Risking the Unfamiliar

This chapter explores two alternative accounts of transsexual identity that addresses both its intelligible and unintelligible aspects. It argues that Devor&s;s discourse of sameness, while it is useful in comparing the gender dysphoria of transmen with the widespread unease non-trans women experience with people&s;s bodies. The chapter argues that Prossers discourse of difference is better suited to elucidating the complexity of trans embodiment, in part because it addresses psychic as well as social and biological dimensions. The concept of sexed embodiment as developed by psychoanalytic theory is introduced in the final section to enable an exploration of the possibilities and constraints operating on transsexual identities in particular, and on all identities in general. It examines the discourses of sameness and difference developed by Devor and Prosser respectively and psychoanalytic theory of sexed embodiment. The psychic investment explains why transforming the social order requires more than a simple negation.

Cognitive psychology · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Transgender · Transsexual · Communication · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology