Trans is not the new gay
How psychoanalytic elitism and the rejection of science are creating a repetition of the past
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8973072 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roberto D’angelo (0000-0003-2929-3831, Gender Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 107 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1-23 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00207578.2025.2591921 |
| PMID | 41524136 |
| OpenAlex | W7122735631 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 71 |
Psychoanalysis has a troubled history with regard to sexual minorities. Throughout much of the twentieth century, prominent analysts endorsed a highly pathologising and coercive approach to homosexuality, which was essentially a form of conversion therapy. This departure from accepted analytic technique persisted for decades due to psychoanalytic elitism and the rejection of mounting empirical science contradicting the psychoanalytic position. Today, a pressing concern for psychoanalysis is to avoid repeating this history when theorising about and working with transgender people. Psychodynamic explorations of trans identity formation are being framed as new iterations of conversion therapy, wrongly implying coercion and falsely conflating psychodynamics with pathology. Furthermore, the author cautions that unquestioning gender affirmation shares an important conceptual similarity with gay conversion therapy, in that it can collude with a wish to eliminate a shame-filled or hated part of the self. In our haste to avoid repeating the past, psychoanalysis is deploying the very same tactics that insulated its stance on homosexuality from revision and course correction, but now with regard to trans. The author argues that if we are to avoid causing further harm to our patients and our profession, we ignore the science at our own peril
Countertransference · Elitism · Harm · Identity (music · Psychoanalytic theory · Psychodynamics · Repetition (rhetorical device · Sexual identity · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
Transgender Psychoanalysis
Partners in Thought
Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8
Interrogating Gender-Exploratory Therapy
Supporting autonomy in young people with gender dysphoria
Transgender and Analytic Countertransference
Citation Issues in the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents (Rafferty, 2018)
Transsexual surgery
Internalized Homophobia and the Negative Therapeutic Reaction
The mystery of homosexuality
A Critical Examination of the Concept of Bisexuality
Ethically Navigating the Evolution of Gender Affirmation Surgery
Can Sexual Orientation Be Changed
Unthinkable Anxieties
The persecutory therapist
On Trying to Pass off Transphobia as Psychoanalysis and Cruelty as “Clinical Logic”
The Analyst's Knowledge and Authority
Beyond Doer and Done To
Trans-itory identities
The man I am trying to be is not me
Can We Change Sexual Orientation
Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition Who Subsequently Detransitioned
Toward a Further Understanding of Homosexual Men
Unmasking the moral fantasy of the “underlying conflict
Do we want to know
Transgender – a challenge for psychoanalysis
Transgender Imagining and the Danger of Normative Theory
Effecting science, affecting medicine
Detransition-Related Needs and Support
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |