Trans-forming the discipline

The subjugation of psychologists working in adult gender clinics across the UK

Bibliographic Data

ID2937320
AuthorsI Moon (0000-0001-7862-5260, University of Warwick)
Year2024
Volume45
Issue5-6
Pages634-654
Publication date2024-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596306.2024.2426297
OpenAlexW4404666523
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited14

This paper draws on interviews with 10 psychologists working in NHS (National Health Service) Adult Gender Identity Clinics across the UK and focuses on the way they put their clinical knowledge about gender into practice. It also questions how two major NHS consultations set the parameters for professional and clinical practice in relation to gender affirming technologies despite their methodologies being at variance with each other and having severe implications for treatment options. Findings indicated that psychologists believed their experiences of working in a gender clinic was deeply problematic, leading them to question their mental health, their agency at work, and recent shifts to professionalise their role by introducing ‘specialist’ level accountability. They were routinely challenging a dated neo-liberal system that lacks compassion, is inflexible, reductive, functionalist and interventionist. Such a system sustains a cis-normative, neo-liberal framework at the expense of transgender and non-binary pedagogy and testimony

Aesthetics · Art · Discipline · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology

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