and personality of the crossover deviate. But who is to judge? Can we really satisfy the delusions of our patients? |
| | The argument for surgical cooperation with the neurotic wishes of a patient, as publicized in various newspapers, is rather sentimental. It is sad that people who want to change their sex feel very miserable and suffer very much, while psychiatric treatment and long-lasting psychoanalysis fail to help them. But precisely what psychological treatment is involved, by whom and by what method? |
| | One of the physicians at the (Johns Hopkins) project admitted that many surgically treated patients remained disturbed, but he insisted they were better off than before. |